Credit card: You can get your annual fee waived; check how | Mint

If you have a credit card which has a high annual fee, there could be a way to get this waived off. Sounds strange, but true. In some cases, banks give an offer to get the annual fee waived off so long as the card holder spends money beyond a threshold.

How this works

Suppose you have a credit card whose annual fee is ₹3,500. Now, if the bank gives an option to get the fee reversed in the second year, it is vital for the card holder to spend a certain amount (say ₹2 lakh) using the card in the first year, also known as anniversary year.

This means if you have spent ₹2 lakh via this card – you will not be supposed to pay ₹3,500 annual fee in the following year.

Here we have listed some of the Axis Bank credit cards which give the option of waiving off annual fee subject to meeting of minimum spend threshold:

Axis Bank Rewards Credit Card: The annual fee is ₹1,000 but if you spend more than ₹2,00,000, this fee is waived off.

Axis Bank Freecharge Plus Credit Card: It gives a waiver on spends of ₹50,000 in an anniversary year.

Axis Bank Cashback Credit Card: It has a joining fee of ₹1,000 which is waived on spends of ₹4,00,000 in an anniversary year.

However, if annual fee is a concern, one can even consider procuring a card which has no annual fee such as ICICI Bank offers Platinum Credit Card which bears zero joining and annual fees.

Additionally, one should also check whether there are reward points and other benefits being offered with the credit card membership. If there are, the annual fee is justified. Else, there is no point spending money via a card to save the fee which does not offer equitable benefit in return.