Awhile back, I posted that Citibank may have stopped offering incentives to entice you to keep a card instead of canceling it when the annual fee becomes due. After all, Citi offered me absolutely nothing when I called to cancel my Citi/AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite MasterCard. So I did cancel it.
Fast forward, I received a bill for the $95 annual fee for an old Citi Platinum Visa, a card not even offered anymore, so I do not have it listed under the Citi AA cards. I called to cancel the card and without hesitation, the Citi rep made me a very attractive offer to keep the card.
All I need to do is spend a mere $95 in the next month and Citi will credit me back the $95 fee. (Don’t forget, I need to pay the annual fee and then get a credit back, you can’t fool me twice!)
In addition, they also told me that for the next 16 billing cycles, any month that I spend at least $1,000, they will give me 1000 bonus American AAdvantage miles in that month, essentially giving me 2 miles per $ spent. I don’t think I will be taking advantage of this, (I like using my other cards too much) but this is the first time that Citi offered me this additional offer as well. I am guessing they are trying to compete with some of the other cards out there that on purchases offer a greater than 1:1 ratio of $1 to reward.