Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - Nicole Called Her Credit Card Company and Threatened To Cancel— Here's What Happened

Episode Date: May 24, 2024

Rumor has it that anyone can call up their credit card company and ask them to waive the annual fee as a retention offer. Nicole puts this to the test and brings you along for the ride. Originally aired June 2023

One of the most stressful periods of my life was when I was in credit card debt. I got to a point where I just knew that I had to get it under control for my financial future and also for my mental health. We've all hit a point where we've realized it was time to make some serious money moves. So take control of your finances by using a Chime checking account with features like no maintenance fees, fee-free overdraft up to $200, or getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Learn more at Chime.com slash MNN. When you check out Chime, you'll see that you can overdraft up to $200 with no fees. If you're an OG listener, you know about my infamous $35 overdraft fee that

I got from buying a $7 latte and how I am still very fired up about it. If I had Chime back then, that wouldn't even be a story. Make your fall finances a little greener by working toward your financial goals with Chime. Open your account in just two minutes at Chime.com slash MNN. That's Chime.com slash MNN. Chime. Feels like progress. Banking services and debit card provided by the Bancorp Bank N.A. or Stride Bank N.A. Members FDIC. SpotMe eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Boosts are available to eligible Chime members enrolled in SpotMe and are subject to monthly limits. Terms and conditions apply. Go to Chime.com slash disclosures for details.

I love hosting on Airbnb. It's a great way to bring in some extra cash, but I totally get it that it might sound overwhelming to start or even too complicated if, say, you want to put your summer home in Maine on Airbnb, but you live full time in San Francisco and you can't go to Maine every time you need to change sheets for your guests or something like that. If thoughts like these have been holding you back, I have great news for you. Airbnb has launched a co-host network, which is a network of high quality local co-hosts with Airbnb experience that can take care of your home and your guests. Co-hosts can do what you don't have time for, like managing your

reservations, messaging your guests, giving support at the property, or even create your listing for you. I always want to line up a reservation for my house when I'm traveling for work, but sometimes I just don't get around to it because getting ready to travel always feels like a scramble, so I don't end up making time to make my house look guest-friendly. I guess that's the best way to put it. But I'm matching with a co-host so I can still make that extra cash while also making it easy on myself. Find a co-host at Airbnb.com slash host. I'm Nicole Lappin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab. I've gotten into the habit of asking for discounts everywhere. And honestly,

you'd be surprised how often it works. I recently ordered a step and repeat, which is the industry term for the type of backdrop that you often see behind red carpets with all those partner logos splashed across them. I know this is a very niche example, but the step and repeat is for a very cool project that I'm really, really excited to tell you about. More on that soon. But anyway, when I was putting the order together, I just emailed the company and I was like, hey, do you have any discounts right now? And they gave me 12% off. Just like that. I've heard a rumor that you can negotiate with your credit card company to get the annual fee waived on your credit card. Now, I know that there are other elements of your credit card that are negotiable like the APR or annual percentage rate. That's the rate that the debt accumulates on your credit card.

That's negotiable, but the fee has gotten mixed negotiating reviews. So I decided to put it to the test and ask my credit card company to waive my fee as a retention credit, basically a gift for being such a dope customer. And I'm going to bleep out any identifying information of my credit card company because your girl has been hacked before. But I will tell you that I had some pretty good leverage here because I've been with this credit card company for literally two decades. And because of that, I have done a lot of business with them. I have one personal card and two business cards, and all of that loyalty comes with annual fees of over 500 bucks. That's not ideal. So today I'm going to call up my credit card company and ask them to waive it. And you get to be a fly on the wall. Plus, I'll pop in every so often to give you some behind the scenes rationale behind my responses.

And because my credit card company has a special name for its loyalty points that might give away the brand, every time the rep says the name of those loyalty points, you're going to hear this noise instead. So remember, every time you hear this, it means special, magical loyalty points. All right, let's call the credit card peeps. Please tell me in a few words how I can help you. Retention department. Just a moment. A representative is available to personally assist you right away. This call may be recorded. Thank you so much for your time and patience. Really appreciate it. My name is...

