I am referring to my Chase Marriott visa. I have a real dilemma on my hands and have to make a decision soon. Last year I got Chase Marriott credit card mostly for the bonus. We got tremendous value out of it, booking award hotel nights for my parents in Moscow before and after their flights to USA (one of the best redemptions, due to ridiculous hotel prices there). We also used some points for hotel stay in Orlando: fair value, but nothing, compared to Moscow. The card comes with a category 1-5 hotel night each year after paying 85 dollar annual fee, which is valid for 6 months .
The plan was to keep the card , because there is a nice Marriott brand hotel near us, where we can go for 1 night to celebrate our anniversary. Well, the hotel has changed categories and now is a category 6, so the annual certificate will be no good there next year. I did already make a reservation with the old requirement for this year and just have to attach the anniversary Visa certificate , which will post to my account on August 1st.
So, here is the dilemma. I really want to apply for Chase Southwest Visa with 50000 points bonus, that ends on August 6th . I can either cancel the Marriott Visa (after paying the annual fee to be fair), or apply for Southwest card and hope for the best. There is another problem. It’s in my husband’s name and he refuses to call reconsideration line in the event of denial. He is also probably at the edge of what Chase will allow him for credit limit. I know the official stance is to never cancel Chase cards, but what would you do in a case like that?
Author: Leana
Leana is the founder of Miles For Family. She enjoys beach vacations and visiting her family in Europe. Originally from Belarus, Leana resides in central Florida with her husband and two children.
@ HJK62 Thanks for feedback. I actually ended up canceling the card. We got instant approval on Chase Southwest card, so probably was the right decision.
There is a limit to the credit that Chase will give you, irregardless of which cards you have. There are 2 approaches. 1 is to never cancel a card, and then go through the reconsideration line to barter and transfer credit to the new card. The other is to cancel cards that are less valuable in order to free up credit that can be used to approve your next card. Chase generally balks or at least talks to you when you have more than 6 cards, so keeping your total at 6 or less often avoids having to talk to them. The hard part is deciding which cards you like the most. You can always get the card again, just not the bonus.