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Let's Talk Credit Card Retention Offers

DrSaichand

TF Select
VIP Lounge
This is my first ever post in this community but I have been following TechnoFino team for long time so please pardon my mistakes if any and do correct me.

Banks spend a lot to gain a customer on their credit card portfolio. A lot of work goes behind Marketing, onboarding & maintaining a trustful customer who brings good revenue to the bank and most likely pay all the dues on time. But at times when customer want to break this relationship by closing the card, banks offer retention offers to make him stay with the bank. Though this sounds odd to few this is an ultimate trump card a credit card company plays to stop a leaving customer. Banks does this because it costs banks much less to offer incentives to leaving customer for their retention rather than the cost of accruing a new customer, that too in this competitive market. This also doesn't mean banks offer these offers to each and every customer that exploits this raw nerve.

Generally these offers are not published/discussed and further they vary from customer to customer based on their relationship with the lender. So I thought of initiating a thread to accumulate various credit card retention offers for long time so here we go please share your card retention offers of various banks credit cards under this thread so that we can better our portfolio further lets find out which bank goes a extra mile to retain their customer. Here's my retention offer.

YES BANK
**************
I have been with Yes Bank since 2017 and got Yes bank Unsecured credit card in the year 2018. Initially my card was Yes Rewards Credit card offered as a pre approved bases on my savings account and I had instantly accepted the offer as I was a student at that time. Yes Bank card being my first ever credit card, I got a credit limit of 20,000 and I was ok with it as my requirements were minimum.

By the time I graduated my usage and spends gradually increased and credit limit requirement started to rise. After the devaluation following the Yes Bank crisis the card offers and reward points were reduced to so low that it didn't made any sense to hold the Yes Bank Cards. In addition to that inspite of being loyal to bank and with absolute zero late payments Yes Bank used to offer poor credit limit enhancements of 3,000 - 5000 for every 8-12 months, but they offer credit card upgrades every 6 months so I was adjusted to it. last straw that broke the camels back was in the year 2021 I got my second credit card i.e Amazon Pay ICICI Credit card with the limit of 2,50,000 and instantly I called Yes bank to close my card as credit limit on my Yes Edge CC was 32,000 at the time of closure and I was hardly able to buy even a mid range phone with it under Bank offers (knowing card closure effects my credit score in bad way) they took the request and I thought card was closed.

but after 15-20 days later I got a call from their Credit card retention team and they offered me direct upgrade from Yes Edge CC to Yes First Preferred CC with 1000 rupees worth reward points in statement with absolutely zero annual fee. I was amazed and decided to remain with them. But eventually after a year due to my other banks cards portfolio I hold by the mid of 2022 I finally closed my Yes Bank card and Yes they again called me and tried to persuaded me to at least stay on card to avail longe benefits, but as I travel near to nill I have denied their 2nd time card retention offer and closed the card. my card closure is solely regarding my poor Credit Limit offered by the bank inspite being with them for almost three years.

SBI
*****

Yes you heard it right, SBI...!!! Suprisingly I also had good retention offer experience on SBI. My father applied for SBI Cashback card via website and as he is salaried, during initial launch of Cashback card there was a glitch for salaried people so SBI agent came home to collect documents. After all formalities they issued Simply save card fraudulently and we have followed up with the SBI customer care but no action was taken.

As my father already holds SBI Elite which is 3 years old, we requested them to close this Simply save card. Immediately within 30 minutes of raising card closure request SBI Card retention team called us and reverted annual fee of 500+18%GST and told to retain card, after 30 min of persuasion I have accepted for the same but my father was unaware of this.

But the immediate next month my father has placed card closure request without my knowledge and again card retention team contacted him and enquired why did we again placed card closure request inspite of annual fee refund for which he also asked them to deduct the fees again and close the card due to bad onboarding experience and he also told about the mis-selling issue and also explained Simply save variant is not that useful in the current card portfolio which he holds, after enquiring about all cards he is holding and spend pattern (which is quite wierd from their end) immediately they have credited 20,000 reward points even without asking in SBI Elite Card rewards account on call and asked to Check the same in the app they also promised that after 6 months variant change option will be enabled for Cashback card too so that we can change the existing simplysave to Cashback.

