Pointshogger on CBC – The Exchange – Talking about Air Miles
I was on CBC the other day talking about the expiry of the Air Miles program. The main topic is about the upcoming December 31, 2016 change to the expiry policy.
Author: Matt
Matt has been an avid points collector since 1992 (an elementary school student), when his dad signed up for the new (at the time) Air Miles program. Since then, Matt took a keen interest in learning how the miles and points world works. He quickly found out that there is a lot of value in leveraging miles and points to fund his passion for travelling.
Tips to Negotiate Retention Bonuses
Retention bonuses are a great way to help justify the annual fee that you will need to incur every year. Ideally, you would sign up for a credit card that waives its first year fee, collect the sign up bonus, and then decide whether to keep the credit card when you are entering the second year and the annual fee kicks in. One incentive is a retention bonus, which is a bonus offer issued by a credit card company to entice you to retain the credit card, rather than cancelling it. Generally, you want a retention bonus that will help you cover the annual fee.
Aeroplan Transfer Bonus is back
Aeroplan’s conversion bonus is back. The promotion is good from July 11, 2016 to August 15, 2016.
My Top Fixed Rewards Credit Card Pick
As we explained in our page called “Understanding Credit Cards, credit cards that offered a fixed reward is when you know exactly how much you are going to earn and you know exactly what you are getting in return when you redeem your points.
American Express (AMEX) | Bank of Montreal (BMO) | MBNA | National Bank | Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)
Top Credit Card Higher than Normal Sign Up Bonuses for July 2016
I made a small tweak to the title to avoid confusion. This list that I put together on a monthly basis is to capture all the higher than normal sign up bonuses. For all the top current credit card sign up bonus offers, you can hover over the “Top Credit Cards” in the menu bar. There you will find a drop down menu of the credit cards sorted by categories.
Reward Options with the Rogers Platinum MasterCard
The Rogers Platinum MasterCard is quickly becoming one of the more popular credit card for Canadians, especially because it waives foreign exchange fees (generally 2.5% transaction fee with other credit cards). Not to mention that the annual fee is waived if you are a Rogers customer (which can also be considered the catch) and 1.75% cash back on all purchases.
Bank of Montreal (BMO) | Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) | Capital One | MBNA | National Bank | Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) | Toronto Dominion (TD)
Credit Cards with High Minimum Income Requirements
Signing up for credit cards always have requirements to fulfil. The two most common ones are credit scores and meeting minimum income requirements. Today, we will focus on minimum income requirements. Usually, the common ones are $15,000, $30,000 or $60,000 personal income minimum. But there are other credit cards that are even higher and they are generally considered the “premium” credit cards, which offer a lot more perks and benefits.
Earn Miles and Points on Home and Car Insurance
Home and car insurance premiums are a consistent bill to pay, so it is always nice to earn some miles or points on this spending.
Happy Canada Day! Mid-Year Report
It is that time of the year again where I provide my mid-year report on my New Year’s wish list. So far, at the mid-point of every year, I look back at my wishes for the new year and compare what the industry has done against it. Let’s take a look on how things are fairing so far this year.
Minor Improvement to the American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card
The American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card (Canadian version) has been slightly upgraded. Originally, there was a $50 annual fee for supplementary cardholders, which now waives its first year fee. Not an earth-shattering move, but it should make it a no-brainer to at least add the supplementary cardholder at least for the first year.