Waiving Ritz and United Club card Annual Fees?

nrdk

Level 2 Member
Nope, didn't work on a year 2 RC, however the retention offer was pretty nice for a T1-T4 cert and an additional 5k marriott points (and of course the $300 annual benefit)
 

smittytabb

Moderator
Staff member
This is interesting. Wonder if my husband has paid his annual fee for the Ritz? He never gets any decent offers and hates to call. This sounds worth it if he hasn't jumped the gun. We love this card. I totally got more than we paid in annual fee out of it the first year. For my trip to Antarctica they waived the mandatory medical insurance fee after I told them my Ritz card had the same benefits. That was about a $400 savings just on that.
 

rajin

Level 2 Member
There's no data points on the United Club, right?
Not that I can find. I passed on this only in my latest round of apps, but it's tempting to get for MS. That clashes with this trick though, as ideally you'd lower the limit to get the fee waived, then raise it back up to spend on for the 1.5 miles.
 

pstravels

Level 2 Member
There are targeted offers for the 1st year waived. Just go to milepoint and click their link (I have no affiliation with them but thats where I got the offer to show up for me) and log into your UA acct.

So you could MS on it for a whole year at 1.5 UA and also get the lounge access and then at end of year just lower CL to avoid AF and keep lounge access for life basically (if the CL trick works for this card).
 

nrdk

Level 2 Member
@pstravels @rajin Unfortunately that won't work, as proven with the RCR card, the second year the AF is not refunded despite lowering the CL. So you'll get the first year waived with the sign up, but the 'trick' doesn't work after the first year.
 

rajin

Level 2 Member
@pstravels @rajin Unfortunately that won't work, as proven with the RCR card, the second year the AF is not refunded despite lowering the CL. So you'll get the first year waived with the sign up, but the 'trick' doesn't work after the first year.
Drat. Still might be worth getting for the MS use and trying retention at end of a heavy spend year. Looks like I need to trigger some activity in my united account to get the targeted offer anyways.
 

nrdk

Level 2 Member
Eh, I'm of the mindset to stay away with MS from Chase beyond the occasional VGC tossed in with office supplies, never by itself. Just too valuable of an asset with their signup bonuses (3rd party) to risk
 
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