With all the controversy surrounding Canada Day, we might not have as much flair today, but our mid-term report is still going ahead since this has to do with miles and points world! This post is the halfway mark of 2021. We published our 2021 New Year’s wish list back on January 1st and the final report will be published on New Year’s Eve.
For this month, all the TD promotions that expired last month were extended to August, while HSBC is back on this month’s list.
Limited Time First Year Fee Offers
We have listed the cards based on their promotional expiry dates. If there is a tie-break, it is ranked by annual fee (lowest to highest), after which it will go alphabetically.
Our 10% cash back post came out 3 days ago, so we just missed the new Tangerine 10% cash back promotion. We will add these two cards to next month’s list. This is the first time we saw a 10% cash back with Tangerine as they join a host of big hitters in the industry these days.
There have been no changes from last month’s list compared to this month.
Keep in mind that we still have the Top Cash Back Credit Cards page, which includes permanent and temporary offers if you wish to see a more complete list of cards, not just cards that offer at least 10% cash back.
Note that we have split up the list into temporary (limited time) and permanent offers (indefinite, but can end any time without notice).
Two months ago, the HSBC offers came to and end, only to show back up a little different this time around. The two American Express promotions expired last month. For this month, only the RBC WestJet offer is up for expiry, but RBC also added 4 new offers that will expire in July.
The last time we wrote (May 4, 2021) about this topic, the Prime Minister of Canada warn that travellers could see stiffer penalties for not following the quarantine rules. Exactly a month later, the Canadian Federal Government is set to increase the fines (effective June 4, 2021):
The Contraventions Act provides police (including RCMP, provincial and local police) the authority to enforce the Quarantine Act. Tickets with fines of up to $3,000 may be issued for non-compliance. As of June 4, 2021, these tickets carry an increased fine of $5,000.
For this month, all the TD promotions are coming to an end. So if you are still thinking about those cards, you may want to jump on their current offers.
The Brim card also expires this month. However, it has been continually extended a month at a time, so there is no way to know if it will be extended again.
Aeroplan is offering a host of additional bonus opportunities with its co-branded credit cards. Even though travel restrictions are still tough in Canada, this has been a great time to load up just in time to travel, also known as the “Aeroplan Ahead” initiative.
The saying goes, when one door closes, another one opens. That seems to be the story of Greyhound Canada closing its doors and opening up opportunities with Megabus. Today, we have the opportunity to interview Colin Emberson, Vice President of Retail for Megabus who will share their expansion plans of its existing service in Canada. Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions Colin!
Today, we welcome back Daniel Kinnoch, co-founder of LoungePair. He comes back to us (from an interview) as a guest writer sharing his thoughts on airport lounges. Thank you Daniel for taking the time to write this post and sharing your experience with us. Keep up the good work at LoungePair!