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.

Really good warning for others, wob!

It always pays to read the lines, just like you I got charged for something I didn't get last month. Good freebies just for trying it.

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Originally Posted by macw1960

It always pays to read the lines, just like you I got charged for something I didn't get last month. Good freebies just for trying it.

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It is funny macw1960, I was well aware the renewal of the annual fee WOULD be coming soon, but it just blew me away that they tried to sneak it on the bill earlier than the one year anniversary of the card! As I mentioned the only reason I tried the card in the first place was they had waived the fee for the first year......well....almost a full year :icon_scratch:
:lolsign:

Thanks for your post. I have a similar TD Aeroplan Visa that came with bonus air miles. I will be closing it before the one year renewal as TD Canada Trust waived the first years' fee as well.

yep, I signed up for AMEX Platinum with bonus airmiles, so I marked my calendar to cancel it way before the date... do not want to see $150 fee charge...

walkonby, you must try one of the Avion boutique experiences at the malls.
http://www.yorkdale.com/guest-services/rbc-avion/
http://www.shopsquareone.com/promotions

I did that with airmiles cards..and they waive the card if you close it. Furthermore by closing it you can get another offer later. I would be willing to pay to the fee though if the card comes with good travel insurance that includes luggage insurance and trip delay insurance. Read the fine print of course and weight your need for the insurances the card comes with.

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Originally Posted by LIVE SIMPLE

yep, I signed up for AMEX Platinum with bonus airmiles, so I marked my calendar to cancel it way before the date... do not want to see $150 fee charge...

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I did the same thing. Do you think they will change us cause we cancel our card before the annuel fee ? Can they remove the 1000 Air Miles bonus that We get ?

***charge us**

Sorry


Fu**** autocorrect

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Originally Posted by Sharze514

I did the same thing. Do you think they will change us cause we cancel our card before the annuel fee ? Can they remove the 1000 Air Miles bonus that We get ?

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No they can't remove the 1,000 AM bonus , it was a part of the deal ..First year Free + 1,000 AM bonus.

The fee is from second year onwards , they expect you to forget to cancel it & that's where they get you..and get charged for the annual fee.

Plus they have already made lot of money from retailers when you swipe your Amex card , its as high as 3 % commission the retailer has to Amex when you use your card with them , so lot of retailers don't accept Amex.

Plus in case you didn't always pay your bill in full, they have made interest charges from you too.

You can close the card after you get the fee too and they erase it. You just have to call once you see the bill.

Thank for the tips !!

I will cancel my Amex soon.

I only used this card for Costco and they don't accept this card anymore.

You make me safe 150 $

Other than the credit checks and the potential risks of having too much available credit, it is generally quite worth it to partake of the bonus offers these types of cards offer, particularly when you get the first year fee waived. I always read the fine print (many require holding onto the card for x # of months or spending X$ before the bonuses take effect).

Good on you OP to take advantage of this!

This sounds good to try, but the only thing I am concerned about is the fact that if I open a new CC, than a "hard check" is done and this will hurt my credit score for some time.

thanks for this post walkonby. last year i saw one or two similar offers but decided not to try anything. :biggrin:

no fee credit card with higher reward % AND bonus money or airmiles....... seems like heaven to me! ;)

Odd that retention would have forced you to cancel the card if they were going to waive the fee anyways. Wouldn't they have been better off just waiving the first year annual fee and letting you take the initiative to cancel to avoid a fee in the second year? What are the other rewards cards you carry in your wallet?