Being infamous for their slack nature SBI Card retention team gave good offers inspite of placing back to back card closure requests.
they reverted 499+18% GST = 588 (Annual Fees) and 20000 reward points = 5000 Rupees total of 5588

It took a while to understand this is for real :p :) But this doesn't warrant that SBI does the same with every customer as my father card has spends of 12L almost every year on Elite since a couple of years so that history might have helped him getting a good retention offer for the other card of SBI.


So that it here's my experience of Card retention offer with Yes Bank and SBI do share yours if you have any in the thread below. Sorry for the long post in advance.
 
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@anirban.choudhury Which one is it :p

btw, what did you say on call ?
did you ask for card close or did you ask for retention offer directly ?
No beating around the bushes.
Straightway , said that I have no issues with the card but I cannot pay annual charges , and asked them to close it if they can’t provide some waiver , CC then offered 20k RP equivalent to 5 Rs and three month Amazon prime subscription, just before disconnecting I said that I have also paid last year annual fees she said will refund Those charges as well
 
Just now, I called axis customer care to make the MyZone card LTF as it is a pre-approved paid card. After trying for 30 minutes, they agreed to make the MyZone card LTF and told me it will take approximately 6 days, till then don't use the card.
 
I had Elite as my primary card for a few years and when I got a DCB, asked SBI to make it LTF I'll close it. They sent me the steps to close it. No retention, nothing.
 
What is the process of getting Retention offer/call from SBI ?
should mail be sent for closure or via call ?

someone in my family was charged Annual Card fees from SBI as they started using other cards more due to better offers. Is there a way to get that fee reversed ?

Statement has already been generated acc to them..

@anonymuos @DrSaichand
I raised card closure request via app after they didn't do anything about the additional PRIME/SimplySAVE card + ₹1K voucher offer for 2 months. Then got a call to ask why I was closing. Told them what happened. They offered to waive only 1 year charges but I said "You didn't honor voucher offer+additional card for 2 months despite numerous emails, calls, tweets, follow-ups, plus so many others are reporting reward points reversal on SimplyCLICK or straightaway debits made against statement without breakdown provided. I don't trust you guys to waive off yearly charges either since you don't care much about customers, so better to close it." They closed it. 15 days later they called to re-activate/reissue it (had made quite some regular spends using SimplyClick so probably they profit from it), offered to make SimplyCLICK LTF.

Only difference is new SimplyCLICK is a bit cheap-looking shiny plastic green, earlier one was nice matte-finish. 😄
 
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No beating around the bushes.
Straightway , said that I have no issues with the card but I cannot pay annual charges , and asked them to close it if they can’t provide some waiver , CC then offered 20k RP equivalent to 5 Rs and three month Amazon prime subscription, just before disconnecting I said that I have also paid last year annual fees she said will refund Those charges as well
cool, so you just mailed customercare@sbicard.com via registered email, telling that you need to close the card and you got a callback.. will share this info.. Thanks!


I raised card closure request via app after they didn't do anything about the additional PRIME/SimplySAVE card + ₹1K voucher offer for 2 months. Then got a call to ask why I was closing. Told them what happened. They offered to waive only 1 year charges but I said "You didn't honor voucher offer+additional card for 2 months despite numerous emails, calls, tweets, follow-ups, plus so many others are reporting reward points reversal on SimplyCLICK or straightaway debits made against statement without breakdown provided. I don't trust you guys to waive off yearly charges either since you don't care much about customers, so better to close it." They closed it. 15 days later they called to re-activate/reissue it (had made quite some regular spends using SimplyClick so probably they profit from it), offered to make SimplyCLICK LTF.
okay, so even if they close the card, there is a possibility that they would call back after sometime and try to re-issue card.. got it!

