Best Credit Card

[twa2w]

maybe they decided to 'enrich' you with Petro points

[arnyk]

maybe they decided to 'enrich' you with Petro points

Hehe all I know is I ain't activating any card until I have the correct one in my hands.

And hopefully after this is all said an done this'll be the last non-investment credit thingy I ever apply for.

[fundamental]

Anyone take advantage of CIBC's 15,000 free Aeroplan Miles promo


http://www.cibccards.com/aerogoldap2003907/

More important, was anyone able to waive the $120/yr fee ?

[Shakespeare]

Anyone take advantage of CIBC's 15,000 free Aeroplan Miles promo

Nope. I looked at it but

the $120/yr fee ?

was too steep.

[Beek]

I must say the best benefit I ever got from a credit is the double warranty feature. Bought a laptop with my credit card... The logic board died in year two, after the one year warranty had expired. The repair was around $1000, paid for by some insurance company.

Do all of these aeroplan/dividend/etc cards come with the double warranty coverage? It's about time I dropped my student Visa card.

[Arby]

There are a number of credit cards that don't charge an annual fee, and still include the extended warranty feature and other useful features such as free insurance on rented vehilcles. Some examples: TD Gold Select Visa, CitiBank Drivers Edge Platinum Mastercard, CAA MBNA Platinum Plus Mastercard.

[westinvest]

Anyone take advantage of CIBC's 15,000 free Aeroplan Miles promo

Nope. I looked at it but

the $120/yr fee ?

was too steep.

There are actually two promo's now. One offers 15000 AP miles to move your account to CIBC , along with a pre-authorized payment. The other is the CC offer you mentioned.

Re the $120, in general, I would agree that seems expensive for a CC, but there are situations where it could make sense. If, say, you had 60K miles in your AP account, which would get you an economy ticket to Europe, and you wanted to buy the extra miles to upgrade to Business class, you would pay $.03 per mile to buy 15K miles, and you'd still need to find a way to score the extra 5K miles. With this deal, the 15K costs you $120, and you can buy the extra 5K for $150 = $270 total for the upgrade. That's a pretty decent deal.

[veracity]

President's Choice Master Card. For every $100 charged I get $1 of free groceries. No annual fee. Interest rate (for me, anyway) is 5.97%. But I've never paid interest so that's irrelevant.

I totally agree. I think it's the best credit card out there.

I checked out the CIBC dividend cards. They're no good. The first few thousand dollars a year get a tiny dividend back. It's only after you spend many thousands that you finally earn a decent dividend. The Premium Dividend card is good only if you spend an enormous amount of money a year on your credit cards, after which you can earn the maximum $700 a year in maximum dividend.

I hear that the Aeroplan cards are no good because of extensive blackout periods, meaning you don't get to use the miles when you want to, or have to take connecting flights instead of an easy direct flight.

So then I checked out RBC Avion. Well, it turns out that you have to pay $120 in annual fees, and then you earn 1 point for every dollar you spend. It would take $10,000 a year of spending on your credit card to earn a trip to Hawaii. However, the annual fee itself pays for the trip to Hawaii. $10,000 a year in credit card purchases would have already bought you $100 a year in groceries, while also charging no annual fee.

PC Bank just plain rocks.

[Peculiar_Investor]

Any viewpoints out there on RBC's VISA Infinite Avion as an upgrade on the VISA Gold Preferred? I hate the TV ads, but have been considering a switch from before the appearance of the ads.

From my research, it would appear that the Infinite Avion card is better suited for using for travel rewards vs. the Gold Preferred. Interesting, the Infinite Avion has a shorter term on Emergency Medical Insurance and no trip cancellation insurance which the Gold Preferred does provide.

RBC's card comparison is here: http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/cards/tools ... =avion_inf

[Michael D]

Anyone take advantage of CIBC's 15,000 free Aeroplan Miles promo


http://www.cibccards.com/aerogoldap2003907/

With 15,000 points, you can immediately buy a $100 Sommelier Card and go buy a case of Fuzion for your summer BBQs. 13,500 points.

I've given up on AP for flights, but we use points for cash cards (clothing, wine & beer). It is also possible to use the SPA card for recoverable expenditures on your health plan. Thus, points convert to cash.

[marty123]

Any viewpoints out there on RBC's VISA Infinite Avion as an upgrade on the VISA Gold Preferred?

