In Shakespeare’s play, “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar”, a soothsayer tells Julius Caesar to beware the Ides of March, thereby foreshadowing his death. Well, the Ides of March (March 15th) is soon to be upon us but rather than the death of Caesar, we are seeing the death of two of the great Canadian credit cards out there, the Chase Marriott and Chase Amazon card.
This is truly a tragedy based on the amazing value you received as a Canadian, especially with the Marriott card. The benefits included a free night certificate at a Category 1-5 Marriott Hotel, 15 Elite Night Credits towards status qualification and a 0% Foreign Exchange (FX) rate. While there are some new cards coming out to fill the vacuum left by these cards, it will take some doing to match the value of these cards.
Amazing Customer Service Gestures
While Chase is leaving the Canadian credit card space (hopefully for the short term), they are not leaving their customers high and dry. Chase has taken, what I deem to be, extraordinary steps to leave their existing customers as happy as possible considering they are losing the utility of these two great cards. As the Amazon card is a $0 Annual Fee card with not a lot of benefit outside the 0% FX, there isn’t much for Chase to do to appease these customers except to ensure that the Amazon credits that cardholders have earned are conveyed to them.
The strategy that Chase has taken with Marriott Card has left me very satisfied as a customer. Here’s what we are expecting:
- A free night certificate for a Category 1-5 Marriott Hotel. This is usually done on the anniversary of the card renewal so this is quite an extraordinary customer service gesture. This is supposed to happen after March 15th, the date the card ends. This will happen even if your renewal date was March 1st. In this case, you would receive 2 certificates, one for the renewal and one for the cancellation.
- A credit for the 15-night elite credits. Again, this is something that is supposed to happen on the anniversary of the card so this will be a welcome bonus to most that are looking to requalify for Marriott status. I have heard mixed reports about this so while I am hopeful that the nights will be credited, I am not 100% sure it will happen.
- Annual fee pro-rated credit
The Annual Fee Credit
I’m happy to report that the Annual Fee Credit has already been given back to me as of February 5th. I don’t normally go into my Chase account because I don’t use it that often except when on vacation so I was quite happy to find the credit today.
I also received a $16 interest charge adjustment credit for some reason. I have no idea where it came from as I don’t carry a balance but I’m not going to say no to a free $16.
What To Do With The Credit
You have two choices on what you can do with your new found credit. You can either place a charge through on the card (prior to March 15th) to use the credit (assuming you don’t have a balance) or you can request a refund. If you are going to request a refund, I would recommend you wait until the day after the card is closed (March 16).
The reason I recommend waiting until March 16th is that I would hate for you to get an overzealous agent that misunderstands your request for a refund as a request to cancel the card. If you cancel your card before the card is pulled by Chase on March 15th, you risk not receiving the free night certificate and your 15-night elite credits.
Conclusion
I love that Chase is pre-emptively following through on their promise of a pro-rated refund of the Annual Fee. With Chase is following through on the first of their 3 big benefits, I fully expect to receive the other two benefits.
Have you seen your annual fee credit from Chase already?