I would like to cancel my Southwest credit card and reapply to get the 65,000 point bonus so I can earn the companion pass again. I am nervous about the process though since I’ve never tried this before.
Details:
I am 4/24 (four new credit cards in the last two years), so that seems OK.
It’s been longer than 24 months since I received a sign-up bonus on that card.
The current 65,000 point offer runs until 7/14.
My biggest concern is that I recently got a Chase Freedom card and was given a ridiculously tiny credit limit ($800 instead of the $11-14K I am usually given on a card). I am guessing that is because I already had so much credit with Chase (across 4 other cards), but it does make me nervous about the possibility of that happening again.
Questions:
Has anyone done this recently who can report their experience?
When I call to cancel am I going to get hassled for the reason why I want to cancel? (Help out an introvert with phone anxiety!)
Do I need to wait a certain amount of time between canceling and reapplying?
I did this last year, but the experience should be the same. Cause I’ve done it a few times over the years and it’s always the same. In fact, with the SW card, it was especially annoying as I tried to apply to have 2 cards (two different tiers, which I thought was ok, but SW disagreed, cause I guess they hate money?)
They’ll ask you why you’re closing it, simply state you’re not using the card anymore. If you have an annual fee, you can also mention that. No need to give them any sort of justification beyond “I don’t want it.” If they get pushy(doubt it), request the sign on bonuses along with the upgraded card… if they refuse, then tell them “thanks but no thanks” and follow through with the standard cancelling. These operators do not control your approval of any card, that’s a whole other department that controls that, so you can tell them anything you want.
Supposedly, you just need to wait 24 hours to sign up (might even be less), but I waited a billing cycle to make sure all things were “solidified” in their system. But given your timeline is just over a month, I wouldn’t suggest waiting that long, a few days should be plenty of time. Either way, I just went online and applied. When I did, it wanted to call me to verify I am who I said I was and all that. Nothing major and I wasn’t turned away.
A few other things to note - you want to make sure you aren’t running afoul of the 5/24 rule - meaning you can’t have opened more than 5 personal credit cards in the last 24 months.
And re: bonus, it’s not when you had the card open or closed it that matters, it’s when you last earned a Southwest bonus. It needs to have been 24 months since you last earned THAT bonus.
You’re correct that Chase will not allow you to open two Southwest personal cards at the same time. You can however open one personal and one business, if you have a reason to have a business card.
Also, just a note on timing: it’s already June, which means that’s you’re a little behind the ball for earning the companion pass for this year. When you get a companion pass, you earn it for the rest of the existing year AND the entire next year, for up to two full years of travel. Unless you really need to earn it for THIS year, you’d generally be better off waiting until December, opening the new card then, and quickly doing your spend to hit first week of January. Then with your other spending, you could earn it earlier in the year and have more time to take advantage of the companion pass. Just a thought.
Thank you for the helpful reminders. I do already have the business card, but I won’t be able to cancel/reapply for that for another year because of the 5/24 rule. Unfortunately, if I want to hit 125,000 points for the companion pass I’m going to have to do it this year, even though it means I’ll only get 12 months out of it (I already currently have the companion pass due to Covid extensions). I only barely made it last time, and that was with opening both the personal the business card.