When Do Issuers Charge Annual Fees? A Guide.

Whether you’re planning for the future or trying to time an application, it can be difficult to figure out when an issuer is going to charge your annual fee. Here’s a handy guide to when the major issuers charge annual fees.

This is still a bit of a work in progress. If you have any additional data, especially where issuers are missing data, or for unlisted issuers, please do comment below! The data needed to draw a conclusion is generally: card approval date; annual fee posting date; first (for Year 1) & thirteenth statement close date (for Year 2 & beyond)—include the year as necessary.

^† Year 1 is the first year you have the card, i.e. from card approval date to your first card anniversary. Year 2 is the second year you have the card, i.e. from your first card anniversary to your second card anniversary. Results proceed similarly for subsequent years.

Data was compiled from users who responded to my solicitations in the Daily Discussion threads on r/churning. (Many thanks to the following users, in alphabetical order: AbaloneNacre; dmonstar; EvilSecondTwin; GenericWittyNameHere; MyLittleChurny; positivecontrol; shalprak; SecondToYou; VanillaPumpkinCake.) (Additional thanks to the DOC readers in the comments: Andrey; Chong786; Ewejay; Gadget; MJ; rajansv.)

Contents

1 American Express
2 Bank of America
3 Barclays
4 CapitalOne
5 Chase
6 Citi
7 TD Bank
8 US Bank
9 Wells Fargo

American Express

Year 1: Statement closing date following your card approval date.
Year 2 & beyond: Statement closing date of every twelfth statement from the first statement (thirteenth, twenty-fifth, etc. statement).^†

^† Equivalent to the statement closing date following your card anniversary date unless your first statement date was more than one month after approval. Also generally equivalent to exactly a year after your first statement close date (or exactly a year after your annual fee was previously charged), but it is possible for that date to change slightly. (E.g. u/positivecontrol had July 26 for six of seven years, including two leap years, but one year the statement closed on July 25.)

Bank of America

Year 1: Last day of the month^† following your card approval date.
Year 2 & beyond: Last day of the month^† following your card anniversary date.

^† In some circumstances, this may be shifted to the first business day thereafter.

Barclays

Year 1: Last business day of the month following your card approval date.
Year 2 & beyond: Last business day of the month following your card anniversary date.