Disney Premier Chase Visa - when do they bill the annual fee?

[YawningDodo]

I just signed up for the Disney Premier Chase Visa last week (waiting for it in the mail) because they'd upped the sign-on bonus to $200 and I figured it was worth paying $49 to get $200. In the long term it is not going to make sense for me to have the card with the annual fee, as I don't plan to charge much to it after finishing the sign-on bonus apart from using it on Disney vacations (I have other cards with better cash/points back). My plan was to downgrade (or failing that, cancel and reapply) to the no-fee Disney Rewards Visa within a year, but I'm not clear on when they're going to charge me the $49. Does it happen when I activate the card? Are they going to wait and charge me at the one year mark? How does this work?

I'm not planning to churn the card in the sense that I would cancel before paying the fee. Like I said, in this instance it makes sense for me to pay the fee for one year. I'm just confused about whether I need to set the fee aside in my budget now or if I'm paying it a year from now. Can people who have the card weigh in?

 

[Donathius]

I just got that card and they didn't waste any time charging the annual fee. It was on the first statement. I'm one of those nuts that uses it for everything, but I have a good system setup for keeping it paid off. I charge probably ~$1000 on it every month.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

The annual fee will be on your first statement.
Watch out when you try to downgrade though.
I had had the premier for nearly 3 years when I wanted to downgrade and they denied me.
I talked to several people asking why I was denied and they could not give me a reason.
So I ended up applying for a regular one with plans to cancel the premier altogether once I received the regular card in the mail.
I ended up receiving both a regular card and a downgraded card in the mail on the same day.
When I called to ask what the heck was going on they said that the reason I had been denied was because I had not had the card for 1 year but obviously that was wrong and someone fixed it without letting me know.
I then ended up cancelling the regular card I had just applied for and luckily the person said she would make it look as though I had never applied for it to begin with so it would not effect my credit.