moondog

Well, I recorded the activation phone call, during which the rep told me "no fee" so I plan on pushing a bit.

Mr. Bean

well, good luck.

the rep never mentioned no-fee for me, so I'm fine with accepting the charge.

musikdude

my card hasn't even arrived yet and i already can see the $75 charge online. $75 for 100,000 miles seems more than fair, IMO, but if some people complain and get the fee waived, then it would be nice for chase to waive it for everyone who signed up. no double standards...

mikeef

I also got the $75 fee. Oh no, scam scam scam!

Mike

hotelmotel

No doubt they are well prepared for a wave of complaint calls over the annual fee.

I called up this morning to let them know that I was notified at activation that my fee was waived for the first year. Without hesitation, the CSR said, "The fee is NOT waived for the first year. I can connect you to a supervisor if you'd like."

Supervisor then would stick by the T&C of the offer, which obviously stated there was a $75 fee, and would insist that is the fee that British Airways requires. Promised me that they would make sure nothing like that happens again

Extremely dishonest practice. If I was never told about a fee waiver, I would have no complaint, as I always expected to pay the $75. But the activation rep - with no prompting from myself - very clearly noted that the fee was waived for the first year. The fact that they weasel out of it now, knowing all the customer has to fall back on was "I was told..." is pretty low. Do we now have to start tape recording all of our phone calls?

Between the horrendous changes to the Freedom card rewards program (I no longer use that card), and this experience, Chase will certainly not be getting any of my credit card business once the 100,000 miles are in my account.

mikeef

I agree with the sentiment that they shouldn't have told you they were going to give you a fee waiver if they didn't plan on doing so. But given the generosity of the promo, you may want to cut them a wee bit of slack.

Mike

WBOTM

Or cancel the card and get a refund on the $75 annual fee.

Happy

Good Luck and do report back.

Ditto here but I am not surprised a bit as same thing happened to a CO card 2 years ago - when the account finally was up online on 3rd of the month, the annual fee was already billed on 1st of the month.

I seriously doubt Chase would budge to give some fee waived some dont. Verbiage means nothing. See below.

I have maintained all along, the fee waive info conveyed by the CSRs all due to the strange way Chase bills the annual fee - it does not bill at the statement closing date or at the card approval date - it bills at the first of the month - so if your card is approved after the 3rd of the month, you will not see the fee until the beginning of next month, nor any such info on your card from the surface. That is why so many got mis-informed by the CSRs who themselves were not educated enough about the card feature, nor dug deep enough to see the Ts & Cs which we ALL are Well-Aware that the annual fee is NOT waived.

In all fairness, there is no reason to complain - mis-information happens frequently between phone reps and customers, in almost ALL types of business - just so the card business seems to be among the most touchy topics to most.

In case anyone still has any doubt about bonuses and fee, below is a response from secured email:

Dear xxxxxx,

I have reviewed the enrollment incentive associated with
the application you submitted and am pleased to confirm
that you are eligible to receive a total of 100,000 bonus
miles. You are scheduled to receive 50,000 bonus miles
after your first purchase and an additional 50,000 bonus
miles if the total purchases you make during the first
three months exceed $2,000.00. Please allow six to eight
weeks after completing qualifying activity for the bonus
miles to be posted to the account.

Unfortunately there is not a valid British Airways
enrollment incentive that includes no annual fee for the
first year. For this reason, I regret to inform you that
I am unable to honor your request for an annual fee
credit. I apologize for the inconvenience that this may
have caused you.

If you have any further questions, please reply using the
Secure Message Center.

Thank you,

[NAME AND PHONE # REMOVED BY MODERATOR]

Account is owned by Chase Bank USA, N.A. and may be
serviced by its affiliates.

Happy

It really is a misinformation given by the phone CSRs who are not well-educated on the Ts & Cs of the card, and not dig enough to the details. All they rely on is the system has not shown any fee billed and no indication of fee will be billed, thus they replied back such.

It really is an honest mistake made by Chase phone CSRs - I know, using honesty here with a bank would get flamed, big time. However, I really dont understand why people knowing fully they sign up a card with annual fee, but when being mis-informed the fee is waived by the phone reps, then they now all claim the bank is out to scam them?! Come on, when you sign up, the fee is stated on the Pricing and Terms. If it is waived, consider it a pleasant surprise. If it turns out an erroneous message, then why get all that upset?!

Exactly - if people are so unhappy with the measly $75 fee for 50K + 50K miles, then they can cancel the card within 30 days of issuance (or may be 60 days?) and get the fee reversed. Just dont expect the miles if granted, would stay in their accounts though.

Blade107

Thanks! Good news on the South American case. Specially about been no fuel surcharge on AA metal! Looking forward to get my miles posted so I can book it. Hopefully if I get the required purchases made by the end of this month I'll have all the 100K miles posted by march..

Steve in Olympia

We all happily signed up for these cards, knowing that there was a $75 annual fee. No one was misled. Any statements (about fee waivers) by a misinformed CSR occurred AFTER we all agreed to the (very generous) terms of the offer.

To now complain that Chase is "dishonest" seems very strange to me.

We should all be writing Chase a thank you note, not calling them names.

If you don't like the terms of the card, send it back (along with the 100k miles).

aaron1262

What if you booked a ticket before that.

josephstern

It is possible, of course, that people applied for the card AFTER reading reports in this thread that annual fees would be waived for the first year.

Yes, this is third party info, and we can't hold Chase accountable for that. But, given the number of reports of the fee waiver by CSRs (I heard it myself, when activating my card) I think it's pretty reliable.

Certainly, the point of this forum is to share accurate information; not to misinform. If we report what we hear, and others act on that info, they certainly have a right to be unhappy, and, of course, they can cancel the card.

Since I did hear the CSR tell me my fee would be waived, I can only expect that to be true, and I will attempt to get my fees reversed.

ma91pmh

Please folks get over it... not everyone was able to qualify for the card. If you don't want to pay the $75, please allow me to do so for you and I will gladly take the 100k miles

Happy

Dont be so gleeful.

It has been done by Chase before, on UA accounts, in case you are too new to the game and not aware of such - Chase deducted the ill-gotten UA miles from people's UA accounts, and at least in one reported case, UA turned around to bill an owner who redeemed the award and thus incurred a big negative balance in his UA account, at the going rate of UA's, as if the owner purchased miles from UA to redeem an award.

Never hear / read any update of said case after the first PANIC post when the poster received bill in the thousands. Wish the person would report back what ultimately happened. Alas, people tend NOT to report the outcome of bad cases that ultimately resolved AGAINST them, but would never hesitate a moment to report cases settled in favor for them. Human Nature...