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 March 2019

ByMatt

For this month’s list, you’ll notice many promotions that ended in February that are off this list. There are times when promotions get extended, but other times not. This goes to show that if you do see a promotion that you like to go for it, and not necessarily risk waiting for a better offer. 

As March comes to an end, this was the first full month where we started a new trend of featuring a top credit card on our monthly lists. See the other two monthly lists on how we highlighted the featured card:

Tim Hortons Launches Tims Rewards Program

ByMatt

I was recently interviewed by Global News to provide my thoughts about Tim Hortons’ new rewards program called Tims Rewards (free to sign up). Looks like they want to compete with McDonald’s and Starbuck’s loyalty programs.

Earning
The program is fairly straight forward. For every 7 qualifying purchases (coffee, tea, or baked good), you earn 1 point. After 7 points, you earn 1 reward. However, you can only have a maximum of 5 rewards in the bank. This essentially forces you to redeem on the go. I really like the 5 reward limit condition, because it goes with the earn and burn philosophy that we emphasize at Pointshogger.

Credit Cards with Travel Medical Insurance for 65+ Years Old

ByMatt

A Pointshogger reader reached out to us and mentioned that it has been over 3 years since we last provided an update our post for travel insurance for people 65 years and older. So I think that it was appropriate to provide an update. It is not easy to find an insurance company that offers travel insurance to people over the age of 65. Even if you do find a company, chances are it is fairly expensive. So having the insurance coverage with credit cards is a nice benefit to have.

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Top Cash Back Credit Card Offers for March 2019

ByMatt

In my last top credit cards post, I started a new trend of mentioning featured cards in each list. I thought I’d keep it going. For this month, there are actually two cards that are tied.

Also keep in mind that we also have an going Top Cash Back Credit Cards page which consists of permanent and temporary offers, while this post focuses primarily on temporary offers.

Featured Cards
The Meridian Visa Infinite Cash Back Card and Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite Card have virtually the same offers, features and benefits. The two key are the first year fee waived and 10% cash back on the first $2,000 in purchases. The main difference is that the Meridian card does not seem to have an end-date on its offer, but the cards is only available to Ontario residents. The Scotiabank card is more widely accepted.

Toronto Miles & Points Event

ByMatt

Fellow Toronto-based travel & points blogger Ricky from Prince of Travel (whom we had the pleasure of interviewing) will be putting together the next Toronto Miles & Points Event on Sunday, April 7, 2019 at the Walrus Pub & Beer Hall in Downtown Toronto.

Attending in-person events like these is one of the best ways to pick up on some of the advanced topics within this hobby that are often kept secret, like manufactured spending. In addition, Ricky has mentioned in his post on this event that the focus of his presentation will very much be on these advanced topics, and I’m sure there will also be plenty of discussion in the networking session afterwards.

Rundown of Pioneer Bonus Bucks (updated March 11, 2019)

ByMatt

When I first wrote about Pioneer Bonus Bucks gas loyalty program, I did not live anywhere near any of the stations. But now I do and now I have a membership. So I thought this would be a good time to update this post. As you probably already know, most of my post ideas come from personal research. What I try to do is share my research with everyone in this blog.

Earn Filling Up Gas
Not much has changed in the last 5 years (since I last wrote about Pioneer Bonus Bucks), but this chart now has much more meaning to me.

Marriott Bonvoy’s First Ever Promotion: Double Take

ByMatt

Marriott Bonvoy is offerings its first ever significant promotion since it re-branded itself, called “Double Take”. Marriott has 30 brands reaching 130 countries with over 6,900 hotels. In Canada, there are currently 230 hotels.

Promotion Details
The details of the offer are as follows:

Register by May 21, 2019.
Stay between March 19, 2019, and June 4, 2019. Note that a “stay” is defined as consecutive nights spent at the same hotel, regardless of check-in/check-out activity.
Earn 2x the points starting with the second stay.

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Credit Cards which offer Free Airport Lounge Access (updated March 9, 2019)

ByMatt

Due to the popularity of this post, I think it was due for an update. Along with several changes to the industry since the last time. The most significant addition is the CIBC Aventura cards. The most significant change is that BMO left Priority Pass in favour of MasterCard Airport Experiences.

Just to avoid confusion, this post refers to only cards that give at least 1 free lounge pass. It does not refer to cards that give you Priority Pass membership, but a fee to access the lounge.