I'm one of the account managers here on Recorded Line. How are you doing today? Hi, I'm okay. How are you? I'm good too. Thank you for asking. And just before we proceed, I can see that you have been a wonderful member for the past 25 years. I would take a moment to appreciate your membership and business. Let's take that moment for a second. All right. Here we are. Up with your card, which is a personal card. Am I going to mention that you've gone through some changes? Could you tell me more about it exactly you're looking for? For the fees to be waived. They're so high and I've been such a long-time customer that I would consider moving my business elsewhere if we're not able to waive those fees today. Got your point. Totally understand.

And just to let you know, ma'am, that the waiver of the membership fee is not possible. However, as I can see that you have been a wonderful member for past 25 years now and you have a huge spin on the card i will definitely find out the best possible options which can help you reduce the obligations towards the fee and uh here i just wanted to ask this from like any specific reason you can't bring the like questioning the annual fee i hope you are able to use the travel benefits Hi, me again. Here's your first behind the scenes look. So what he's doing, of course, is selling me on all the wonderful perks of being a customer with them and LOL at me for not using my travel perks.

Gotta love that startup life. The fee is just too cumbersome right now. And in 25 years, I've not asked for a retention credit. So I'd love to have that considered. Definitely. I was just making sure that you're well aware about the benefits and taking the advantages of that. I'll definitely, as I showed you initially, I will be able to find the best possible options for you. Sure. Like in this situation, like if I talk about right now, like which may help you reduce the obligations for both of you.

Like I have a couple of loyalty bonuses that I would love to extend. So here, the offer is like if you manage to keep the card and spend just $4,000 on the card within the next three months from today, we can offer you either a statement, either 60,000 or a statement credit of $400 on the same requirement. So do you think any of these loyalty bonuses may hold you on to the card? At least for another year? Um, and what is the, I just saw the fees hit the account. So the fee was how much? $450? It's $500. No, it's $550. Ugh, even worse. $550 oh even worse 550 per card yes but uh actually like the like there is a huge benefit on the card like if we keep aside all of the benefits let it be the lounge access or

getting yourself your shaken back free the major benefit you get on the card is the companion certificate now and i can see that i've never used one i've never used one. I've never used one. Unless you want to go on a trip with me. Nobody wants to take that companion pass. This is me trying to win him over with my jokes and my super sweet quick wit. But, spoiler alert, it didn't work. So, it's not valuable to me, really. Money is the most valuable thing to me. Totally understand.

However, Aslapna, as I mentioned, I really appreciate your business. And we do want you to be a card member with ***. However, as of today, the maximum I can offer in order to reduce the obligation towards the fee is either $400 statement credit on a spend of $4,000 in the next three months or $60,000 on the same spend requirement of $4,000 in the next three months.

So would this be for each card? You could give a statement credit of $400 for both of the cards? So I'm right now checking your personal card, ma'am. So this offer is only meant for your personal card. And what about the business card? For business card, what I can do is, once I'm done with it, like if you accept any offers,

I'll enroll you on that bonus. And every dollar that you spend on the card would be counted towards the threshold. And once we have enrolled you for the bonus, if you accept them and I'm done with the personal card, what I'll do, I'll get a representative from the business retention team and he or she will be more than happy to discuss all possible options on your business as well. So in this moment, I went online at my credit

card portal and I went to the calculator feature that they have that shows the conversion of their loyalty points into dollars. This is not unique to one credit card company. They all have some sort of calculator like this, so you'll be able to do this too if you decide to call your credit card, folks. So I quickly typed in 60,000 points, which is what he was offering, and saw that that's equal to $420.

But in a perfect world, I want points equal to my annual fee, and 420 bucks put me more than $100 short. So in the calculator, I searched how many points would be equal to 550 and I got 80,000. So because the answer is always no, if you don't ask, I just asked. Would you be able to give me 80,000? I'm sorry, could you repeat? would you be able to give me eighty thousand i wish i could however ma'am these offers are dynamic and we don't have any manual intervention in order to make changes to the account ma'am i wish i could have done it for you i i know you do um me too would you have a manager that's available to chat and maybe they could change it to 80,000?

