I just received the bill for the $95 annual fee on my CitiBusiness/AAdvantage Platinum Select World MasterCard. I did not want to pay this fee. After I satisfied the terms of my offer and got my 45,000 American AAdvantage bonus miles, I stopped using the card. I did not want to pay $95 for a card that I no longer use.
I have negotiated the annual fee with Citibank in the past. This past December, I negotiated an offer regarding my Citi/AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard. Citi made me an offer in which I need to use the card for 5 purchases of $20 or more over the next 3 months. I did this and the $95 fee was credited back to my account on the next billing cycle.
I did not get as good of an offer with the CitiBusiness card, but it was a deal I accepted nonetheless. I need to spend $100 on the card in the next month and they will credit back $75 of the $95 annual fee. I reluctantly agreed and will spend the $100. I guess $20 is worth it to me to keep the card. Who knows, maybe there will be some good spending incentives with the card over the next year.
A couple of more things–the deal that I took was one of 2 options. The other option was for me to spend $3,000 on the card in the next 3 months and they would have credited back the entire $95 fee. That extra $20 credit is not worth me forgoing $3,000 worth of charges on another card like my Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard. On that card, I earn 2 miles for every dollar I spend, so spending $3,000 would yield me 6,000 miles. 6,000 miles that I can use for a statement credit on a $60 travel charge (and I get 10% of my miles back!). This $60 credit is 3 times the extra $20 credit Citi was offering me.
Also had Citi not negotiated the fee with me, I likely would have canceled the card. I recently canceled my Chase Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Premier Card and over the last few years have canceled other Chase cards because unlike Citi, Chase will not negotiate with me. Don’t forget, canceling a card has a small impact on your credit score as long as other positive financial factors are in place. You can read about the effect of canceling a card on your credit score here.
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