I call Citi and have the same conversation at 10 months, get the credit which posts right away, open a new Citi card and transfer most of the credit from the 10 - month - old card to the new one, spend $ 95 to bring the balance up to zero, and then
cancel via secure message.
I do recommend calling and finding out how long after the fee is charged you can still
cancel and be refunded, and I like to get that in writing
via secure message.