Annual fee waivers for second and subsequent years - the new normal?

[smit0847]

I currently have 3 credit cards that I have held for more than a year. For all of these cards I no longer pay any annual fee because it is either fee-free for life, or I have been offered a waiver of the annual fee when threatening to cancel. I would have thought a few years ago fee waivers would be fairly rare but with the huge increase in offers for new customers, such as http://www.australianfrequentflyer....offers/velocity-amex-80-000-points-68761.html it seems like credit card providers are willing to throw a lot more at you to keep you as a customer. Of course there’s much less motivation to keep a card for a second year once the sign-on bonus is no longer applicable and you’re looking at a big second year annual fee (unless you’re pumping serious money through the card and/or there are still ongoing benefits for having the card) but if you’re paying your card off every month and not paying any card fees, the card issuer is not making any money out of you!

I have friends who not only pay big annual fees each year but don’t even pump much money through the card. They’re amazed when I tell them I received a fee waiver simply by asking for it, as they ‘did know that was possible’. I do question if the high annual fee they are paying is more than the value of the nominal points they are earning from keeping and using the card but that’s another story….

Do you pay annual fees in the second and subsequent years or do you only keep cards where the fee is waived or fee-free for life?

 

[FrankC]

Is there a thread that lists card waivers? If not, maybe we can use this one?

Smit, would u mind sharing which card (not fee free for life) that you got the fee waived?

Cheers

 

[scwappy]

I keep my Amex platinum edge and pay a reduced few through a professional organisation . The remaining cards are free or I ask for a waiver and receive it.

I get a fee waiver for velocity visa

 

[anna2103]

a number of us would be coming up for our 1 year ANZ Black renewal ( the one where you got $50,000) points. Any experiences on fee waivers for subsequent years - I like it as it earns more than my Westpac cards

 

[burmans]

I currently have 3 credit cards that I have held for more than a year. For all of these cards I no longer pay any annual fee because it is either fee-free for life, or I have been offered a waiver of the annual fee when threatening to cancel. I would have thought a few years ago fee waivers would be fairly rare but with the huge increase in offers for new customers, such as http://www.australianfrequentflyer....offers/velocity-amex-80-000-points-68761.html it seems like credit card providers are willing to throw a lot more at you to keep you as a customer. Of course there’s much less motivation to keep a card for a second year once the sign-on bonus is no longer applicable and you’re looking at a big second year annual fee (unless you’re pumping serious money through the card and/or there are still ongoing benefits for having the card) but if you’re paying your card off every month and not paying any card fees, the card issuer is not making any money out of you!

I have friends who not only pay big annual fees each year but don’t even pump much money through the card. They’re amazed when I tell them I received a fee waiver simply by asking for it, as they ‘did know that was possible’. I do question if the high annual fee they are paying is more than the value of the nominal points they are earning from keeping and using the card but that’s another story….

Do you pay annual fees in the second and subsequent years or do you only keep cards where the fee is waived or fee-free for life?

I've always had pretty reasonable success on fee waivers (have been getting these on WOW EDR card for years) but would have to say its somewhat variable.

 

[smit0847]

Is there a thread that lists card waivers? If not, maybe we can use this one?

Smit, would u mind sharing which card (not fee free for life) that you got the fee waived?

Cheers

I have the annual fee waived for year 2 onwards for:
- Citibank Virgin Flyer Visa;
- Citibank Virgin High Flyer Visa;
- NAB Velocity Amex/Visa.

Happy/keen for people to post their success stories (should we start a new thread?

 

[NM]

I pay the annual fee on my Amex Platinum credit card. I understand that some people negotiate for fee-free but no longer get the free flight. This year the free flight was worth 3x the annual fee I paid, so I am happy to pay the fee for the time being.

 

[Buzzard]

Amex reduced a fee one year to $49 but would not do so the following year so I cancelled. They did offer me a fee free card but wanted me to apply for it even though I was a customer for many years.

