DebitNM

We have 2 cards that are up for annual fees and I am not sure I want to renew.

First is a Citibank AA card. We have around 30K AA miles. If I don't renew the card, will we lose the miles? Immediately or will they expire according to AA's rules regarding non activity.?

Second in AMEX Platinum with Delta Miles. We have about 65K miles on it. Same thing, what will happen to miles?

I hate to lose the miles, but also hate to pay annual fees on the cards.

We don't even use the Citi card anymore, and have cut back using the AMEX. We use our Southwest Chase card almost exclusively as that is our major carrier.

Insights appreciated.

Deb

esm

Deb, I'm not an expert! My understanding is that you have to have some activity in your AA account so your miles won't expire.

One option is to keep the citi card and downgrade it to gold which has no yearly fee but reduces your future earned miles, you get 1 mile per $2 spent.

No idea how AMEX works.

P_M

Deb, you will absolutely NOT lost the AA miles if you cancel your card. I know this because cancelled my AA card a few months ago. Then, just 3 months later they were sending me ads saying if I get another card they will give me 25K more miles.

If the annual fee is the only issue, call and tell them you are cancelling unless they will waive it. I've done that a few times and it worked for me. ;-)

pat

I have tried twice calling citibank AA and telling them I will cancel unless they drop the fee. Both times they said no, but they were willing to give me 3,000 extra miles. I`d like to know how anybody got them to drop the fee as I`d like to try try that too.

AAFrequentFlyer

AA miles are good for 18 months without any activity. If you decide to cancel the CC, all you need to do is eat at some local restaurant after registering with IDine or send flowers or use any one of the merchants that are AAdvantage partners. They are all listed on www.aa.com. Any and all miles activity counts and as soon as you put another 1 mile into the bank, you're good for another 18 months.

Andrew

You won't lose miles if you cancel the credit cards. I've done it several times now. No company has ever offered to waive the annual fee for another year to get me to keep the cards (although I have been offered mileage bonuses), but I imagine they look at my account, see that I always pay my balance in full and never incur interest, and realize they don't make enough money on me to justify waiving the fees.

Another option to keep activity on your FF accounts (thanks to another poster for suggesting this) is to sign up for Points.com which will give you 10 miles to any one FF account as a bonus for signing up. That works for only one FF account, though. I also have registered a credit card and eat once a year at Burger King to get 10 miles to keep some USAir miles I have.

swisshiker

Andrew, what a great tip about points.com!!! I had just been speaking to my daughter about figuring out ways to get some miles into her AA account (she has some expiring in January). With no credit cards, some things are more difficult for her. But this made it easy. 10 points just like that. Good for another 18 months. Thanks!

crzn1

Bookmarking, Thanks for the info

bettyk

I have a Citibank AA Mastercard that I use for everything (gas, groceries, utility bills, etc) to accumulate miles. It costs me $50 per year. I recently got a Citibank AA AMEX card because Citibank agreed to waive the fee as long as I keep my Citibank MC. I also got 5,000 with my first card purchase plus 20% mileage bonus on the AMEX card for the first 12 months.

If you are like us and use the miles -- I just got 2 FF tickets to Manchester UK -- then the $50 fee is worth it.

chepar

I've been considering dropping my UAL credit card because I don't like paying the annual fee, either.

Thanks for the suggestion about points.com to remind me on how to keep my mileage account active.

I actually do mypoints.com, where I redeem 5,000 points for 2,500 UAL miles. I think UAL also has an 18 month activity rule.

JBX

For the past few years, I've either gotten Citibank to waive the yearly fee or give me an extra 2k in miles (or 3k ... whatever the offer is).

This past April when my card renewal came up, I called Customer Service and explained that I no longer wished to keep this credit card (don't use it, got plenty other cards that don't have a fee, yada-yada). You do NOT ask this person for an annual fee waiver or extra miles, etc. The Rep will try to talk you out of cancelling the card. Then they will transfer you on to another person. That 2nd rep is the last chance "customer recovery" person and is when you have the opportunity to get your fee waived or extra miles.

DebitNM

I called today to cancel the Citibank AA card. Got the first person, who switched me to second person. Honestly, they must have asked me half a dozen times why I wanted to cancel. After I told them, they did offer to waive the annual fee.

I told them that aside from the fee, we don't fly AA any more since it is so difficult to get FF flights and that they don't have a lot of flights out of our "home base" airport.

The guy was persistent, stating that we had had the card for 19 years and they valued me.

That was when I said, that when I had a car rental insurance claim 2 years ago that they didn't seem to value me as a client since they gave me such a difficult time with the claim. Even that didn't work!

I must have, nicely, said at least 5 times, "Please, we have already made our decision, we want to cancel the card, just cancel the card".

I finally prevailed.

I switched the Delta AE Skymiles Platinum Card [with $150 fee] to a no annual fee Options Card. Same account number, so need to change any autopays.

I did join points.com for AA just to keep the miles around for 18 months.

Phew, it wasn't easy, but I did save $235.

Deb

bettyk

Deb, it's too bad that you've had problems getting FF tickets from your home base. Don't know where that is, but I've actually been quite lucky with AA on upgrades and FF tickets, especially in coach class. Biz class is harder to get sometimes.

I just got two FF tickets from IAH to MAN for April and there were alot of dates to choose from. I was recently looking at FF tickets to Hawaii and also found lots of availability for coach tickets.

enroute

bookmarking, thanks

jgold

Prior posters are generally correct that you won't lose miles you've earned off a card that have posted to your FF account. However, you should double-check about bonus miles you earned upon signing up. I had a United (or US Air, forget which) card, which gave us 20k or 25 miles for signing up. When I went to cancel it after receiving the bonus miles (which credited to my FF account upon first using the card), the agent said I would LOSE the 20k/25k bonus if I didn't keep the card open six months. So, I waited a few more months, and then cancelled it. Accordingly, you should double-check that there's not a window you need to keep the card open with respect to any sign-up offers.

MareW

jgold is correct. Some companies are now requiring you to keep your account open for six months, or lose the bonus miles you received when you opened the account.

shangrila

Deb
For the AMEX card, call and switch it to the "Options" card. There is no annual fee, however, you only get 1 mile for every $2 you spend. That is what I did and I make a purchase every 6 months to a year on it that way I won't loose the miles.

Jed

< a window you need to keep the card open with respect to any sign-up offers.>

When I get a CC for the FF, I make a note of when it should be cancelled. I usually keep it for a year.

The only one that needs to be kept open indefinitely is one connected with AMEX. Right now I have the gold card, which I use for Costco.

Marsh

Does cancelling a credit card lower a person's credit score? I thought I heard that.

DebitNM

I think I also heard that it can lower your score.

I always make sure that if I close a card, that it is noted that the account was closed at the consumers request.

I actually tell them to be sure to indicate that I requested it to be closed. I believe that lessens the impact of closing an account on your score.

Deb