The only thing is that if I tell them about this and they dont get connected to retention team.. that would be bad :P
 
bro please try and let us know what happened ,i am also owing fk axis
also btw they can upgrade the card also ,they have provided me an offer for privilege card even then my fk axis is active ,but limit is shared
taken it few days back
I wanted to try this for Axis Flipkart card, however, they denied upgrade as its a co branded card :/ Thinking of calling them again and requesting for LTF conversion. Has anyone tried with this card?
also btw they can upgrade the card also ,they have provided me an offer for privilege card even then my fk axis is active ,but limit is shared
taken it few days back
 
also btw they can upgrade the card also ,they have provided me an offer for privilege card even then my fk axis is active ,but limit is shared
taken it few days back

also btw they can upgrade the card also ,they have provided me an offer for privilege card even then my fk axis is active ,but limit is shared
taken it few days back
That’s not a real upgrade, your old will work unless you close it.
 
I have a Kotak indigo XL card.. annual fees of 2.5k up for renewal in Feb. Called customer care to cancel yestd. Today retention team called and offered Zen Signature card LTF. I accepted. Credit Limit remains same at 6.6 Lacs. Any thoughts is it a good card if any one knows?
Zen signature is one of the best card in Kotak portfolio , congrats on getting it LTF
 
Canceled Indusind card today. They just asked reason for cancellation, didn’t try to retain. Anyways I wasn’t using it and have too many cards now so wanted to reduce.
 
This is happening with me every year. Initially 2-3 years I had to speak with retention team. But now since 2-3 years. I am just calling customer care, and requesting for fees reversal,They just reverse fees on call instantly.
may I know which number you dial for talking with customer care ?

I tried calling on Dial 18605001290, 18601801290, <std>39020202 and 18001801290 with registered number but none of them had an option to talk with representative :\

Also tried pressing hidden numbers in IVR (like 8/9/0) which usually have representative option but that too didnt work :(

Please suggest of you can
 
Canceled Indusind card today. They just asked reason for cancellation, didn’t try to retain. Anyways I wasn’t using it and have too many cards now so wanted to reduce.
IndusInd , idfc first etc don’t try to retain . I guess they are having good business. Idfc first didn’t even called me on my closure request , simply closed it at my request from app
 
I had bad experience from HDFC . I Have Hdfc Titanium credit card with 62k limit from 6 years onwards. Since, I have other better credit cards in my portfolio with much higher credit limit, I have decided to close for the card (as I thought the customer care retention team will either upgrade my credit card or enhance my credit limit). I have typed on EVA saying credit card closure, typed OTP and last 4 digits of my credit card and my card is blocked temporarily. After 2 days I received a message saying "your card closure is successful".
 
I had bad experience from HDFC . I Have Hdfc Titanium credit card with 62k limit from 6 years onwards. Since, I have other better credit cards in my portfolio with much higher credit limit, I have decided to close for the card (as I thought the customer care retention team will either upgrade my credit card or enhance my credit limit). I have typed on EVA saying credit card closure, typed OTP and last 4 digits of my credit card and my card is blocked temporarily. After 2 days I received a message saying "your card closure is successful".
Hdfc is pathetic in giving limit enhancement , my 8 years old card still had same limit and same variant . Tried many times for limit enhancement but they have been denying for the past 5 to 6 years . Finally successfully closed the dam card last year
 
may I know which number you dial for talking with customer care ?

I tried calling on Dial 18605001290, 18601801290, <std>39020202 and 18001801290 with registered number but none of them had an option to talk with representative :\

Also tried pressing hidden numbers in IVR (like 8/9/0) which usually have representative option but that too didnt work :(

Please suggest of you can
I always dial (Mumbai code)39020202.
It happened to me earlier when i called in the other numbers. Try calling from non register number also.You may need to enter Card verification details on IVR.
 
I had bad experience from HDFC . I Have Hdfc Titanium credit card with 62k limit from 6 years onwards. Since, I have other better credit cards in my portfolio with much higher credit limit, I have decided to close for the card (as I thought the customer care retention team will either upgrade my credit card or enhance my credit limit). I have typed on EVA saying credit card closure, typed OTP and last 4 digits of my credit card and my card is blocked temporarily. After 2 days I received a message saying "your card closure is successful".

You are talking about the light sky-blue colour card? Or was it edge card? Or times titanium?

Titanium card and edge is no longer available since 5-6 years.You should have blocked the card and get it reissued. You would have got moneyback .

Hdfc bank renewal card is given in 3 year. I am amazed that you received same card variant? As u have mentioned that you have same card since 6 y
 
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