Does anyone have their Prestige Card annual fee charged one month before renewal?
For the last 2 years, my Prestige annual fee was charged on March 14th. This year 2016, the annual fee was brought forward to Feb 14th.
When I queried the abnormality, the reply was "Please notethat our annual feesare chargedin advance, which gives you a full 12 months to enjoy thebenefits ofyour credit card. "
And after I queried further, the reply was quite interesting "We havechecked your account and records indicate that you Citi Prestige Visa cardwas activated on 04 February 2015 and the first transactionwas made on16 February 2015. Youraccount statement is generated on the 15th of every month, since no transactionwas made from 04 February 2015 to 15 February 2015, there was nostatement generated to include the annual fee on your account.
The firststatement was then generated on 13 March 2015 (15 March 2015 was a nonbanking day), which includes the transactions you have made from 16February 2015 up to 13 March 2015."
I am not sure why they need to make up lies like that. The annual fee was charge on Mar 14th in 2014 and 2015, so the card was not applied in 2015.
Can anyone think of any reason why they are doing this?
I can't help thinking: if everyone's annual fee suddenly became due a month prior, instead of collecting say, $12 million dollars in annual fee per year for Citibank, that would become $13 million dollars for Citibank? Is this a way of making up their points redemption debacle last year?
Please tell me if I am the only one being charged a month earlier.