1st retention call – over 30k offer in 5 minutes!

Few weeks ago I decided I had enough of Citi and Hilton Reserve card. I didn’t like the fact that they kind of admitted I should have received the signup bonus but denied the bonus. So I picked up the phone and called them with full intention of cancelling my Hilton Reserve card. While I was at it, I was also planning on cancelling the no AF Hilton card that I had picked up a few months earlier. When I uttered the magic world “cancel”, I was transferred to the retention department and then the offers kept on rolling. I will spare you the details and right away give you the summary of the offers that I ended up accepting:

• Hilton Reserve: $750 for 7k HHP (I was told this offer was already in my account)
• Hilton: $1.5k in 3 months for 5k HHP
• Prestige: $3k in 6 months for 10k TYP
• Forward: $3k in 6 month for 10k 3k
• Access More: +2pts/$ for 6 month; max 35k TYP
• Double Cash: None (I was immediately warned that this card rarely gets offers)

My thoughts on these offers

I have no idea how I already had “spend $750 and get 7k HHP” attached to my card. I don’t recall receiving such offer via email but maybe I did and I just forgot about it. Nevertheless, I should make it clear that this was not a retention offer.

I think 5k offer on no AF Hilton is a fair offer for a no AF card. In my opinion, it is a better than targeted Amex offer of add AU (sometimes comes with spend requirement as well) and receive 5k points.

I think Prestige offer is a decent one, particularly because I only pay $100 net AF on Prestige. The same exact offer on my no AF Forward card is most welcome. I was hoping to get a similar offer on Access More but +2 points is not too terrible for me.

Decisions

I had already accepted all these offers but later that day I ended up cancelling both Hilton cards. I feel I already have enough MS to do and I couldn’t be bothered chasing Hilton points at the time. On the other hand, I will MS 3k on both Prestige and Forward. I don’t plan to max out 35k TYP on Access More card but I do intend to continue to put rent payments on this card. I hope that my rent payments through plastiq will yield me 5x TYPs. Lastly, I have finally converted my Double Cash card to Citi Dividend card. Dividend should yield me $300 every year through MS on drugstore and hopefully it will bring me some retention offer that DC simply can’t.