If you would like to get in touch with the manager, I will be able to get you a manager. But here, I just wanted to let you know that there is nothing much they can also do in this. Because I'm just keeping the right expectations. If you want, I can get you a supervisor. That's not a big deal for me. But here, there is nothing additional that can be done because even they cannot change the offers. Because we have zero manual intervention

in order to change any sort of potential offers. Got it. So maybe let's just go ahead and close the account. All right. Here, I decided to play hardball. I thought that maybe if I threatened to close the account, I would be connected to like the bat phone All right. Here I decided to play hardball. I thought that maybe if I threatened to close the account, I would be connected to like the bat phone or something that would reach someone at the credit card company with real power to get me a way better offer. But just between us,

I really don't want to close my credit card account because I use this credit card company for my personal and business accounts. So it would be a huge endeavor to switch all the tools I use for my business to a new credit card. And while $550 is an obnoxious amount of money, I do get a lot of perks from this card. So I wasn't actually going to cancel the card. I just wanted to see what would happen. That situation, I can go ahead and take the request. Let me review the account just to make sure everything is in place so you don't lose anything upon this cancellation i can take the request accordingly so you wouldn't be able to just wave it all together if i stayed i'm in this situation with love like i wish i could have done it for you but uh we don't even have an option to do that

like in this situation like as you mentioned you would like to speak to a supervisor i don't even have an option to do that. Like in this situation, like as you mentioned, you would like to speak to a supervisor. I don't have any issue. I can get you a supervisor right away for that as well. Well, why don't you just give me the maximum cash that you could give, and then I'll just think about how to proceed after that, and then speak with the business representative. Sure, sure. I'll quickly enroll you for that bonus. I just need to read a few disclosures here. I'll quickly enroll you for that bonus.

I just need to read a few disclosures here and I'll enroll you for the bonus. Is it possible to go instead with the 60,000? It looks like the market value for that is higher than $400. Definitely. Like if I talk about the value with the redemption amount, they are equivalent to approximately 600 dollars now no

60 000 points are 420 dollars and then 80 000 points okay are higher gotcha so sure uh thank you for educating me as well mama i'll make sure that uh i take care of that information thank you for that just interrupting to pat myself on the back okay carry on um all right well why don't you go ahead and do the uh sixty thousand sure sure so here i want to confirm that after have a conversation today you're keeping your car account open you can earn sixty thousand after you spend four thousand dollars or more in qualifying purchases on your card within three months of accepting this offer starting today. And then there are a gazillion other terms and conditions we can skip.

And then I got connected to the department that oversees the business credit cards. I have my colleague here from the business division on the line, and he's one of the account managers. He will look into the account and address your query right away i would you please okay thanks thank you i'm slapping my name is with membership consulting and we're he gave me your business card that's the one we're taking a look at that's right okay awesome 25 year member. And he says you're looking to make a change on that one? I am looking at leaving. I think the fee is too high.

The annual fee is too high? Okay. Let me pull this up here. Did you just upgrade to this one last month? I didn't. No, I've been... Well, first of all, I've been with *** for 25 years. Yes, you have. And I've been, well, first of all, I've been with for 25 years. Yes, you have. And I've been a member. I have had this card for many years. I've never asked for a retention credit. I've always paid in full. But the fee that just hit my account is just ridiculous. Okay. So obviously we can get in there and look at something and see if there's something that's beneficial to you,

but we don't want to keep you in a car that you're not happy with. Do you feel like you're still working with the card? Like it's still beneficial to you? Like the benefits, things like that? Is that still working for you? I mean, it works, but I think cash is queen, as you know. So I would prefer cash. I like the way you put that.

Thanks, me too. So with that being said, 25 years, long time, which means you're very knowledgeable about the products. I like talking to long-time cardholders because, you know, they tend to know what they're talking about and they're easier to do business with. So if you still feel it's a good fit for you, you know, and you're not looking to change to like the...

