Complaints to Companies Co-Branding with Chase Credit Cards

Finance
#1

I am getting frustrated with Chase having so much market share with co-branding credit cards, then not allowing my household to get the cards due to 5/24. I think there are others here who feel the same.

Thinking we could take the initiative to complain to these companies who do business with Chase credit cards and maybe get attention from their marketing people. This thread is to share our experiences with trying to get companies to drop Chase in favor of a better credit card management company.

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#2

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#3

So far, I have done the following:

  1. IHG sent me an e-mail for comments and feedback about their company. I included comments that pointed out:
  • My wife and I are not allowed Chase (therefore IHG) credit card due to policy known as Chase 5/24.
  • I am planning to use Marriot or others who have special offers from non-Chase credit cards
  • IHG can draw a straight line between their co-branded credit card being from Chase and loss of revenue from my household.
  1. Went into my United Airlines account and went to the Customer Care page and then chose the Concern choice:
  • I let them know I use Delta and American Airlines due to them allowing me to have co-branded non-Chase credit cards, whereas I am not allowed to get a United credit card due to Chase 5/24.
  • I asked to forward my message to upper management to let them know there is a clear loss of revenue from my household due to them partnering with Chase.

No responses from IHG or United yet.
Maybe they may contact me and offer some promotional points or miles to get me to make more use of their products. I’ll let you know if they provide any feedback to my complaints.

#4

I suspect most run of the mill marketing types would think that opening more than 5 new credit cards in 24 months means you really shouldnt be approved for yet another one, and seriously wouldnt understand what you’re complaining about.

9 Likes
#5

This is a good idea but I think addressing your complaints directly to the co-brand companies’ CEOs will be more effective.

Most big companies have staff that field complaints/comments to their CEO. I had success complaining to the CEO of Citibank about getting screwed out of a credit card bonus. The staff person shared the responses from the Citi credit card staff who said I should not get the bonus but the CEO staff person overruled them.

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#6

5/24 is an individual limit, not a household limit. From a churning perspective it’s just poor planning on your part, because this rule has been in place for more than 2 years.

No it isn’t. Chase has some of the best card offers for their own and co-branded cards like United. Complain all you want to hotels and disney, but leave the airlines out of it :unamused:

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#7

I’d think that most people who sign up for credit cards frequently are just cashing out the sign up bonuses and not really profitable customers for the banks/merchants.

I’m 100% sure that the banks/merchants lose money on most of us here so it really actually makes good business sense for them to limit that.

Is there any compelling reason for them to think otherwise??

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#8

The decisions to partake in a plurality of credit card offers at other banks at the opportunity cost of missing out on Chase CC offers was, and continues to be a proper business decision, not poor planning.

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#9

When you said you were “frustrated” by a rule that has been in place for many years, it sounded like you really wanted some co-branded cards. But now it sounds like you knew exactly what you were doing and you just want the rules changed to favor players like yourself.

I’m all for it, I just don’t think you have a strong argument. Preventing you and your wife from getting more than 10 new credit cards in 2 years is also a proper business decision.

7 Likes
#10

I like free money just as much as the next guy, but I can’t really blame the banks for shutting or slowing us down. They took it like a champ for the last 15-20 years.

They do sometimes make exceptions to 5/24, but it’s rare.

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#11

I also can’t imagine the banks feeling too generous these days.

After all, Citi just recently made a bunch of exceptions via targeted offers, and instead of being grateful, the miles and points community started trading the codes on Flyertalk and Reddit, and switching the names on the application forms to get around the normal card app limits.

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#12

As someone who churned (and still does as much as they’ll let me) numerous credit card sign-up bonuses, I can sympathize but I think it’ll be hard to get cooperation from companies co-branding cards by telling them the Chase anti-churning rules are working too well. They put them in place to weed out customers who cost them too much for too little returns. I don’t think the gravy train of 10-15 years ago is coming back any time soon. The truth is they’d rather lose some customers than continue bleeding money without the anti-churning rules.

