The first year of all bank credit cards refers to the 12 months after the card is issued, not the natural year. For example: a credit card issued on December 1, 2018, will end in the first year until November 31, 2019. ?

If the card is not activated within the first year or is not used as many times as required by the card issuer, an annual fee will be charged in the 13th month; this preferential policy will be extended during the validity period of the credit card. If there are any changes, cardholders will be notified.

Extended information:

Annual fee exemption rules

Cardholders generally believe that credit card agencies are exempt from annual fees in the first year, and those who use the card to reach a certain standard are exempted. There is an annual fee for the following year, but this is not the case for all cards. For example, ICBC credit cards are not exempt from annual fees in the first year. Instead, they need to swipe the card a total of 5 times or spend more than 5,000 yuan to be exempted from the annual fee. China CITIC Bank stipulates that only swiping the card once in the first month after the card is issued can be exempted from the annual fee in the first year. .

As for the rules for exempting the annual fee for the following year, some banks stipulate that as long as the card is swiped more than three times, it will be free of charge, such as China Construction Bank [6.20 3.85] and China Everbright Bank; some banks stipulate that the number of swipes is higher. For example, the Shenzhen Development Bank Credit Card stipulates that the annual fee for the following year can be waived by swiping the card 18 times. Most banks, such as ICBC, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, Bank of Communications, China Merchants Bank, etc., adopt the policy of waiving annual fees for 5-6 times.

Yinsu.com Financial Planner pointed out that since annual fees are not the main source of income for domestic credit card issuers, banks generally stipulate that annual fees must be waived after a certain number of card swipes, but there is no limit on the amount. However, there are some banks that impose restrictions on the amount of consumption. For example, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank stipulates that the annual fee for the next year can be waived only if the consumption reaches 2,000 yuan or more.

It is also worth noting that the bank’s annual fee exemption rules are not static. A staff member of the Credit Card Center of Bank of Communications [8.79 4.27] told reporters that the annual fee for a credit card is based on the collection time of the first year's annual fee, and is pushed back 12 months to the collection time of the next year's annual fee.

The Bank of Communications credit card’s annual fee exemption rules will generally notify cardholders by text message at the end of the year or the beginning of the next year. Cardholders need to pay attention to whether the annual fee exemption rules have changed.

Note: Generally speaking, only ordinary credit cards can enjoy the annual fee exemption rule, while the annual fees for gold cards, platinum cards, diamond cards and other cards are usually not exempt.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Credit Card Annual Fee Rules