cheaptom

I tend to agree that the majority will keep it. Us Flyertalkers are more aware than the general credit card-using public, who just go about their normal patterns without looking for the next great thing, or even knowing that a greater thing even exists. (I still shake my head when I see people pay cash)

Personally, I was recently at 4/24 and got my first CSR (so now at 5/24 again). Had every intention of waiting 18 months again to be at 4/24, and then trying for the United Mileage Plus Card. But then got a Citi churn availability and also a Barclay Aviator offer.

So my options were to wait 18 months to get 50K United miles, or wait Zero months to get 110K American miles. A "great thing" came along. Granted, AA miles aren't what they used to be, but why sacrifice 110,000 miles in order to wait 18 months?

Happy

You sure it is not a typo of 10/01/2017?
Mine said 09/01/2017. Pretty sure it should be 09/01/2017 for all cards opened in Aug 2016.

Critterlynn

I opened my card at the end of last August. My first annual fee posted on September 1st Las year. My August statement just closed on the 6th and there was nothing mentioned about an upcoming annual fee. Was it listed on the statement, or was it in your messages?

Edit: I just looked back and noticed it was on my July statement. It should be billed September 1st

krazykanuck

Maybe there is a lag in how long it takes, if you opened it at the end of August, perhaps Chase moves the fee to the next month, so Oct 1, in your instance?

Who knows. I know mine is coming on 9/1 since my August statement alerted me to it.

baroqen

While I agree that they might not do retention on the card, I believe that this card was such a runaway commercial hit that they will have a lot more revolving balances than normal for this type of card.

The ridiculous amount of media attention and subsequent droves of "regular" customers... you know... the other 99.9% of the population that isn't actually represented on boards like these, will likely drive the product to resemble a regular consumer card vs what is more typical for this type of specialized products aimed at the travel savvy. We tend to forget that most of the world simply does not know or often do not care about this hobby.

I'm personally only a casual hobbyist in the points game. While I know what I'm doing, Chase is certainly still making money off me. They get several tens of thousands of spend every year at 1x points, because I don't mind using it as my primary card. While I have other cards, I really only carry two. I live out of the States and so one deciding factor is the FTF and many vendors aren't correctly categorized in the first place. So I don't feel like I'm losing out (although I do know that if the vendor is properly categorized, I might not be maximizing my points), Chase doesn't lose out, and everyone is happy.

Troopers

How about a poll? 1. Cancel/close 2. Renew 3. Downgrade/product change

mia

We drafted one a few weeks back, but the poll feature doesn't allow any changes after it is created. We want to let the discussion run a bit before we activate it, in case we discover additional choices that we might wish to add.

DCJoe1

Definitely 10/1/2017. Copy and pasted from the pdf statement.

ava3888

Hi, has anyone called them yet , to cancel the card? Have they attempted any retention tactics?

Happy

No.

Even if your card is opened on Aug 31st, the next anniversary AF would be billed on Sept 1st. I learned this Long Long Time ago with an IHG card opened on Oct 29th. The 2nd year AF billed on Nov 1st regardless. Essentially you lose almost one month on the 2nd year's period.

Since than I always ooen a Chase card the first week of a month except in the madness of CSR and the interference of our travel plan last year (we left home for a month long trip in the morning of Aug 30th - the FedEx packages deposited at our door the same afternoon! My neighbor put the packages inside the waterheater closet for "safekeeping" LOL. I had to SM Chase to put a suspension on the accounts until our return in end of Sept.)

Otherwise I would only open a new Chase card within the first 5 days of a month. This would give you an extra 3 weeks to decide what you want to do before the 2nd year AF being billed.

As another anecdote - years ago when Chase issued Continential card without waiver for the first year fee - I actually had the AF billed on the 1st of the month - the very same date the card was approved, WITHOUT the card even show up online - it was until the card showed up online that I saw the AF was already billed. Of course I did not the card in hand until a week or more after that.

I am really surprised to see one poster whose card was opened right after the offer went live, said his PDF statement showed 10/01/2017 being the next AF billed date while everyone else saw 09/01/2017.

Happy

Interesting mine and several others who open their cards before End of August, saw it was 09/01/2017 on the July statement.

Happy

1) you are more an exception than norm versus most cardholders who live in US and have multiple cards to put their spend on. Even for those who live outside US, there are cash rebate cards that DONT carry forex fee. The CapitalOne QuickSilver and the newly introduced Premium Reward card are TRUE 0% forex fee because CapitalOne does not pass along the Visa 1% network fee while Chase does. The QS pays 1.5% on everything, and is a Visa Signature. The Premium Reward is a World Elite Mastercard - MC always has more competitive exchange rate than Visa to begin with - and this card pays 3% on dining, 2% on grocery, 1% on everything else.
The bottom line is, the CSR is NOT without competitors, and far from a sure bet for everyone who travels / stays aboard for extended time.

2) general public does not apply a $450 AF card even after being told net net they actually come out ahead. On top of that, 99% of the reward card holders do NOT carry revolving balances. The crowd who gravitate to the reward cards is much smarter than that, i.e. to carry a revolving balance, even though plenty of them dont churn cards at all. They are no fools. They do not carry revolving balance and pay interest at the extortion rates of 19.99 to 24.99% range. Quite the contrary. some would take a balance transfer at 1% 18 months type of offers common on many cards when you have good credit rating. Banks dont make a dime on those.

drminn

I am curious where the 99% data point comes from? Is that from one of Chase's public reports or is it just a very strong conviction of yours?

Critterlynn

Seems like a pretty logical assumption. Have you ever mentioned to someone that you pay $450 for an annual fee? If so, what was their response?

moe8555

There is a lot of truth to this. I tried convincing a number of people who do not carry balances and spend a great deal on dining and travel to get this card. As soon as they heard about the $450 AF -- end of conversation. It didn't matter that the card offered a $300 cash-equivalent travel credit or free Priority Pass, generous insurances, etc. And these people are making a decent amount of money.