Now complaining could help them decide that they should do more targeted offers to get customers they really want but the rules are not getting better soon. Or maybe Chase could do like Citi which is allow you to get the new card anyway but during the credit check, warn you that you’re not gonna get the bonus if you don’t meet the 5/24 rule limit. But careful what you wish for too. If more became AMEX branded, you could be worse off.

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#13

Since there’s lots of Chase experts here: I am something like 2/24 (Chase Ink recently, Chase Sapphire reserve 2-3 years ago). I was considering getting the Southwest branded card, but wonder if there are others I should get instead. What are the Chase offers I should get before any others?

#14

First, just to be clear (it may just be a coincidence that your only new cards were from Chase) - you understand that the 5/24 rule refers to your full credit profile, not just Chase-issued cards, right?

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#15

Seems reasonable if you will use the southwest points. If you will also use the $100 annual southwest credit, the priority card even has a negative net annual fee – meaning you can plan to keep it indefinitely until they change the benefits and/or fee. And the 90k SW points (10k to referrer, 75k + 5k from spend) is a very good welcome offer (worth ~$1350 + $100 travel credit - $150 fee = $1300 for $5k spend for first year).

Personally the cards I have with Chase are:
Chase Ink, Chase Southwest Premier (business)
Chase Freedom X 2
Sapphire Reserve
Southwest – canceled last Monday

Im hoping a couple weeks after canceling is enough time and I can apply for the Priority with the current offer next week. There doesn’t seem to be much info/ datapoints for any required time between canceling to satisfy the requirement to be “not a current holder of any _____ cards”.

Chase Freedom(s), Chase Ink, and either a sapphire Preferred or Reserve are the best cards that all work together for Ultimate Rewards points. And the Southwest Priority is the only Chase card I’m aware of with a negative effective annual fee.

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#16

Quick status report:

I complained to United Airlines, they said they will “forward to the appropriate department for further review”. Not sure, but I think that means my message was forwarded to the trash.

I complained to IHG via e-mail messaging, their customer service person was clueless and all they did was provide me a phone number to call Chase and verify my status. WTF? Well, actually I was totally expecting an irrelevant answer due to their team being clueless.
FWIW: For my situation, I would gladly pay them the annual IHG card fee for the amount of points I would receive, and therefore avoid paying the room fees and high room tax charges.

#17

The Southwest Companion pass is pretty strong, assuming you’re a party of two and Southwest is convenient.

The business INKs are a good substitute for CSR and don’t count towards 5/24, at least if you don’t value the lounge benefit or have it somewhere else.

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#18

The ink preferred is nice for the welcome bonus, but after year 1 it usually makes sense to convert to ink cash. You get 5x points categories then with no annual fee. 7.5% rebate on recurring internet, cable, and cell phone bills can be a pretty big benefit.

The other thing than priority pass that the ink preferred does not have is the rental car cdw (Ink cdw ids limited to business purpose rentals).

#19

Nice catch! :grinning:I did actually think the rule applied only to Chase cards. Still, I think I am just under the limit.

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#20

Also forgot to mention that it’s often suggested to get the business card(s) first if they’re of interest. But you already have the ink (which you can convert to ink cash after the 1st year), so unless there’s another (such as an airline or hotel program) that you want, it’s been covered already. On the southwest front, the business preferred does NOT have a negative annual fee like the personal Priority card because you get inflight internet as opposed to a straight $100 Southwest credit. Also AFAIK, the welcome offer for the SW bus preferred has been longstanding and isn’t as likely to go away near the beginning of next month like the 75k pt personal offers that are currently available. Unless you place a $100+ a year value on the inflight internet on southwest flights, I would contend that the personal Southwest Priority card is a better card if you are only looking to obtain one.

The reason to consider pickup of the business cards first is because they don’t count in 5/24. They are still subject to 5/24 when you apply for them. But the Chase business cards don’t report to personal credit report so they aren’t seen as “new accounts” for future applications that are checking for 5/24.