The Infinite Avion has no blackout period on redeemed flights, and a lot of people that fly oversees like that the rewards points can be converted to BA Executive points. They convert at 1.5x once or twice per year. Both are expensive cards and the rewards program (unless you use for BA) is crappy. There may be better alternative from other banks for the same fee, approximately same coverage and better rewards. My RBC account manager offered it to me with a waived fee (1 year only) when it came out, but I couldn't justify making it my main card.

I get out-of-country medical coverage from work, and don't care much for cancellation insurance. I have the free MBNA SPG card which gives the basic platinum feaatures and has been awesome for collecting SPG points, but we can't seem to redeem them fast enough. We don't have much time to travel. We're about 1 year from 2 free overseas flights and about 15 nights, but I can't see us making time for this kind of trip yet.

I feel it's going to start being a difficult period for rewards collectors, as we've got to make sure the target reward plans do not collapse (i.e. BA for RBC, SPG for MBNA, Air Canada for Aeroplan, etc.). Cash reward cards may soon be king.

[hotgo]

I've been happily using a Citibank Platinum Driver's Edge Mastercard for the past few years. The 2% on all purchases adds up quickly and is very easy to redeem.

It's a no-fee card with a bunch of nice bonus features like Price Protection (up to $500/year) which I've been taking advantage of regularly, Purchase Protection which I used successfully once for a $100+ item.

I can't justify paying a fee for a credit card when there are so many free choices out there.

[FinEcon]

I've been happily using a Citibank Platinum Driver's Edge Mastercard for the past few years. The 2% on all purchases adds up quickly and is very easy to redeem.

It's a no-fee card with a bunch of nice bonus features like Price Protection (up to $500/year) which I've been taking advantage of regularly, Purchase Protection which I used successfully once for a $100+ item.

I can't justify paying a fee for a credit card when there are so many free choices out there.

You've mentioned a good card there. Counterpoint: IMO price protection is a near worthless benefit, just to easy to do yourself. No decent retailer will not give you the last sale price and if you can get the last sale price that means you can get the future sale price too.

People on FWF who haven`t really dug on CC`s ought to spend the time and check out RedFlagDeals personal finance forum for threads which explain which CC's are best given your circumstances. HINT: unless you have TD's Select Service account and you are at a Canadian big 5 you are getting nowhere near the best deal you can get from your CC's.

And if you trust Aeroplan......well, you have only yourself to blame.

For some promos: http://www.greatcanadianrebates.ca/display/Finance/

[Locke]

This card has been discussed to death on redflags.

MBNA Smart cash card is the best cashback card I've seen, kills Scotia new Momentum Visa.

3% cashback on groceries/gas (5% promotional cashback for initial 3 months)
1% everything else

Redeemed everytime $50 is built up.

[hotgo]

Counterpoint: IMO price protection is a near worthless benefit, just to easy to do yourself. No decent retailer will not give you the last sale price and if you can get the last sale price that means you can get the future sale price too.

You're right, I didn't use this feature much, but I did max out my $500 rebate for 2008. I redid my living room and incorporated a new entertainment system. And even though I went out of my way to get the best deals I could at the time of purchase, within 60 days (especially considering the pre-Christmas sales) there was plenty of money to save. Since it was past 30 days since purchase, no retailer would match those sale prices on purchases over a month ago. So in my case, this was worth $500 for that year. But in a previous year I didn't use it at all.

[Jo Anne]

I've never understood why people are so gung-ho on cards with travel rewards. It seems to me that Aeroplan points can be a bitch to collect.

Why not just use a card that gives some kind of useful reward (like some cash reward card), combined with an AirMiles card (AirMiles can be redeemed for free groceries), and then bank the cash you saved so you can use it for whatever travel you want.

Or am I missing something?

[adrian2]

Counterpoint: IMO price protection is a near worthless benefit, just to easy to do yourself. No decent retailer will not give you the last sale price and if you can get the last sale price that means you can get the future sale price too.

I've just used its price protection feature for an HDTV from Canadian Tire: I've bought it on sale, a couple of weeks later the same store had it for a liquidation price of $50 less. I've tried to get the lower price from the store's customer service, but they've declined as their policy is to refund the difference for 7 days only after the sale. I could have gone through the hassle of returning it for the original price and get a new one for the sale price, but I've decided to try out price protection: it worked out with no problems.

One other situation where it would not be a "worthless benefit" is if you find the item at a better price at a different store. Good luck trying to convince the original store to retroactively match their competitor.

[biker]

I've never understood why people are so gung-ho on cards with travel rewards. It seems to me that Aeroplan points can be a bitch to collect.

