Recall, that in the final days of the 50,000 bonus mile offer, I had Rob apply for the Chase United MileagePlus Explorer Visa. Well a year later, the annual fee of $95 became due. Rob had not used this card since spending the initial $3,000 to secure the 50,000 bonus miles.
I called Chase. Note, I have tried to negotiate with Chase every time I have previously called to cancel a card. I offer to make $x amount of purchases for them to credit back the fee (an offer that Citibank has made me in the past) They have never played ball.
This time Chase played ball a little. They offered to downgrade Rob’s card from an Explorer Visa ($95 fee) to a NO FEE “Visa Platinum”, a card that is not offered to the public.
I will not have Rob use this card as you get a mere 1 mile for every $2 spent (with the Explorer card the ratio is 1:1 on everyday purchases). But I did not have to cancel (not that it would have been a big deal if I did have to cancel). I like this downgrade option and will try to use it with Chase again in the future.