Canadian Financial, Real Estate and Mortgage Glossary

Annual Fee

Definition of annual fee

Related Terms and Acronyms:

• Air Miles   One of the most popular rewards issued by airline-affiliated co-branded cards. Air miles are earned with every use of the card, and then transferred monthly to the cardholder's account with that airline.
• annual administrative fee   An annual (yearly) fee charged for the administration of a service.
• atm alliance   An alliance between banks and/or credit unions that is designed to avoid or minimize surcharges for non-bank customers at ATM machines. Customers from one bank that belongs to the alliance can use surcharge-free ATMs at all alliance banks.
• closed-account fee   A fee charged for shutting down an account. Sometimes charged if the account is closed before a certain time period has passed.
• co-branded card   A type of affinity card issued through a partnership or alliance between a bank and another retail company. For instance, a large department store may co-brand a card with a bank. The card would have two brand names on it -- the bank's name and the store's name. Usually, the attraction of the card is special deals with the retail partner. Many -- particularly the ones affiliated with airlines that offer air miles -- are popular enough to command a hefty annual fee.
• credit card (CC)   A plastic card with a coded magnetic stripe that, when signed, entitles its bearer to a revolving line of credit, with a credit limit and interest rate determined by the borrower's income and credit report.
    ➥  A payment card that gives customers access to a revolving line of credit.
• statement   A detailed record of transactions in a bank customer's account(s) for a certain period, usually each month, which shows debits, credits, transfers, payroll deposits, account balance, cheque fees, service and interest charges, ATM activity, etc.
• year-end statement   A report sent to the borrower each year. The report shows how much was paid in taxes and interest during the year, as well as the remaining mortgage loan balance at the end of the year.