Sometimes credit card issuers will offer cardholders retention offers in order to keep them using their cards. Generally, banks make these offers to cardholders who’ve used their card regularly throughout the prior year and who have responsibly kept up with the payments. They also seem to be more common for cards that charge annual fees, though that could just be because people paying annual fees are more likely to seek out retention offers.
If you’re looking to close or downgrade a card to avoid an annual fee, it’s worth reaching out to the issuer first to see whether they’ll offer your anything for remaining a cardholder for another year (and paying that annual fee, of course). These offers generally take the form of “We’ll give you X points for spending X dollars in the next three months” or could be “We’ll waive the annual fee if you spend X dollars in the next three months.”
It doesn’t hurt to ask. If there’s not a retention offer available, you can always go back to the downgrade your card option or just close it altogether.