Yes, you will not be charged until you activate your card and you will see the fee on your next monthly statement. I have never heard of any card you did not have to activate prior to using it. That just blows my mind if the credit card companies send out activated cards. Especially if your limit is very high, I would hate the hassles of trying to prove that my card was stolen and somebody ran up a several thousand dollar bill. Been through that once. Although it is fully insured/covered by credit cards, trust me, its a hassle. Then again, I guess if you have a low credit limit like $500, I would see why the credit card issuer was just send it to you activated. But not if your limit is $20K+ like a Visa Black Card.
As for the annual fee. If you raise hell enough, you can get them to refund it to you or even let you by without paying a fee for the first year. I did that with my American Express Platinum couple years back. I raised hell and said that I got a letter in the mail that stated that the annual fee was free (which i did but it was expired by a whole year) and they finally, after several layers of managers, did not charge me for the first year. Only reason why I cared so much about it was because I was annoyed they dropped the companion program the month before I got it.
loving life.
