my 1 year RBC Visa infinite avion card experiment
I accepted one of those pre approved offers of a card last year only because RBC waived the nasty annual fee and tossed in 15,000 aeroplan miles to start me off. Always paid each monthly balance in full, so no interest charges. I do however have other reward cards that I use and love so I could only manage to add just under 7,000 additional miles to my balance from purchases made in the year.
Well, it was a good thing I was going through the line by line charges today because I see that on December first they charged me a whopping $120.00 annual fee renewal PLUS another $50.00 because my DH had an additional card on my acct. Wow! I was certain the card did not even come to me till Jan/Feb, but whatever??
One phone call was all it took for them to reverse those fees, BUT the card had to be cancelled they said. I thought they might barter or renegotiate with me and offer me another year to use this card....but oh well.
The great news is they allow you to use the miles to actually make a payment on your statement! I am not sure many cards offer that? So I used 17,000 miles to slap $100.00 off the bill and used the remaining miles towards Target GC's.
I feel this one year experiment worked well for me, BUT it is very important to pay attention to the details and really watch your monthly statements.