A lot of credit cards come with annual fees, a lot of these annual fees are waived for the first year. Each credit card issuer is different when it comes to when these fees become payable and what date you need to cancel by to avoid the annual fee for the next year.
Before calling you should do the following:
- Pay off your balance in full (apart from the annual fee)
- Call before the statement closes
- Transfer any points/miles that you need to before closing the account (e.g if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred you’ll want to transfer to one of the travel partners)
Below is a list of rules for each card issuer. You should always call the retention line to see if they will offer you a bonus or waive the annual fee before cancelling (even if you don’t actually plan on cancelling the card). I’d strongly recommend reading this post which relates to retention bonuses first.
Contents
Alliant
According to our contact at Alliant they do not do prorated annual fee refunds at all.
American Express
American Express will refund the annual fee completely if you cancel the card within 30 days after the statement in which the annual fee hits. As of September 2016 if you cancel your card outside this 30 day window they will no longer do a prorated annual fee refund. Cards that are product changed will still receive a prorated annual fee refund even when they are changed outside the 30 day window.
Keep in mind that you’ll need to have at least one card open that earns Membership Rewards points open, otherwise you will lose any Membership Rewards points you have when you cancel. The AmEx EveryDay card has no annual fee, so you might want to consider downgrading to this card.
Bank of America
It seems to vary based on your banking history with Bank of America. If you made all your payments on time then generally they will refund the annual fee if you cancel within one statement period.
Barclaycard
They will refund your annual fee as long as your card is cancelled within 60 days of it posting to your account.
Capital One
In most cases Capital One will offer to waive the fee on their credit cards as long as your payment history is intact. If your annual fee does post it looks like you have 30 days/one statement cycle to cancel and get the AF refunded: 1, 2. Another report on a business card indicates you have 40 days: 1, 2
A data point suggests (1, 2) that product changing within 30 days to a no-fee card will not get you any refund at all on your annual fee. YMMV: 1,
Chase
Chase introduced a new policy of October 2016 regarding annual fee refunds. You now have a period of 30 days after your annual fee is billed to cancel and receive a refund. It didn’t seem to apply to business cards initially, but there is now a data point indicating that it does.
According to a recent comment (6/10) you can get a refund up to 41 days from the statement close that contained the annual fee, and we’ve heard Chase reps saying similar when people call in to cancel (as of 8/29/22).
Citi
Citi has a similar policy to American Express, although it is slightly different. They will refund the annual fee entirely if you cancel your card within 30 days of it posting. After 30 days they will offer a prorated refund based on the month the annual fee posted (e.g if you have the Citi Prestige with a $450 annual fee and it posted in January and you cancelled in March you’d receive a 9 month refund which would be $337.5).
This policy is different for the Citi Executive card, but I am unsure on their exact policy on this card currently. Update: according to one reader you have up to 37 days to receive a refund, although it looks like the AF is no prorated after this time. If you can confirm this, please do so in the comments below. Another confirmation.
Credit One
Credit One has a number of sub prime credit cards with high annual fees. Here is their refund policy:
The Annual Membership Fee is refundable as long as you cancel your Account and have not used your card for any Purchases or Cash Advances and you have not made a payment
Discover
Discover does not charge annual fees on any of its products at the moment.
FNBO
Unknown, share your experiences in the comments.
HSBC
HSBC does not refund annual fees or provide any sort of annual fee refunds. If the annual posts to your account, you’re stuck paying it.
Popular Bank
Popular bank has a policy that if you have a charge on your account when you cancel it you’re responsible for paying it. This means if your annual fee posts to your account before you close it you have to pay the annual fee.
U.S. Bank
They will refund your annual fee in full as long as you cancel within 30 days of the annual fee posting to your account.
Wells Fargo
Up until recently Wells Fargo credit cards have not had an annual fee so we are unsure what their fee waiver policies will be.
We now have one report that they’ll refund an annual fee if the card is cancelled within 90-days of when the fee posts to the account.
Final Thoughts
This article could use a lot of improvement and the easiest way it can be improved is by you sharing your data points in the comments. If you have cancelled a credit card after the annual fee has posted, let us know if you were given a refund and how long you waited between cancelling and the annual fee posting. Hopefully, we can make this a great collaborative reference article together.
DP for FNBO: I tried to close my Best Western card 30 days after the AF (exactly). They told me they could if I had not had any transactions after the fee. But unfortunately, I made more purchases after the fee was billed so they can’t refund the fee if I close the card. 🙁
I just closed my AMEX Gold card after the annual fee hit my account. They did not have any retention offers for me. Happy to pay off my balance but if I do, and with an annual fee refund, I’ll have a negative balance. What should I do? Should I pay off and let them send me a check? How do I track it? Anyone who experienced this, please advise.
The card will stay in your online account until you remove it, the balance is subject to the same terms as when you made the purchases so no rush to pay it off – you can pay whenever you would have if you hadn’t closed the card.
If you do end up with a credit balance you can have Amex send you a check or transfer it to another card.
I always let the annual fee post on amex before I close but it seems like its good practice on all cards (from the banks i use except penfed). If theres some question you can always confirm before it posts.
If I downgrade my CSR to a CSP in the first 30 days of getting my annual fee charged (charged 5/1, downgrade 5/30), will I get the full 550 back? And then charged the 95 of course. Does it keep the same card number?
Statement that contains the $550 charge closes 5/21.
PYB for the full $550
Already used $300 credit for this upcoming year.
Yep, you should get it all back (even past 30 days; up to 41 days after statement close which can be more like 50+ days, depending on statement cycle). I was called in the other day and the knowledgable rep confirmed that PC and closing out card both work with the same rules. I was discussing PCing to a no fee card, but it should work the same to a fee card.
Thanks @Chuck, that helps.
I saw that
Chuck answered part of your question (and I agree with what he wrote).
For your other question, when I downgraded a CSR and CSP to a CF or CFF the card # did change.
However, changing it from a CSR to a CSP (which I have never done) may keep the same # since they are both Sapphires. Hopefully someone else will chime in to answer your question definitively.
Is there a reason why you are concerned about the card # possibly changing?
Nothing recent re Wells Fargo annual fee refund rules or datapoints?
.
I’m considering downgrading Citi AA Plat Select to avoid the annual fee, but I’ve got an AA trip coming up (a week after the renewal date) and want to use the free bag perk. Anyone know if I can take the trip, use the bag perk, then downgrade before the 30 day deadline to get full fee refund? Thanks.
Chase DP – closed Sw personal card 32 days after AF was billed (and a week after it was paid) with no issues. Credit will be issued to my account and I can either wait for a check or call in once it posts and have it transferred to my checking account. Took less than 10 minutes total including phone tree & hold time.
Agent also proactively brought up reallocating credit limit to another card.
penfed will not refund annual fee after it was posted. Close account before anniversary statement
US Bank datapoint-per rep I spoke with today, they will only refund the annual fee if the account is cancelled, NOT for product changes to a non-AF card.
It’s consistent with what is currently written above, but figured I would state it outright in case there was ambiguity for anyone else. 🙂
I spoke to someone and she offered to downgrade to waive the fee however I still chose to close the card. How long did it take for you to get refunded? Mine is cancelled for 3 days now but I’m still seeing the annual fee on my account
In contrast to my first DP, second rep I spoke with offered to waive the fee for a downgrade, and I took it. AF credit was posted within 24 hours. They then screwed up and double-credited me.
They seem to make a lot of decisions manually/on a whim.