Leigh Himel has a good post about how the opt-out campaign approach should never be used.  We’ve both been the victims of CIBC’s wonderful new Infinite Visa upgrade program.  Without talking to me CIBC has decided to upgrade me to this new VISA program while I was in Portugal at Alex & Iuliana’s wedding.   This is a perfect example of an opt-out campaign, I apparently had a limited time period to opt-out of the upgrade program.

To make matters worst I’ve never received my Infinite Visa so someone could be running around with it right now. When I login to my old CIBC VISA program I can no longer get balance updates and I only have until Aug 14 to use my new Visa.  All of my direct withdrawal agreements also need to be mover over to my new Visa ( which I don’t have ).  CIBC has even provided a lovely 1-800 with hold music to help transfer these direct withdrawals.  My first and only call to the number included 10 mins of horrible music while I wait for a CSR to respond and tell me I need to call the vendor and make the change with them instead.

I’ve been using this card for about 10 years now and I’ve even memorized the number.  What ever benefits this new CIBC Infinite card provides pale in comparison to the inconvenience of getting this new card.  And by cancelling my old card on a fairly aggressive schedule they are ensuring that I need to find a replace from here, here, here, or here.  I don’t really understand how CIBC could roll out this type of campaign and expect it to be acceptable to anyone who actually uses the their cards.