I have an American Airlines CitiBank Card and with my annual fee coming up in September I called Citibank and spoke with a retention specialist telling them that with the merger with US Airways and American I was not sure how their credit card benefits would work etc. I said I was thinking about cancelling their card due to the unknowns about the merger. The agent gave me a $95 statement credit that would apply to the annual fee. In addition if I spend x amount of dollars I can get bonus miles.

I then called Chase for the explorer credit card and said I was debating my annual fee and it took time on one trip for the agent to see that I had the card on file and they were having issues with waiving my first bag fee. While the agent could not waive the fee i asked for 2 United Club Passes which I of course took and will use.

It pays to negotiate your annual fees. Banks want to do everything to keep you as their customer. What you do is call and pretend to want to close the card and tell the agent you want to stay with their institution and want to transfer to another card. Ask to speak with a retention specialist and tell them honestly your thoughts.

Worse can happen is they say no and you close the account. If you have any stories about how you waived your fees please let me know.