Over at my other blog, we’ve gotten some good news, so I thought I’d share for readers of this one too. For those that are unaware, most credit card companies will waive annual fees, late fees, etc., for active duty military members under the auspices of the Servicemember’s Civil Relief Act (SCRA). I’ll be talking more about this in the future on this blog.
We received an email the other day from one of our readers, @Alex, who emailed:
Sir,
I was able to get my fees waived for the United Mileage Plus Club Card and the rest of my Chase cards that I applied for after coming into the service. I did so by using my AMEX Platinum card fee waiver as leverage. It took around 30 days to accomplish this but with $634 in fees waived it was well worth my efforts.
V/r
Alex
We, of course, wanted to know how he leveraged it, so he commented on our post:
I was recently was able to get Chase to waive the $395 fee for the United Mileage Plus Club Card. I was also able to get them to waive the fees for my other cards totaling $634! I was able to get them to do this in spite of having applied for most of these cards after my entry into the military by using my AMEX Platinum as leverage. I essentially said I was disappointed in Chase and that if the fees were not waived I would strongly consider ending my business relationship with Chase (which made me sort of sad lol because I really do enjoy their customer service and awesome benefits). I told them that AMEX waives the fees for military members on their platinum card and the fees for additional cards and any other products as well. This is what I think finally swayed chase and now I have this benefit as long as I am in the service! I must give some kudos to chase even though it did take a while, but I think chase is absolutely awesome and is definitely on the customer service level of AMEX now!
I know that several readers including @Benji and others had been denied the SCRA waivers because they weren’t cardholders before joining, so this is HUGE! I think leveraging one bank’s benefits against another is a great idea; I believe (but cannot be certain) that it was PFDigest who mentioned that “banks are whores!”. I mean that in the sense that they will really bend over backward (sorry for the awkward pun/visualization) to make more money off you by retaining you as a customer.
I was denied SCRA benefits by Citi, so I might try this strategy. Thank you, @Alex!
I’m leaving for Lima, Peru, Cuzco, Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca, and then Cartagena, Colombia this weekend, so the postings will be even less frequent than usual until March 20th, so until then, take care!