Card closure - annual fee or fee waiver?

[Infrequent]

Family members with DJ Amex (Plat) cards have asked me how long they can keep their cards before getting hit with the next annual fee - or if they can try for fee rebate?

I would normally take the "cancel before the anniversary of card approval" approach, but this is probably too conservative!

Any experience on getting fees waived these days (I understand that old-style points incentives are banned these days)?

Thanks!

 

[opusman]

The fee will post to the statement that closes off the day before their anniversary date. E.g. if they opened the card 1st June '18, the fee would post to the statement that closes 31st May '19.

In the past I've had the fee withdrawn after it had posted if I hadn't used the card in the following statement period.

 

[Infrequent]

Thanks for that ... they certainly don't make it easy! (On the site you can eventually find reference to the fee being charged "in the month of", and to actually cancel online rather than over the phone ... good luck finding the option they don't want you to select!)

 

[SeaWolf]

you can eventually find reference to the fee being charged "in the month of"

Where are you finding that? I can't seem to see it anywhere.

 

[theblank]

Any experience on getting fees waived these days (I understand that old-style points incentives are banned these days)?

all incentives to not close a credit card are banned. If you open with "I want to cancel" they must cancel.

So dont say "I want to cancel" and try your luck.

 

[pangwen]

all incentives to not close a credit card are banned. If you open with "I want to cancel" they must cancel.

So dont say "I want to cancel" and try your luck.

I had a strange one when I tried this with my Explorer. I said everything except the word "cancel" (e.g. "it's coming up to renewal time, I'm not sure I see the value, is there anything you can do to help etc. etc.), but they wouldn't budge. So, I just thought "why not, I'll just go ahead and cancel anyway, I'll clean up my credit limit a bit". Went through with the cancellation, the agent (seemed to have) processed it pretty quickly. Then she turns around and says "I can see you've been a long term customer. If you sign up again (to the same card) immediately, we can offer you bonus points" (ended up being about 70k points I think?). I agreed (naturally, since that was what I was angling for originally). I received a cancellation confirmation letter in the mail, which the agent told me to ignore. I didn't get another hit on the credit file though, which was good.

 

[Infrequent]

Where are you finding that? I can't seem to see it anywhere.

In the FAQs section of the general website, under Fees & Charges, the question "When do I pay my card's annual fee?"
with the answer "Your annual Card fee will be charged in the month when you first activate your Account. This will then be charged in the month of your Card Membership anniversary for each year of Card Membership following. "

 

[jasonfungsing]

I had a strange one when I tried this with my Explorer. I said everything except the word "cancel" (e.g. "it's coming up to renewal time, I'm not sure I see the value, is there anything you can do to help etc. etc.), but they wouldn't budge. So, I just thought "why not, I'll just go ahead and cancel anyway, I'll clean up my credit limit a bit". Went through with the cancellation, the agent (seemed to have) processed it pretty quickly. Then she turns around and says "I can see you've been a long term customer. If you sign up again (to the same card) immediately, we can offer you bonus points" (ended up being about 70k points I think?). I agreed (naturally, since that was what I was angling for originally). I received a cancellation confirmation letter in the mail, which the agent told me to ignore. I didn't get another hit on the credit file though, which was good.

Exactly the same happened to me yesterday. I called up to cancel Explorer card, which I don't really need. Agent cancelled my card, then told me I can get 70k bonus MR points if I reinstate it. I took the offer, points in my account today.