Question
My AA Citi Amex is nearly ready to hit its annual fee for year two. I want to cancel right before it hits, but I have to wait until the absolute last second since they owe me bonus miles for something else which are set to get added the day the annual fee posts (I think).
My question is: in your experience, can you ever get the annual fee reversed AFTER it has posted? i.e. if I end up waiting too long to cancel and it posts, am I out of luck? I heard stories a while back of people getting their MC annual fees revered and I was wondering if anyone had had such such with the Citi Amex.
Thanks!
Answer
I believe that Citibank (which actually issues the AA Amex card) will reverse your fee for up to 30 days after it posts. Why not just call up and ask what the policy is? :)
Or, after, or even before the annual fee posts, call up and ask what they can do for you as you are considering canceling when the fee posts. Usually they have something to offer such as bonus miles or a fee waiver of some sort.
By the way, I wonder if you might not get more response to AA Amex Citi card questions in the AA forum?
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Citi is known to pro-rate the fee.
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I just cancelled my card, and after putting me on hold for a short minute, the CSR came back and just said "your card is cancelled, you'll get a letter confirming it in the mail". She didn't even transfer me to retention or anything!
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Good approach is tell rep you are thinking about canceling, do they have any offers to retain you.
Usually gets an offer. If not, say you'll think it over and call back later.
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ET, I ran into the same thing when I canceled my Citi MC. They'd already given me a few thousand miles when I called to cancel a few months earlier so maybe they had little tolerance when I called back. In any case, the rep said that she couldn't get through to the retention dept. so she went ahead and just canceled it. Next time I'll know to stress ahead of time that I want to talk to someone in retention!
Also, I called Amex to ask whether they would waive my annual fee and the rep was like "only if you're already paying it on another Citi card". Guess I'll try back later!
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Good approach is tell rep you are thinking about canceling, do they have any offers to retain you.
Usually gets an offer. If not, say you'll think it over and call back later.
Another approach I've used is to ask if there are offers to offset the annual fee. They usually have a couple of options to offer.
Today, I called Citibank because my MC annual fee will soon be posted. They offered a 3000 mile bonus or 2 miles per dollar (max 5000miles) for 6 months. I chose the 3000 miles.
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Not an AA story, but recently called on a Chase Marriott card where the fee had already posted--hadn't used the card for months.
I called to cancel the card and the rep told me that the Chase policy was that once the fee has posted you have to pay. Rep then went through some obviously mandated routine about asking me if I had had an earlier opportunity to call and cancel. Apparently, after much discussion, if you say yes, can't get fee waived, if you say no, fee is waived.
Eventually, fee was waived and card canceled.
Interestingly, in checking my records after call, I found I had called and canceled a couple of months ago on this same account. So much for telephonic cancelations. :td:
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Does anyone know if there is a certain amount of time you have to have a Citi card before canceling? i.e. with Chase's United Card, you must hold it six months.
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Just got my Citi AA Amex first year anniversary statement with $50 fee. Called Citi and rep said there was nothing she could do about the fee but I could talk to supervisor.
I told supervisor on my other Amex cards they had given me something to help with the annual fee, even if it had to be paid. She agreed to give me 5K miles if I paid the fee. Since earlier, I had called to cancel the card and was offered 5 miles per dollar on "everyday purchases" at grocery, gas station and drug store (5K max bonus), I decided to keep the card for a bit and gather in the bonus miles. :)
A little more than I like to pay for miles (somewhere South of one cent per mile), but I can always see about canceling later and perhaps get some additional bonus miles. @:-)
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hmm, interesting. I've always had the MC people offer to comp my fee, but the Amex people don't seem to budge much. I have the 5 mile/$ offer too and I can't decide if it's worth it to keep it and pay the $50...
Just got my Citi AA Amex first year anniversary statement with $50 fee. Called Citi and rep said there was nothing she could do about the fee but I could talk to supervisor.
I told supervisor on my other Amex cards they had given me something to help with the annual fee, even if it had to be paid. She agreed to give me 5K miles if I paid the fee. Since earlier, I had called to cancel the card and was offered 5 miles per dollar on "everyday purchases" at grocery, gas station and drug store (5K max bonus), I decided to keep the card for a bit and gather in the bonus miles. :)
A little more than I like to pay for miles (somewhere South of one cent per mile), but I can always see about canceling later and perhaps get some additional bonus miles. @:-)