She Lures Me Back

I wrote a satirical piece here about how I have a hard time with long term relationships with credit cards. At the end of the post, I stated that I was going to soon say goodbye to my United, US Airways and American Airlines credit cards.

In that post, I stated that each credit card "wants your attention and will do anything possible for it. They will try to lure you in with all the tricks in the bag." Well, US Airways Mastercard lured me back into using her.

Earlier this week, I called to cancel my credit card and was immediately transferred to a "specialist."  The specialist asked me why I was canceling my card. My response was simple, " I don't fly US Airways that often, other credit cards are offering bonuses for my spend and the annual fee is due." Her response shocked me, "Well, you HAVE earned over 65,000+ miles since you opened the card in 2012." So, what I replied? Another thing I mentioned was that Chase has been sending me bonuses quarterly to move my spending to other cards. (see here).

After every statement that the "specialist" threw at me, she would say, "ultimately, its your decision.' She must have stated this one phrase 10 times. After talking for 10 minutes, I came out and asked, "do you have any retention bonus for me?" Sometimes you just need to be direct of what YOU want or need to stay a customer.

Her first offer was:

       2,500 bonus miles if I make 5 $50+ purchases in 3 months

I told her that wasn't good enough. She countered with:

       2,500 bonus miles if I make 5 $50+ purchase in 3 months and 25% off the annual fee

After thinking about it for a few minutes, I accepted!

I can't believe that I was lured back. She has that way over me and knows my weakness: bonus points!

Literally, a few minutes after getting off the phone with the specialist, this offer for my US Airways Master card:

By registering for this promotion, I will earn 5 Bonus miles per $1 spent at Gas Stations, Restaurants, and Department, Toy or Game Stores spent from October 1 until the end of 2013. The maximum bonus miles I can earn is 2,500 meaning spending $500.

I called to confirm that my "retention" offer can be combined with this offer. Luckily, it can!

My plan is make my 5 $50 purchases for my retention bonus at restaurants, gas stations and department stores. If I do it, I will earn the 2,500 retention bonus and be half of the way ($250) to the second offer.

There is 5,000 bonus miles up for grabs. Am I up to the challenge? Oh, hell ya!

But, she lured me back...I hope the other two credit card don't read this....

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