Originally Posted by
sikorloa
When you say it's easy to "really" avoid paying any annual fees with Citi, do you mean it's really easy to get the annual fee waived at the 12 month mark, simply by asking for it to be waived (because you want to cancel b/c of fee, etc)?
Usually not waived, but usually issued as a credit, sometimes after minor hoops like 5 purchases of any amount, sometimes without, but often the credit posts a statement or two after your annual fee, so you have to pay the annual fee first, but you get it all back (as a credit equal to the annual fee) soon thereafter. (And if you don't use the card after the credit is issued for a couple months, they send you a check, so it really can feel like
a refund of the annual fee in that case.)
Here's the thread which documents what people have been getting and how:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/citi-...all-cards.html
(FYI: This works at Citi quite well; at most other banks, it's much more hit and miss.)