You do have a loyalty offer on here. Right now, it's as if you spend $5,000 in the next 92 days, they'll bonus you $25,000. I don't have any cash ones like that, but you do have one turn if you're interested in it. The only other commitment is keep the account until your next anniversary date next year. $25,000? I mean, the other card for my personal, which I spend much less on, offered $60,000 or $400 statement credit.

Yeah, and that one on this one is the only offer that I have for you on here. This is the only one that we're showing at this time. Yeah, that doesn't feel right. I know. I hear you. And I'm not a kind of like barter type of person. I always give the best thing that they have on the account at the time because I don't want to give you something and then I'm like, wait, wait, wait, what if I can do this?

I don't do that. The only offer I have for you at this time is spend the $5,092 days and receive the additional $25,000. And what about statement credit? Nothing. I have nothing, no credits whatsoever for the account. And even if I escalate this or close the account, then that's all I get? That feels unfair. If you tell me you're going to close the account,

like you don't want to change it to the **** or you don't want to accept this offer, if you tell me to close the account, it's going to let me close your account. So even if I, like, escalate this up the chain, not that you're not the boss of all of the ****, but I still wouldn't be able to get a better hookup? No, they see the same thing we do.

They see exactly the same thing we do. They see exactly the same thing we do. And we're account managers on this side. So our department either closes the account or we find a solution or option for you that we have within our power for each account to be able to do so. That's why I said I'm going to present you with the highest offer that I see on there. If there was a bigger one, believe me, that would have been the first thing I would have gave to you. Oh, thanks. on there if there was a bigger one believe me that would have been the first thing i would have gave to you oh thanks um well would you be able to give me the 25 000 and scoot me down to the no

so this one is to retain you at your level if you want to go to the card it would just be a complete product change but if i change it to the level, do I get my statement credit back? Because it's not been 30 days. Yes, ma'am. So most definitely. So that part, they would, because you're still within your 30-day window for your membership fee, that part would get given back. And then whatever the amount of the, which I believe is $250,000, would just show up on your next month's statement.

It would just rebill you for the new membership going forward. Hold on to your wallets. Money Rehab will be right back. One of the most stressful periods of my life was when I was in credit card debt. I got to a point where I just knew that I had to get it under control for my financial future and also for my mental health. We've all hit a point where we've realized it was time to make some serious money moves. So take control of your finances by using a Chime checking account with features like no maintenance fees, fee-free overdraft up to $200, or getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Learn more at Chime.com slash MNN. When you check out Chime,

you'll see that you can overdraft up to $200 with no fees. If you're an OG listener, you know about my infamous $35 overdraft fee that I got from buying a $7 latte and how I am still very fired up about it. If I had Chime back then, that wouldn't even be a story. Make your fall finances a little greener by working toward your financial goals with Chime. Open your account in just two minutes at Chime.com slash MNN. That's Chime.com slash MNN. Chime. Open your account in just two minutes at Chime.com slash MNN. That's Chime.com slash MNN. Chime. Feels like progress. Banking services and debit card provided by the Bancorp Bank NA or Stride Bank NA. Members FDIC. SpotMe eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply.

Boosts are available to eligible Chime members enrolled in SpotMe and are subject to monthly limits. Terms and conditions apply. Go to chime.com slash disclosures for details. I love hosting on Airbnb. It's a great way to bring in some extra cash, but I totally get it that it might sound overwhelming to start or even too complicated if, say, you want to put your summer home in Maine on Airbnb, but you live full time in San Francisco and you can't go to Maine every time you need to change sheets for your guests or something like that. If thoughts like these have been holding you back, I have great news for you. Airbnb has launched a co-host network, which is a network of high quality local co-hosts with Airbnb experience that can take care of your home and your guests.

