A phone call is usually enough to get a fee waived. Over the years, I've had a couple of misplaced bills that resulted in late fees. If you are a customer in good standing, I think they just want to hear "lost in the mail". I have even been prodded into saying that by a customer service rep. Saying you want to cancel your account can help as well.

Everything is negotiable. I've had a credit card with an annual fee for a while now. I've had the fee waived all three times is was due now. One time I said that I wanted to cancel because my wife had an offer for the same credit card with the fee waived for the first year so I was just going to cancel and have my wife apply. They waived my fee. Another time I just said I wanted my annual fee waived. They said they absolutely could not do it. I called back a few days later with an issue. At the end of the conversation, they asked if there was anything else they could help me with. I asked about getting the fee waived again. They said "sure, let me transfer you to somebody that can do that for you".

Also, I personally do not think a $25 perk is enough to warrant applying for a credit card. There are so many better offers out there. For example, that credit card I was talking about was a Frontier Airlines card that gave 15,000 frequent flyer miles with your first purchase and waived the fee the first year. With Frontier, 15,000 miles is good for a free flight. I've also had credit cards that gave $100 gift certificates to a store of your choice after your first purchase.

I push a lot of business expenses through credit cards, so I am really big on taking advantage of their perks.

5% on gas, grocery stores, drug stores
3% on all restaurants and amazon.com
2% on all travel