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.
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Best Current First Year Fee Waived Cards for February 2020

ByMatt

Quite a few promotions are ending at the beginning of March, so they will not make it to my next monthly list. So if you have been eyeing a promotion for a while now, this is your chance to go for it as there is no guarantee that the offer will be extended next month. 

Ongoing First Year Fee Waived Offers

The reason I left this list (ongoing offers) up is that there are so few (just 2 really) permanent first year fee waived offers. So they are worthy of being highlighted. Meridian Bank is the only company willing to do this at the moment. Every other company has first year fee waived offers during a specific promotion period.

Air Miles Team Up with Samsung

ByMatt

AIR MILES is expanding its partnership with Samsung Canada. You can now earn miles on Samsung mobile technology, including the new Samsung Galaxy S20 5G series. This is an addition to the existing method of earning miles through the Samsung Pay app and on Samsung products through the Air Miles merchandise catalogue

You now earn 1 mile for every $20 spent on mobile devices including smartphones, tablets, wearables and accessories purchased online.

VIA Rail Layoffs Nearly 1,000 Employees Due to Blockades

ByMatt

It has been reported that VIA Rail is going to be laying off almost 1,000 workers due to the continued blockades in several part across the country, which has interrupted service.

Hundreds of regularly scheduled passenger trains have been cancelled due to the protests. VIA Rail’s website has provided continuous updates on its service.

Getting Paid in Scene Points? Unlimited Movie Passes at Cineplex Theatres?

ByMatt

You may have read about this recently but Cineplex (who runs loyalty program Scene Rewards) was bought out by a British media group, Cineworld. Shareholders approved this deal this month. As a result, Tanner Zipchen (pre-show host when you are waiting for your movie to start), was let go from his position. Turns out that he was being paid in Scene points?

Ok… the story is not that far fretched. Basically he was paid in Scene points when he first started working for Cineplex, before converting into a salary.

That being said, I was wondering how the Scene Rewards program would play out Cineworld taking over. I have so many questions. I held out writing this post until I got more details. So this is more of a preview post before I eventually write a full blown post when the things become more clear.

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Top Cash Back Credit Card Offers for February 2020

ByMatt

Quite a few promotions will be ending on this list (end of February or early March) before it makes it to our next list. So if you have a card in mind, now’s the time to get it.

Note that this post focuses on temporary offers. Our Top Cash Back Credit Cards page continues to list current offers that are not exclusive to limited time offers like this post.

Highlights

For this month’s list, I would look at the Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite Card, which continues to be the top credit card offer with its 10% cash back welcome offer, along with the first year fee waived. The Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card changed up its sign up bonus to $250 cash, which is very high for a no annual fee card actually.

On a minor note, Laurentian Bank Visa Dollars is offering a competitive first year fee waived and 8% cash back bonus that Laurentian Bank customers may want to consider.

Ways to Prevent Spread of Coronavirus when Travelling

ByMatt

Today’s post was triggered when I read about a Canadian confirmed with coronavirus on a cruise ship. As of today, over 900 deaths and 40,000 confirmed cases, which probably means there are more that we do not know about. It really feels like this is spiking at an accelerated rate. So I thought I’d put together a post on how to protected ourselves.

Keep in mind that we already wrote a post about checking your flights to China, as they are most likely cancelled by now.

Note that most of the content below is gathered from the Canadian Government’s website (stay up to date here too), but I thought I’d provide a cheat sheet as there is so much information to sort through. 

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Top Credit Card Higher than Normal Sign Up Bonuses for February 2020

ByMatt

Quite a few offers ended in January, especially the American Express offers, but others have been extended, namely the BMO and RBC cards.

Top Higher than Normal Sign Up Bonuses for February 2020

For the rest of the credit cards, I ranked the credit cards by the price of the annual fees (lowest to highest):

Earn $250 Cash with Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card

ByMatt

In a surprising move by Tangerine, they are currently offering a $250 sign up bonus with the Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card. It has been a while since I last wrote about a specific bonus offer, and I usually post my monthly lists.

For example, these are the January lists:

Best Current First Year Fee Waived Cards
Top Cash Back Credit Card Offers
Top Credit Card Higher than Normal Sign Up Bonuses

Lately, if I write about a specific card only, I’ve only been writing about significant changes or offers, such as:

Why I Avoid Renting a Car…

ByMatt

You may have noticed by now that I rarely talk about renting a car. Which means I barely ever write about car rental loyalty companies. If I ever do rent a car, I personally bank the points directly to a airline or hotel partner.

This article from CBC triggered the idea for today’s post: Hidden camera footage catches misleading sales practices at car rental agency.

Here’s a quick summary of the key suggestions from the article to watch out for when renting a car and I’ll provide my thoughts after each of the key points.