Believe that depends on the card you get. Some will charge an annual fee for AMEX and some will not. Sometimes a prefered card comes with extra perks and a fee. Avoid them. Not worth it. Play the game. I currently have a US Bank World Perks card (NWA), a Chase card (Continental) and a AMEX (Delta). All three had offers of 20,000 bonus miles and no fee the first year. I just canceled my Citi Card (AA) since the first year was up and now a fee kicks in. Got my 20,000 bonus miles. Here's the beauty of most of these offers. After you cancel wait a month and apply for another. You'll get it and 20,000 bonus miles. With AMEX wait a year since they track this stuff. My wife does the same and we fly cross country twice a yera First Class and we still have a bundle in each airline account sine we charge everything and pay it off pronto.