Qantas Credit Union would not waive the fee for year 2 so cancelled it too.

HSBC would not waive the fee but I have kept the card.

 

[DaveB]

No luck with the Platinum Edge this morning which I find difficult to justify keeping as do not use the free flight. Amex rep advised they have not waived fees since 2012. Sent of an email this morning as a final throw of the dice before transferring points and closing account.
Will have to make do with Citi Prestige, Westpac Business Combo, WWEDR & HSBC Platinum Visa.

 

[Colin 2905]

- NAB Velocity Amex/Visa.

With the annual fee due again soon, I called up today to close the Premium / Platinum version, and they offered to waive the fee. Under different circumstances I probably would've accepted, but I needed to reduce my combined credit limit before I applied for something else, so it's now in lots of little pieces.

It'll be interesting to see if I get the same offer when I call to close the Qantas Premium / Platinum version, but that's a while off yet.

 

[DaveB]

After getting no where over the phone, thought it was a total waste of time making the online contact with Amex last Saturday.
Logged on to my account this morning and surprised to see the Edge card annual fee of $149 (reduced by Association membership) had been credited back the same day. No one from Amex has attempted to phone or respond online.

 

[ellen10]

After several years of fee waiver on the Earth black only got the fee halved this time, using it for travel insurance.
We also have ANZ Black and Platinum which is coming up for renewal.
Has anyone been successful in have the second year annual fee waived?

 

[smit0847]

My partner got off the phone with a rather rude NAB Relationship Manager. He was calling up with my partner to get his annual fee waived (I did mine a few months ago and it was very straight forward). He jumped through the usual hoops of saying ‘been thinking of cancelling it’, ‘not a competitive product’, ‘many other cards out there with no annual fee’ etc.
Some of the RMs responses:
‘So you want the features but you don’t want to pay for them?’
‘Perhaps a card with less features and fees would be more appropriate for you?’
‘Fine, I’ll do it for you this one time but you need to accept there are fees associated with this card so we will not be doing this for you ever again’

No thing about 'we value your business', 'we don't want to lose you' etc.
A real charmer!

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

After using my ANZ Black for lounge access in a few days will be cancelling it. Lost interest in QF points. Reward J flights to Asia are like winning the lottery.

My NAB Virgin Premium card is around annual fee time. For the $150 fee I see that as a decent trade off for not having to buy insurance when using miles for a trip. I do like the card as the conversion to SQ points is still a bit better than the CB signature. Should I try me luck to get a fee free for the next year

Fee free for life signature card wont be handed back unless they do a points enhancement.

Amex Edge has my family with sup cards earning lots of points, and the free flight leaves me in credit each year so am happy with the cost benefits of that one.

Credit score a bit on the low side so going to wait for a couple of cards to disappear from my history this year before applying for any more bonus points.

www.creditsavvy.com.au lets you see your credit score and history for free for anyone interested. beats paying veda for the privilege.

 

[kash_0]

Suncorp Platinum Visa which earns 1:1 Qantas points - this is free for life and is one of the few that earns 1:1 Qantas, great value if you can nail no annual fee (think its 179 plus 49 for Qantas enrolment)

Citibank platinum which is free for life (hardly ever use this though)
Amex edge with free flight - happy to pay for this since the flights always offsets the fee
Did have the CBA platinum which had the worst benefits (a few fee waivers before cancelling)

 

[Isochronous]

Suncorp Platinum Visa which earns 1:1 Qantas points - this is free for life and is one of the few that earns 1:1 Qantas, great value if you can nail no annual fee (think its 179 plus 49 for Qantas enrolment)

Citibank platinum which is free for life (hardly ever use this though)
Amex edge with free flight - happy to pay for this since the flights always offsets the fee
Did have the CBA platinum which had the worst benefits (a few fee waivers before cancelling)

From memory Suncorp credit cards are issued by Citi - so I gather they don't pay on ATO spend either?