Co-hosts can do what you don't have time for, like managing your reservations, messaging your guests, giving support at the property, or even create your listing for you. I always want to line up a reservation for my house when I'm traveling for work, but sometimes I just don't get around to it because getting ready to travel always feels like a scramble, so I don't end up making time to make my house look guest-friendly. I guess that's the best way to put it. But I'm matching with a co-host so I can still make that extra cash while also making it easy on myself. Find a co-host at I can still make that extra cash while also making it easy on myself. Find a co-host at Airbnb.com slash host. And now for some more money rehab.

So I guess it would probably be best to just downgrade. Okay. Let me get back into your account. Kick me out for a second here. Yeah, it kicked you out because you weren't giving me good enough deals. It's not me. If I can give things away for free, I would. You say that to all the people asking for retention credits. Trust me, I don't like fees. I don't like finance charges. I don't like late fees.

I don't like any of that stuff. Who does? I feel for people when they get hit with them every once in a while. Let me grab back to your card. So the good news is we're keeping the same account number. You're not reapplying for a card. It's just going to be an internal product change. Perfect.

I'm going to read you a little paragraph here, and then it's going to ask your permission to do the product change. It says, The Disclosure Saga Part 2. Let's skip ahead. and then it's going to ask your permission to do the product change it says. The disclosure saga part two. Let's skip ahead. Are there certain times of year where there are better retention credits? You said it just depends on when those offers show up. So how often do those offers change?

You know, I see them change, to be honest with you, all the time. Like sometimes, like what I just saw for you right now, you could call back in a week and it could be gone. Or it could be less, it could be more. I've had people call back and go, and that's, you know, that offer, they offered me something different. And it's less when they call back the second time. Or it's gone. It just depends on, you know, what, I don't know, whatever the algorithm is or the computer or whatever it's looking at at the time. But whatever we have at that time with that conversation is what we can work with. Gotcha. So it's not specific on the individual and my payment history and credit score and all of that.

I don't, to be honest with you, I don't know what they choose them from. You know, I've seen cardholders that spend a few hundred thousand dollars a month, and it could have the same offer. You know what I mean? So it just depends. And a lot of it is because they're spending so much. Obviously, they're using the benefits of the card, right? They're still using the card.

They're earning a lot of points. So if they got a million plus points and we're like, oh, you know, we can give you 25 more. It doesn't really impact them. You know what I mean? There's like, I got a million points already. Or I'm spending $100,000 a month. $625,000 or $695,000, it doesn't really have a bearing on them.

So some of the accounts just don't have any offers on them. They'll just let you cancel them out. Some aren't even get to you this far like to talk to our department sometimes the representatives and customer service can just close them out because they're not able to qualify to speak to this department oh so this department is reserved for who exactly i i don't know people with no spin on the account come through so it just depends on if they're eligible if they're, then they get them through to us. Hmm. Okay.

Like somebody, let's say somebody opened a card today and they call back next week to cancel it, they're going to let them cancel the card. They're going to let them cancel it on the customer service side because whatever reason they opened the wrong card, the annual fee, whatever it could be, it's just they're going to not be retention eligible and they're going to let them close out the account. There's, you know, basically no harm, no foul. They didn't

use the card. There's no impact. They're just going to shut it down. So it just depends. You know, I, if I had a reasoning for it, if I knew the insight, I would definitely share it with you. I just don't know what shows up on here. Hmm. Okay. Interesting. Now, let me take a look at your other card real quick. Let me just note this. All right. Let me grab that one online. Maybe we'll be surprised. Let's see what happens. All right. I'm getting into the card. That one's under Money Muse Network. That's right. All right. One moment. It's coming up online. And that one you opened up in november of 2022 so about a year ago a little coming up on a year yeah it's our birthday coming congratulations on that thanks let's see what we got okay wait for this to come up online here so see like even with this one um looking at offers that we have for you it's it's spend more and get less um it's spend

3,092 days and get 10,000 for that card less than what remember last the other one you're for 25,000 you had to spend um oh no you had to spend 5,000 and then you'd get 25 but this one is spend 3 000 in 92 days and they'll bonus you 10 000. and that's the best offer correct now the other thing is too you probably when you open that you probably got some type of opening welcome offer for it let me just take a look and see what your promotion so they just gave you a whole mess of and we're not up to a year yet and you're thinking about closing the account, that can have an effect on what's on that we see as well.

