lynnejoel1015

A couple of quick questions re. AA Citi Advantage card:

1. Could someone explain to me what this means: &quot;<b>Grace period for repayment of balances for purchases -- Not less than 20 days if you pay your total new balance in full each billing period by the due date.</b>&quot;

I'm interpreting it to mean that if you don't carry a balance, and pay off your charges each month, you have at least twenty days after receiving statement before accruing that nasty interest @ 26.05%.

2. The terms say <b>minimum finance charge $1.50.</b> So no matter how much/ how little you charge, if there's activity each month- even if you don't carry a balance &amp; thus accrue interest- you'll have to pay $1.50 in finance charges?

3. Annual fee is <u>none</u>? I keep getting the AA Citi card offers for business owners and there is an annual fee, but to be clear, for <i>non-business owners</i> there is no fee?

Thanks for your help. This will be my first card of this kind. Finally paid off school debt &amp; other cc's, so I'm quite proud to be entering the club of those who earn miles for purchases.

rkkwan

1. That's generally what it means.

2. That only applies IF you carry a balance. Say you charge a bubble gum, but then you don't pay it off. You'll be charged the mininum.

3. Many mileage cards have no annual fees for first year, but there's usually one after that. Read carefully.

fmpden

1. Not quite -- it means that you have twenty days to pay from the monthly date that your account closes for that month. That means you will receive the bill three to five days after it closed for the month -- down to 15 days. Now it takes your check unless you pay on line another 3 to 5 to reach them so you grace period may be as short as 10 days.

2. No finance charge IF you fully each month on time. Any balance carried forward is charge. One month I paid .27 instead of .72. Was hit with min finance charge for a balance of 45 cents.

3. My guess is that there is a fee for everyone. Generally the airline credits cards are not a good deal unless you charge a lot -- like $50,000 a year. Look at the Capital One card.

Patty

3. Only the &quot;Bronze&quot; AAdvantage Mastercard (or something similar to that name) which earns 1/2 mile per $1 has no annual fee. All of the 1 mile per $1 cards have an annual fee but usually the first year is waived.

HKP

Be aware that if you don't pay the full amount to a zero balance EVERY SINGLE MONTH, they can and do average your balance and you end up paying finance charges for an extra month beyond the month in which you pay everything off.

lynnejoel1015

Thank you for your help.

I do plan to use the card for all purchases that will be reimbursed by work and personal purchases that I can pay off immediately, but sometimes those work expenses take more than a month to be processed and paid to me.... hmmm.

But I have nowhere near $50K in purchases!!

fmpden

Here is how your evaluate it --- A Europe ticket is generally 50,000 points or about $50,000. How long will it take for you to accure 50,000 point?? One, two, three years?? If you are paying $50 to $75 a year for that card and it takes three years you will have spent from $150 to $225 for that free ticket worth maybe $1000. Still an $800 saving but the long you take to acquire the poitts, they less valuable they are. However, a 2% cash back card with no fee would net you about $1200 over the same time period and a truely free ticket. In my opinion a mileage card is only useful if you earn about 50,000 points a year and use them for business class -- far higher and pleasant return. Just some thoughts