Lamin

Just left the airport and I was offered an aeroplane card, a Westjet card and an Airmiles card. I don't have a CDN credit card yet but was thinking of getting one. I imagine I will be flying to the UK and US every year as well as odd city breaks internally, so which card do people recommend?

Lamin

dbd33

Fifteen years of collecting airmiles got us a deep fat fryer. The Holiday Inn card was better, supplying tents and bicycles. In the same period Amex points got us fencing for one acre, a new bathroom and half a dozen flights to Europe.

I like the Amex points scheme but it depends a bit on what you're buying, Costco don't take Amex anymore so it's best if you're routinely buying trips rather than trying to collect points on consumer durables.

not2old

unless you are a big spender that would charge every single item to a CC, then the points collection IMO is not worth paying a yearly CC fee.

Best credit cards, I wouldn't know. Take a look at the link below

Canada's Best Credit Cards of 2016 - MoneySense

magnumpi

I use the TD Visa Infinate, no fee if my current account is $5k or more. I Pay the balance every pay period.

Points can be used for holidays or buying items. Also the card covers trip cancellation and rental car collision waver.

Not sure you will be able to pick n choose a card as a newby, who is short of cash trying to make cut backs already. Talk to your bank of choice.

I got 25$ back after 5 years of using a gas station loyalty card

not2old

how much per year goes on the card & at the end of 12 months of use how much has been accumulated in value?

In other words have you redeemed points to make it of any value to what you spend on the card

https://www.tdrewards.com/cashoff

Shirtback

I wouldn't base my criteria for acquiring a credit card on whatever "points" system offered.

Off the top of my head, I'd go for no annual charge & a (lower than average) sensible interest rate.

I have a bunch of airmiles points (not from a cc) which don't amount to enough to bother exchanging for anything I'm interested in acquiring.

I also don't travel by air often enough to accumulate enough points for free/reduced flights.

beckiwoo

PCmastercard - no fee and points towards groceries

magnumpi

I have had the card 14 months and gained a few points. I think I can get more value if I use the points toward TD travel but not checked as yet as I not going anywhere

I never said it's the best, it's just the one I am happy to use as it all links into my phone app and that makes it easy to pay off every pay period

Edo

I second this as its probably one of the best points cards around in Canada at the moment.

Just remember that if your bank account balance drops below $5k then they charge you an annual fee for the credit card.

bgpz

Some good resources here (if you're serious about going down the rabbithole):

https://www.reddit.com/r/churningcanada/

It's best to work out what goal(s) you want to achieve with points, and strategize accordingly. Keeping in mind, of course, that programs devalue and (legit) loopholes can disappear.

Sweet spot in terms of value gained with airline points is typically business class long-haul redemptions, but there are loads of variables. Similarly, learn which airlines do and don't charge loads of extra fees - but know that availability will dry up very early on for peak season, so learning when inventory gets loaded (and additional may be released) is also key.

Amex Membership Rewards is good in that you can transfer to other airline programs, and so optimize your balances. Lots of resources elsewhere that can point you in the right direction as to where to start, and how to progress.

One of my favourite cards is the Chase Marriott Visa - although I think they've tweaked some of the sign-up bonuses recently, it's still good if you can get more than $120 CAD value out of the category 1-5 voucher each year (hint: airport hotels are a good one for this). Also, 0% forex loading makes this our default card for overseas spending. The one thing I will point out is that there's no delay/cancellation cover on travel purchases... so you might want to use another card for buying flights if don't have that kind of cover else where. As always, read the small print!

I've still got my TD card that's part of our select service package, as it was the first card I could get hold of when we landed so I keep that around so it's always on my credit file (average length of holding cards is a factor, so this one mitigates some of the potential impact of my churning others).

At the end of the day, it's all about what you want out of benefits, and which ones you'll actually make use of! We're using some aeroplan miles for economy class travel to Europe this year, which I'd usually feel is a bad use of points but we have little wiggle room with dates and travel plans - and the flights I scored with points are the most convenient for us, and revenue flights with those timings were a *lot* more expensive than the cheaper options that really won't work for us... so the value gained for us was getting what works for us with the least overall cash outlay.

As with all of this, YMMV - literally! Do your research, have a plan, and you won't be grumbling over only getting household appliances with your points

SchnookoLoly

https://www.ratehub.ca/credit-cards has a great comparison tool.

We have the BMO World Elite Mastercard. IT's been great for us. The perks and protections it offers are great, and it pays 2% cashback into a travel account. We've had the card for about 3 years and we charge every single purchase to the card and pay it off at the end of the month, so we never pay any interest or anything. We have not had to pay for any of our 3 trips to the UK.

We also get travel insurance, extended electronics insurance, and a few other perks. For us it's worth the annual fee.

I also have the Tangerine MoneyBack Mastercard, which is 2% on your nominated 3 categories (for me, gas, grocery, restaurant) and 1% on everything else. So I use my Tangerine card for gas, grocery, and restaurant purchases, and the BMO one for everything else.

bgpz's post is spot on, though. You can really go down the rabbit hole. And if you are strategic with cancelling cards after the free first year you can really get lucrative with it.

(For example, while still living in the UK, I signed up for the Amex Gold card which pays points to an Amex account and you redeem at about 1c/point. I held the card for a year to get the bonus of 25000 points - so the equivalent of £250. Before the year was up we made our move to Canada, so I signed up for the same Amex Gold card in Canada, which gave me another slew of bonus points, 20k or 25k, can't remember. Once the account was open and up and running, I closed the UK account and transferred my points to my Canadian account. Hilariously, the points transferred at the exchange rate, so my 50k Amex points in the UK hit my Canadian account at about 95k points. So that was nice.)

Collie

Be warned that being OFFERED a credit card and being ACCEPTED for a credit card without having a credit history in Canada are two very different things! We came over 4 years ago with a 15000+ pound credit limit on our UK card, zero debt, hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank and a copy of our Experian credit reports from the UK... all of which counted for precisely zero. We couldn't get ANY credit card without having it backed by a GIC.

I swear by Desjardins Odyssey - 1% cashback on everything, plus worldwide travel insurance (not just accident insurance) plus hire car coverage. The travel insurance alone saves us the annual fee...

SchnookoLoly

This is very similar to the BMO World Elite that we have, but we have 2% cash back (if you have the cash paid into a travel account, only 1% of you take it as cash). The perks from the travel insurance, car rental insurance, and electronics extended warranty make up for the annual fee no problem.

Ebonhawke

One thing to consider with regards to travel cards, is whether you have to apply your accumulated points at the time of purchase, or can apply them afterwards. There have been a number of stories of people trying to fly on 'miles' that have had difficulty - some airlines may only have limited seats for people wanting to fly that option, so in order to use those miles, you have to take flight dates/routes that aren't convenient for your plans.

On other cards, you can just use your credit card to book the flight, and then once the charge appears on your statement, apply your points to knock down the price. Even if you don't fly often, I've also had some success in being able to use points to pay for hotel stays etc. for driving holidays. When doing the research, don't necessarily take a bank representative's word, but look for the wording in the card-holder agreement.

SchnookoLoly

Good points.

Aeroplan is the former - limited seats available for rewards flights.
Amex and BMO World Elite are the latter. Amex does it with points, you accumulate points, then pay for travel on your card, and after the change comes through you apply points at 1 point per 1c and get it as a statement credit. With BMO your cash back goes into a 'travel account'. You call them up to book your flight, and the flights are still on market rates, jsut booked through their travel agency and paid out of your account balance (and any remaining balance just paid normally if your balance doesn't fully cover it).