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Canadian Credit Cards - Best Perks

15K views 70 replies 20 participants last post by  kcowan 
#1 ·
Sorry if there's already a similar thread, but I couldn't find it, hence this one.

As mentioned elsewhere, both here and on other forums, Tangerine is making disappointing changes to its MasterCard. In addition, Chase's Amazon.ca Visa is no longer open to new applicants causing some to believe this card is going the way of the dodo.

Since these are currently my primary cards, I'm now looking at possible replacements--particularly for 0% forex. I came across the Home Trust Preferred Visa on RFD. No one seems to have it, though; just a bunch of talk on the forum of its existence. Also suggested was the Fido MasterCard, but I don't quite care for how they combine their cash back and '0%' forex fee, so I'm leaning towards the Home Trust card, should I qualify.

Does anyone have any experience with either card, or another to suggest with no annual fee?
 
#2 ·
Does anyone have any experience with either card, or another to suggest with no annual fee?
I just don't understand why people so scared of annual fees. For example we have CIBC Visa, annual fees is about $90, but we get 4% cash back on groceries and gas, 2% on Tim Hortons and Telus and 1% on everything else, so every year we earn much more than $1,000 in rebates
 
#4 ·
I'm a single person who doesn't spend that much on groceries, nor do I have a car, and I don't eat at Tim Horton's. ;) I will likely keep my Tangerine MC as I do my primary banking w/ Tangerine and it's easiest to make payments on that card, but a significant amount of my spending is done in USD, hence the preference for no forex fees.
 
#10 ·
I use TD infinite Aeroplan. It is free if you have a TD All Inclusive chequing account, which in turn, is free if you maintain a $5K balance. But I travel a lot on business too so the accumulation of aeroplan miles combined, is worthwhile.
Same. I also carry Marriott Rewards card for 0% forex fee and some hotel status perks (1 free hotel night/year offsets its annual fee)

If you aren't travelling a lot for work then Tangerine Mastercard and Amazon Visa make a very good pair sans the annual fees

I carry the Tangerine as a backup to Visa and leave the Amazon card at home for online purchases
 
#7 ·
There is no best card. It depends on what type of rewards you want and how much you spend. In some cases, it's worth it to pay the annual fee.

I like cashback, and I use a combination of 2 cards to maximize my rewards. I use the Cap One Costco cashback to get 3% on restaurants and 2% on gas. I use the Tangerine to get 2% on recurring bills (this one is awesome), groceries, and public transit. For everything else, I was using the Tangerine, but with the recent changes, I'll move all other spend to my Costco card. This combo works well for me, and there's no annual fees.
 
#11 ·
There is no best card. It depends on what type of rewards you want and how much you spend. In some cases, it's worth it to pay the annual fee.
True! This is why I have several CC. For groceries, Tim Hortons, Telus and gas I use 4% CIBC Visa, also I use it to rent cars as it includes damage collision waiver (and they pay you back very fast :)). For FX transactions and Amazon purchases (2% rebate) I use Amazon Visa, for Parking , Presto, Home Depot etc - I use Tangerine (2% rebate). I also have AMEX, but used it last time in France on toll roads (as they didn't accept any other cards)... I also have PC Mastercard, but sinse I have CIBC Visa, mostly use it only for points
 
#12 ·
Marriott Visa for all FX transactions and out of country ATM access.

Costco Mastercard for Costco, gas, and restaurants.

CIBC Visa for aeroplan point....will be trading this for something else soon. Good for rental cars. Aeroplan is a crap program now.
 
#14 ·
I much prefer cash back to rewards miles because of all the hoops involved in redeeming them..

I get a lot of aeroplan miles just from work booking flights and then collect enough more to get perks like Maple Leaf lounge etc

I use them for short haul flights to get to remote places or to a major hub where I can buy a discount direct flight
 
#16 · (Edited)
This past winter we went to South America. The flight cost $1100. if we bought it.

If we used Aeroplan points and flew on Air Canada the cost of each ticket was over $800. (fees and add ons). Plus 60,000 points.

Fortunately we were able to select a United flight using Aeroplan points. The cost was $250. per person. A substantial difference.

We have experienced the same when using points to go to Europe. The point value on many of these flights, net of charges, is 1/2 of one percent to one percent. So now we save what few points we have left for short haul flights.

That is why we are dumping Aeroplan. We used to be able to get the same deal on Lufthansa as we get if we select United. The Lufthansa loophole has been closed. We are told that Aeroplan is diligently working to close the United loophole.

