Somewhere between six and twelve months ago I accepted an offer for one of Wamu’s pre-approved credit card offers. They had sent me several offers in the mail, and eventually they caught my eye. It opened with a 0% interest rate for the first 12 months on balance transfers, which I quickly planned to use to get some money off one of my higher interest cards. That wasn’t the biggest benefit I saw, though. I noticed Washington Mutual also offered another great feature: my monthly credit score. I already had Truecredit monitoring by TransUnion for $14 per month (which is fantastic, by the way), but I decided I could downgrade to getting my score once per month, and subsequently saving over $150 per year.
So, I called them up, ordered my card, and transferred about $2000 onto that card. When the card arrived days later, I had it cut up since I wouldn’t be using it until the 0% interest rate expired on my balance transfer. A few months went by, I kept up on my payments, and things were nice.
But then Wamu started sending me some things. First I got a pack of 4 credit card checks in the mail at least once or twice every month. They were trying to get me to do another balance transfer. The rate was nice, but I didn’t want to pay the 3% balance transfer fee at the moment. So I kept mercilessly cutting them up and throwing them away. I am, however, the type who would never throw anything away without at least opening it: you never know what sort of good things you could get in the mail.
Eventually I did get something interesting. A letter saying that my account has been upgraded to the Wamu Platinum Protect, whatever that meant, and they would be sending me a new card in the mail soon. Apparently this card is designed to ‘protect’ their relationship with you and get you to use their card more. I hadn’t used it since the first balance transfer, and Wamu must miss me. Two weeks later I get a very shiny silver Platinum Protect card. The only difference I see, though, is that now I get some sort of additional luggage protection or something, and I don’t travel much. The letter did, however, say I get 0% interest for 90 days on purchases over $100 made for the next month.
So, I decided to do even more with my renascent wamu card. I called them to get a lower interest rate on all my purchases! The already want my business more, so why not help them get it. The current 16.9% APY was well above my other cards. So calling their 800 number I quickly got a person. I said “you recently upgraded my card, but the interest rate on this is higher than any of my other cards. I was wondering if you could offer me anything better?”. The person on the other end did the expect – he said they check this automatically. I, of course, asked calmly “Well, can you check now?” That was the answer, and within moments he offered 3% less. Of course, I knew already they wanted my business. My next words were “Well, my other cards are around 6 and 7%, can you do any better?” The next offer of 10.9% I accepted. Still higher than my other cards, but it makes this one a little more valuable to me.
In the end, Wamu seems to be a great credit card company to deal with. They upgraded my card with a few new benefits, and they actively try to keep your business with them – even offering me a 6% reduction in my interest rate after I asked nicely three times to their phone representative. Try it for yourself, and enjoy your Wamu card even more.
