I have one of the now non-existent Chase Ink Bold charge cards that I applied for last year. The first year had the annual fee waived, so now that it’s June a year later, I saw the $95 fee hit on my statement.
Some useful benefits of the Chase Ink Bold I use (now, you can apply for the Chase Ink Plus, which is the same card, except is a credit card):
- 5x Ultimate Rewards points at office supply stores
- 2x Ultimate Rewards points at hotels and gas stations
- Get 20% off airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises when you redeem your points through Chase Ultimate Rewards. For example, a $625 flight requires just 50,000 points.
The Call
Not wanting to pay the $95 annual fee, I called in and asked what could be done. Interestingly, just a few seconds later, the representative said she’d be giving me a $95 statement credit (thus, waiving the annual fee) within 1-2 billing cycles. Awesome! Easy, and I didn’t have to do any prompting. It’s worth noting that I inquired whether another opportunities were available, and did not receive any other options. The only “retention offer” for me was to do the $95 statement credit.
My Take
I’m really happy at getting the fee waived, which is what I had in mind when I called. So, I got what was in my mind, and allows me to use this card fee-free for at least another year.
If your annual fee is coming due, it’s worth it to call in and ask for this waiver. FYI – My spending on this card is typically around $5,000 a month – a mix between legitimate travel purchases and office supply visits.
Jamie Larounis is an avid traveler, blogger and miles/points educator. Traveling well over 100,000 miles a year and staying in hotels for over 100 nights, he leverages miles, points and other deals to fly in first class cabins, and stay in 5-star hotels. The Forward Cabin shares his experiences, musings, reviews, tips, tricks, resources and industry news with you, the fellow traveler.
I got the same offer 2 days ago.
Wow. You spend a lot on this card. I have a real business and split spend between 3 Chase cards (approx $40K/year). I called in to get the annual fee waived and was given nothing so I just closed it. Oh well.
You should have used the HUCA (hand up call back again) technique
I was initially rejected by the computer and told there was nothing they could do. What you need to do is hang up and call back again. The second time you reach them they should give you the $95 credit. This was the process I went through.
I wonder what’s the logic… I just called… agent submitted the request to wave the fee but computer rejected it.
I got the same order 2 weeks ago within 5 minutes phone call. I only spent about $8000 last year. $500 is office supply, $2000 is wireless/phone bills, the rest are Visa/Master Gift cards/other Gift cards.
Just called and $95 fee was waived immediately.
Got the $95 fee waived last week after reading this on another blog. Also asked for other (better) offers but they had none for me. Spend about $10K/yr on almost exclusively 5x category spend.
On a separate call the same day, asked for any spending promotions on my wife’s Bold card and they offered 10000 points after $5k spend in 90 days. Jumped on it!
Back in Feb ., I was offered spending $5K for 10K points with no AF waived. I accepted. But the CSR said it might be the last retention offer I’d receive. I have it since 2012. I did not apply for Ink card when they offered 60K points because I wanted to exhausted the retention offers for this card. I probably spend more than $12K a year.
Called on the Ink Plus before AF hit. No offer. Called last week now that the fee has posted and offered downgrade to Ink Cash.