We also have Delta miles. When we get a Delta Airlines ticket with Skymiles points the cost is usually about 1/3 or less of the Aeroplan points ticket cost. Sometimes even lower for US destinations. Aeroplan, for us, is a giant ripoff.
 
#18 ·
We have experienced the same when using points to go to Europe. The point value on many of these flights, net of charges, is 1/2 of one percent to one percent. So now we save what few points we have left for short haul flights.

That is why we are dumping Aeroplan. We used to be able to get the same deal on Lufthansa as we get if we select United. The Lufthansa loophole has been closed. We are told that Aeroplan is diligently working to close the United loophole.

We also have Delta miles. When we get a Delta Airlines ticket with Skymiles points the cost is usually about 1/3 or less of the Aeroplan points ticket cost. Sometimes even lower for US destinations. Aeroplan, for us, is a giant ripoff.
Yea it's frustrating

I've found both air miles and aeroplan work best for short haul flights because these flights are very expensive to buy but the points are calculated by distance so they're relatively cheap by rewards points. You can drive the same distance in about the same time when you account for security and waiting for connection etc, but it is convenient to leave the car at home instead of paying for gas and parking etc

I agree they aren't what they're cracked up to be. Visa makes away like bandits with the high merchant fees too
 
#19 ·
We cannot understand the popularity of Tim Hortons. We find the quality of the coffee is extremely variable but mostly bordering on mediocre to poor. Not certain why this is. And many of the Tim Horton's that we have frequented could stand with some staff re-organization and training from MacDonalds. The staff apperar to be working at cross purposes, disorganized, and extremely slow.

We actually prefer MacDonalds coffee to Tims because it is consistent. Not great but we know we what we will be getting-no surprise a la Tims. And the service is usually much better.

We only go to either one if there is no choice on a road trip. Or at Tim's often for a bathroom break only because the lineup is so long.
 
#23 ·
Best purchase I ever made was a $250 semi-auto Saeco espresso machine and a travel mug. With locally roasted fair trade beans I can make better coffee than 90% of "cafés" in Canada/US. Pays for itself in less than a year and parts are readily available online, can be upgraded/fixed/maintained with a phillips screwdriver.. The same machine was sold at Starbucks for twice the cost. I'd give Timmies coffee a 4/10.. it's warm, black and slightly better than ranger coffee
 
#24 ·
We have been making coffee the same way for 40 plus years. We grind the beans, boil the kettle, and run it through a Melita drip filter. Always a dark coffee or medium/dark coffee.

Went into Starbucks and the server was trying to impress us with their 'pour over method' She looked at me like I had two heads when I told her we had been doing this for 40 years.
 
#26 ·
For major purchases I typically use a premium fee card for the extended warranty or price protection, so probably Visa Infinite

I've never managed to use either of those perks though. The one time I tried I think MBNA denied me with some bs fine print
 
#29 ·
I heard that Chase Bank Canada was going to cancel their Amazon Visa offering. To my knowledge this was only 1 of 2 cards in Canada that charged realtime FX exchange fees on foreign transactions and did not levy the standard 2.5 percnet admin fee/

Only one left now I believe is the Marriott Rewards version which carries a 100 fee but includes one free night at a Marriott level 5 property. We have this card. For our lifestyle it has been a winner.
 
#35 ·
Where did you hear that?

I got the amazon card before the Marriott version existed but now the amazon card is kind of redundant. I shop regularly on amazon and I'm also out of country a lot for work and spend several months/year in Marriotts

When I travel for work I'm covered by HRG travel insurance but as far as I can tell my Visa Infinite travel insurance is superior to the Chase cards for personal travel. I don't believe Chase covers any medical expenses

When you consider the rewards can offset the FX fees it's probably worth the difference for the travel insurance, but I have also had cases when I needed to have a hotel reverse large USD charges and 0% fx fee was $$$ in that case!

For now I'll leave the amazon card at home for online purchases, especially amazon or PayPal USD purchases. I use the Marriott card for Marriotts and misc expenses out of country that wouldn't benefit from travel insurance

Not sure if Visa Infinite would deny travel coverage if you booked the travel with another card?
 
#38 ·
My understanding is that existing Chase Amazon cards are fine. Chase is simply not accepting new applications.

Our Marriott Chase card has turned out to be a real winner for us. Mainly because we have a fair amount of FX transactions and we travel quite a bit.
 
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