Have you ever applied for a new credit card with an attractive welcome bonus, only to find out soon after that a new offer with an even higher welcome bonus is now available on the same card? For example, did you apply for a credit card when the welcome bonus was 60,000 miles and the new bonus offer is now 80,000 miles? Credit card welcome bonuses are constantly changing, so there’s no guarantee that the offer at the time you apply will be the highest. Are you stuck with the lower welcome bonus? What are your options?
Asking to match to a higher welcome bonus
You can always ask to be matched to a higher welcome bonus that you see available after you’ve already received a new card. There is no guarantee that the credit card company will match you to that higher offer. But, it never hurts to ask.
In my experience, it’s hard to predict if a bank will match you to the higher offer. Your chances of getting matched improve if you’ve applied for the card very recently (like in the past few weeks), if you haven’t already received the bonus, and if you’ve received a targeted email or snail mail offer that is higher than the one you got. To ask for a match to a higher welcome bonus, you have a few options:
- Call the number on the back of your credit card
- Send a secure message through your credit card’s website
- Do an online chat through your credit card’s website
Simply say or type something like this:
“I recently got approved for this credit card when the bonus was 80,000 miles, but I noticed there is now a higher welcome bonus of 100,000 miles. Is it possible to be matched to the higher offer?”
The worst they can say is no. You can also hang up and try another method if the first try doesn’t work. But don’t lose too much sleep if you are not matched to the higher offer. It’s nearly impossible to predict when each credit card will have the highest welcome bonus. You win some, you lose some.
My recent experience with a match request
Back in February, I was approved for the Citi/AAdvantage Business World Elite Master Card when the bonus was 65,000 AA miles. The bonus is currently higher at 75,000 miles. Even though I had already received my 65k welcome bonus, it had been less than 90 days since I applied for the card. I decided to ask for a match.
First, I asked through the online chat at Citi. An agent instructed me to email my request to a specific email. I did that, but the next day I decided to also try calling.
Unfortunately, the phone rep told me I only qualified for a match if I received a targeted offer for 75k that had my name and/or AAdvantage number on it. The affiliate link offer or any public online offer would not be matched.
A few days later, I received a snail mail reply from my email that basically stated the same thing. “The offer copy must directly display your name and address or your email and AAdvantage number. We will be unable to update your enrollment bonus based n a generic online promotional offer.”
Bottom Line
Asking to match to a higher welcome bonus sometimes works. If you’ve recently applied for a card at a lower bonus and now it’s higher, it’s worth taking a few minutes to ask for a match.
Readers, have you had success asking for a bonus match?
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
I applied for the Chase IHG Premier card earlier this year due to including IHG Diamond status for account opening and 140,000 points after a bit of spend. About two months later, after having spent over $8k on the card, I secure messaged Chase and asked if they would up the offer to give me 165k points as was the then-current offer (but no more Diamond status mention), and they agreed to make an adjustment and give me 25k points on a following statement. Very happy with them agreeing to that adjustment even as the new offer for the card no longer had Diamond status for account opening.
I would have been gone with the IHG Premier credit card even absent Chase’s matching the bonus, but it was a smart gesture on their part as it makes me less likely to tell potential applicants to hold off on applying and instead wait for a better bonus.
@GUWonder Glad you were able to get the match!