Why not just use a card that gives some kind of useful reward (like some cash reward card), combined with an AirMiles card (AirMiles can be redeemed for free groceries), and then bank the cash you saved so you can use it for whatever travel you want.

Or am I missing something?

Dunno what you missed but when I retired 8 years ago I had hundreds of thousands of Aeroplan points from years of international business travel( I joined Aeroplan in 1982). We still travel free any time we fly and have lots left for other family members. The reason I got a Gold Aeroplan card in the beginning was to have access the first class lounges and other perks to reduce the strain of too much travel.

[Bylo Selhi]

People on FWF who haven`t really dug on CC`s ought to spend the time and check out RedFlagDeals personal finance forum for threads which explain which CC's are best given your circumstances. HINT: unless you have TD's Select Service account and you are at a Canadian big 5 you are getting nowhere near the best deal you can get from your CC's.

No need to leave FWF for an analysis of TD's Select Service account. Note that when I did that analysis deposit rates were much higher so the "cost" of the account is now even lower and I forgot to mention that TD's Auto Club membership is also included which saves on the cost of CAA. Alas TD no longer offers free iPods.

[Bylo Selhi]

We still travel free any time we fly

No you don't. You still have to pay departure taxes, fuel surcharges and whatever other nickels and dimes that Rupert can come up with. Yes, they've lowered the fuel surcharges substantially on NA flights now that oil prices are down to ~$60. But if you want to fly overseas, especially if you want to do more than one segment each way, [s]bend over and lube up[/s]prepare yourself to pay $100s extra.

[zinfit]

I have a Citi Bank Drivers Edge. We have used it for close to 8 years. In 2004 I bought a Pontiac Vibe and received a $2000 cheque from Citi. In 2006 I bought a Honda Ridgeline and received another $2000 . I have accumulated something like $2800 since 2006. Will likely build it up to the max of $5000 and replace the Vibe at that time. I use our card on everything and pay it off every month. The card provides for double warranty protection and car rental insurance. There is no fee to obtain this card. If there is a better card program I haven't seen it.By the way both vehicles have been excellent machines.

[zeno]

The CIBC aeroplan card was worth the yearly fee for me when I was paying for my work travel. Now my travel expenses are all on the corporate card, I'm not racking up enough miles to justify it. Aeroplan is just a pain to redeem with anyway.

Now I use the Amex Gold cashback card. It's no fee, gives you 1% cash back off everything and ramps up to 2% after 5k. It's a weird card that I never see advertised, but it's now my main card.

[iluvnascar]

I have a Citi Bank Drivers Edge. We have used it for close to 8 years. In 2004 I bought a Pontiac Vibe and received a $2000 cheque from Citi. In 2006 I bought a Honda Ridgeline and received another $2000 . I have accumulated something like $2800 since 2006. Will likely build it up to the max of $5000 and replace the Vibe at that time. I use our card on everything and pay it off every month. The card provides for double warranty protection and car rental insurance. There is no fee to obtain this card. If there is a better card program I haven't seen it.By the way both vehicles have been excellent machines.

I agree 100%!!! I'm cashing in $2450 that we accumulated in the last 3 years towards my wife's new Ford Escape. And in the last few years, we have cashed in over $10,000 to buy a number of new vehicles. You can't beat it (unless you don't buy cars).

[Bylo Selhi]

You can't beat it (unless you don't buy cars).

at least every 5 years and you trust Citi not to axe their program. (From Citi's website, "Driver’s Edge cash rebates expire five years from the end of the calendar year in which they are earned unless Citibank terminates the Program, in which case your redemption rights may be limited.")

I'd rather have 1% cash in hand to do with whatever I want than 2% that may expire before my next car purchase. YMMV.

[hotgo]

You can't beat it (unless you don't buy cars).

at least every 5 years and you trust Citi not to axe their program. (From Citi's website, "Driver’s Edge cash rebates expire five years from the end of the calendar year in which they are earned unless Citibank terminates the Program, in which case your redemption rights may be limited.")

I'd rather have 1% cash in hand to do with whatever I want than 2% that may expire before my next car purchase. YMMV.

It's pretty generous though. You can buy recreational vehicles with it as well (snowmobiles, ATVs, etc.) and as long as there is a card issued in the purchaser's name they will pay out. In other words if you're not in the market for a vehicle, maybe a close family member is that can help you cash out.

I've used it for 2 vehicles and it was super easy.

But yeah, it's not everyone's cup-of-tea. If there were an equivalent 2% cashback card, I would definitely prefer that.