Let me pull up your rewards for this one. Let me take a look. $10,000 is just like $70. So, blech. Yeah. Okay. So, I think in December we gave you $70,000 for opening the cart. So, they just gave you, see what I mean? They we gave you 70 000 for opening the card so they just gave you see what i mean they just gave you 70 000 you did do the spin thank you and you hit the 70 000 points and you got

them but we haven't even finished a year on that card and you're you're contemplating closing the account you were about to say complaining that we have not complaining contemplating closing the account not complaining contemplating but i've been a member for 25 years so like even if i just open this card like overall i'm such an amazing customer you are and i'm not even arguing that i think you got a great history i don't see anything wrong with the account but i can only provide you with what we have and that's what you have on there for that offer for that card at this time so you seem like an honest kind man uh would you accept this offer me personally yeah would i no i would wait i would wait until my anniversary came up and then i would um if i was still thinking about shutting down the account i that's when I would take a look at it.

Okay, because I haven't paid the annual fee for this one yet, right? Right, it's not going to come up until your November 2023. And the reason I would wait is because what happens is, like, let's say you take this offer right now. Let's say you take it. That's fine. That's great. But what it does is part of the terms and conditions it locks you into the card for an additional 12 months so it's going to say if you cancel or change or downgrade the account within 12 months of accepting this offer they're going to reverse the what that does is that puts you

past your next renewal date so if your renewal date comes up in November and you go, oh man, I'm going to close this out. I'm not going to pay it. You just lock yourself in until 2024. You know what I mean? Because if you cancel it, they're going to reverse whatever they gave you. So if it was me, I would wait and I would kind of

look at my cards in a hole when they come up for renewal and then see which ones work for you and which ones don't. And if one of them is not working for you, that's when I would want to have our conversation. Got it. Okay. So I'll just pass on this one. Okay. So that was a lot. Let's recap. I basically did the Goldilocks of credit card arbitrage. For my personal card, I took the bonus. I got $60,000, but I have to spend $4,000 in the next three months in order to get that. And I do have some big purchases that I was already planning

on making in the next few months, so I knew that I could accept this bonus offer and not change up my spending plan. And this is really important. If you're offered a promotion that involves spending more on your credit card than you're planning on doing, it's probably not worth it. For business card number one, I downgraded the card so I got a cheaper annual fee just through dropping down to a less fancy tier. And for business card number two, I did not accept the bonus offer because it sucked, but I will call back in November to see if I'm eligible for any anniversary bonuses. So what's the verdict on getting your annual fee waived as a retention credit? Well, let's address the obvious. I didn't get what I asked for, and that's

totally okay. That's part of this negotiation game. You don't always get a yes, but you will always get a no if you don't ask. So if you give this a try, it might vary based on the credit card company you're with and the representative you talk to that day. But I do think a fair expectation is that you'll get some goodies and you're more likely to get some points than cash or a discount. And P.S. credit card guy, if you're listening, bravo! Credit card customer service reps are given this impossible task of telling people no and making them happy at the same time. And I

think you did an awesome job navigating my antics. For today's tip, you can take straight to the bank. If you do try this at home, call up a competitor first and ask what their welcome offer would be if you do switch and become their customer. This would be an extra piece of leverage that you could offer up when negotiating and push your credit card company to meet, if not beat, their competitor's offer. Money Rehab is a production of Money News Network. I'm your host, Nicole Lappin. Money Rehab's executive producer is Morgan Levoy. Our researcher is Emily Holmes. Do you need some money rehab? And let's be honest, we all do. So email us your money questions, moneyrehab at moneynewsnetwork.com to potentially have your questions answered on the

show or even have a one-on-one intervention with me. And follow us on Instagram at Money News and TikTok at Money News Network for exclusive video content. And lastly, thank you. No, seriously, thank you. Thank you for listening and for investing in yourself, which is the most important investment you can make.