 

[pauly7]

Amex Plat Edge - I get a reduced fee and although the free flight was downgraded to VA from QF I still get the value back plus the points earn is great.

Jetstar Plat - when it stopped earning ATO points it was on my watch list to burn, always had got fee waived in the past. Renewal came up they offered to half it but card to me is useless with no ATO so that got chopped up.

Citibank Signature - fee free for life (just pay the Qantas fee)

WWEDR plat - have never paid an annual fee and just secured another waiver for another year!

Amex gold - fee free for life 1:1 QF - good back up card. Earns triple points on QF too which is nice.

I think I do pretty well!

Haven't tried asking for a fee reduction in plat edge though....

 

[xieyuanwei]

My experiences as follow:

ANZ QFF Black - sign up last year (no annual fee for 1st year), trying to ask for waive annual fee for 2nd year for a couple of times, but ANZ will never do that because its already first year annual fee free.

ANZ Platinum - sign up last year (1st year annual fee free & 0% BT for 16 mths, no BT fees), ANZ also won't waive my annual fee for 2nd year, but offer me another 0% BT for 12 months without BT fees (current offer they charge 2% BT fees).

Amex Platinum Edge - with CA, been rejected for fee waive for the 2nd year.

HSBC - ask for cancel the card, they will waive annual fee every year.

WWS platinum - previous card issued by HSBC (now issued by Macquarie bank), they will wavie annual fee every year.

 

[Bunty]

Citi Signature - free for life. Rarely used. Priority Lounge passes every year, plus some additional benefits during the year.
HSBC Platinum - free for life. Rarely used. Can be useful overseas to get preferential access/pricing.
Coles Platinum - free for life. Rarely used.
NAB Platinum - free for life. Rarely used.
David Jones Amex - $99p.a.+ $25p.a. for Supplementary. Good points haul from Supermarkets & Fuel and can transfer to multiple airlines/hotel programs. In the early years, they were prepared to waive the annual fee, but last couple of years have rejected my request.
David Jones Store Card - free for life. Never use.
CBA Diamond Mastercard/Amex - free as part of Home Loan Package. Points are OK for Mastercard (1.25 per $) and Amex (3 per $). ATO spend earns full points.
Amex Platinum Reserve - most restaurant spend goes on this (3 points per $) and travel. Free annual flight/hotel and travel insurance is respectable. $395 annual fee is therefore marginal, but have had varying success in having this waived over the last 10 years. This year they gifted me 40,000 points to retain my business. Amex membership is now over 20 years, so this may have some impact on their willingness to occasionally waive fees.

 

[FrankC]

Citi Signature - free for life. Rarely used. Priority Lounge passes every year, plus some additional benefits during the year.
HSBC Platinum - free for life. Rarely used. Can be useful overseas to get preferential access/pricing.
Coles Platinum - free for life. Rarely used.
NAB Platinum - free for life. Rarely used.
David Jones Amex - $99p.a.+ $25p.a. for Supplementary. Good points haul from Supermarkets & Fuel and can transfer to multiple airlines/hotel programs. In the early years, they were prepared to waive the annual fee, but last couple of years have rejected my request.
David Jones Store Card - free for life. Never use.
CBA Diamond Mastercard/Amex - free as part of Home Loan Package. Points are OK for Mastercard (1.25 per $) and Amex (3 per $). ATO spend earns full points.
Amex Platinum Reserve - most restaurant spend goes on this (3 points per $) and travel. Free annual flight/hotel and travel insurance is respectable. $395 annual fee is therefore marginal, but have had varying success in having this waived over the last 10 years. This year they gifted me 40,000 points to retain my business. Amex membership is now over 20 years, so this may have some impact on their willingness to occasionally waive fees.

Mind if I ask which NAB Platinum is it?
If it is the Qantas rewards, interested to know how do you managed to get that free for life?