Credit Cards

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[DISCONTINUED] Scotiabank More Rewards Visa Card

ByMatt

I am a little late in the game for this post, but I thought I’d draw up a R.I.P. post anyway because there could be some confusion with the Scotiabank website. Even though Scotiabank still has an active page mentioning the More Rewards Visa Card, it specify that they are no longer accepting new application. So those of you still grandfathered with the card, I would suggest keeping it for as long as possible so you can still earn More points. Below were the highlights of the card: 

Beware of Credit Card Interest Rate Drops

ByMatt

Looks like the big banks across Canada are looking to reduce interest rates on credit cards to provide relief to customers affected by COVID-19 pandemic.

Warning

Let’s just make this clear up front on this post. If you are someone who has no other options than to use a credit card to pay for bills during the crisis, and you are receiving an interest rate reduction, definitely take it.

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

ByMatt

As mentioned in our previous post, we will be making some minor changes to our posts temporarily. Today’s post is a perfect example of such a change. All links to credit card companies are taken off as we are not trying to encourage people to sign up for credit cards. But if you do have the means to take advantage of rewards, this is what you can watch out for. 

If things keep dragging out, we may put a pause to our monthly top promotional offers posts and focus on other topics. So feel free to let us know what else you would like us to write about. Or would you prefer that we continue as is? Please let us know in the comment section below! 

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Ranking the Credit Card Portfolios of Each Canadian Financial Institutions (updated April 1, 2020)

ByMatt

It has been almost a year since we last updated this post, so no question this was due for an update. The reason why I waited so long is because there are very few changes to the rankings since then. However, there was a sufficient amount of changes to the industry to warrant an update. Most of the ranking movement occurred in the bottom third of the list. Furthermore, another common theme on this list is that the gap widen between some of the positions.

Every time I update the rankings, I have an overall theme throughout the post. For today’s post, the focus was on internal changes made by each financial institution which justify their position in the rankings.

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Best Current First Year Fee Waived Cards for March 2020

ByMatt

Quite a few promotions ended at the beginning of the month, but have been extended for the most part. The list is actually quite extensive relatively speaking. So if there are cards that you have been considering, now is the time to go for it. 

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.

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Top Cash Back Credit Card Offers for March 2020

ByMatt

Amid all the travel bans, yesterday we wrote a post about whether it makes sense to switch over to cash back credit cards instead of continuing to earn miles and points, which is a great seaway into today’s post. 

All the CIBC and National Bank offers came to an end last month and they did not extend, so the list really trimmed down significantly this time around. TD switched around its offer but the next significant offer coming to an end this month is the Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card with its no annual fee, $250 sign up cash back bonus. So if you are still thinking about this card, I would go for it now. The BMO offers are also coming to an end this month. 

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

ByMatt

Quite a few offers ended at the beginning of March, but were expended, namely cards from BMO, CIBC and TD. There were some minor tweaks to the offers for TD, but for CIBC and BMO, they were mostly extended.

Top Higher than Normal Sign Up Bonuses for March 2020

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

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What are Grandfathered Credit Cards? (Thoughts on Rogers World Elite Devaluation)

ByMatt

This post was inspired by the upcoming devaluation of the Rogers World Elite credit card, which I will further elaborate on below.

What is the concept of “grandfathered credit cards”? This is a concept that is thrown around a lot, but let’s further clarify what it entails. Most people who are highly active in the miles and points industry are quite familiar with this topic, so this post may not be relevant to you. But if you want to learn about the different variations of grandfathering a card, then keep reading!

This post breaks down the various ways that a credit card company can grandfather a card.

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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.

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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.