beckiwoo

Well its 10 points for every $1 you spend but also i get extra points for shopping items purchase in the week - sometimes that's 3000-5000 points each shop on top of the 10 points per every $1.

I can use it for gift cards in superstore (starbucks, Sephora, the keg etc) so I may do that.

Oink

Get your own otherwise your parents will be able to see your questionable purchases.

BristolUK

That does sound likely. I can't say either way except...

My wife had poor credit before I met her, mainly messed up by her ex (joint loans/bills she believed were up to date) and probably a long standing student loans debt.

I had her as an authorised user on one UK card and one Canadian card. Of course, she was also joint name on many bills so maybe one or the other was responsible for the credit/loan offers she started to get that never happened before.

Most bizarre is that one particular lender appears to be falling over themselves in a desire to lend her money since she died.

BristolUK

Aviator

Are they not cash only?

scilly

This is what I believe.

I am an authorized user on a BofM Mastercard with my husband as the account holder. We took that card out soon after we first arrived here.

I'm the household treasurer, and I pay that account off every month before the statement date .............. but it conveys no benefit on me. Everything, points or credit rating, accrues to my OH.

For that reason, I took out a CIBC Visa card in my own name back in the mid-70s when it was still unusual for banks to allow married women to have their own credit cards without their husband being a guarantor. The bank manager was a very enlightened male

He did ask if I wanted to have my OH as authorized user .............. and agreed completely that it was not necessary, adding "my wife said the same thing about her card"

I still have that Visa Classic card .............. no monthly fee, and therefore no points accruing for anything.

I would suggest that a similar no fee credit card in your own name, as soon as you can get one in Ontario, is what you should aim for. You are looking at building credit in your own name for the future.

I also suggest that you do something similar to what my daughter used to do as a student with her very first credit card ............... every time she used it, she kept a running tab of the amount and mentally deducted that from her bank balance as already needed, so she was not tempted to spend the money.

I did discover something very interesting a couple of months ago .......... someone who had used her credit card for years but had paid off the amount charged within a few days and always before the statement arrived found out that she actually had no credit rating. There was no record of the charge because it had been paid off so quickly.

SchnookoLoly

I'm an authorized user on my husband's BMO card, definitely no impact at all on my credit.

There are some good no-fee cash back cards that are worth looking into. Tangerine just launched a good one, MasterCard, no fee, 2% cash back in 3 spending categories (I picked grocery, restaurant, and gas) and 1% back everywhere else. MBNA does a no fee cash back cards as well that my parents have, not sure if it's 1 or 2% or if it's still offered, but there are options.

That said, for a first card, you may have to just settle for something super basic. My first card was a student Visa from TD that had a $500 limit. I put a few transactions a month on there and always paid it off. Good for building credit.

I agree with most of the others here, get something in your own name, if you can get approved for one with some cash back or points (that you'll actually use) then definitely go for that, but you may have to settle for something really basic to get you started.

Ps, you can set up an automatic payment as well to pay off the card in full from your debit account when the statement is due. I have that set up on all mine so I don't have to remember to do it. All the banks support it, you just need to mail off a form and a void cheque if the card is at a different bank than your chequing account.

beckiwoo

I'm a bit late with this but I have this card and its not that great. I have 25,000 and around 6-7months ago I could get a flight to Edmonton and or Calgary - now I cant as the minimum is around 30,000 points - I keep this card as its visa (my other card is Mastercard that is the only accepted credit card in cost-co) - so just a heads up if you want the points for flights but with their reward website you can use the points for other things

not2old

good points there

On points for flights, in Gozit situation, a card in his name (his estimate of around $3000/yr spending), he would need to spend many dollars to accumulate the over 100,000 points needed for a flight to Malta, then on top, pay a booking fee which most charge

Aviator

With RBC, best value card is the Avion Infinite with BA executive club, transfer points when there is a promo of 1.5/1. For monetary value, pay off your visa bill with a credit line and then use the points to pay off the credit line. Way better than any other incentive.

Next is RBC Esso card and use it for gas purchases and getting Esso gift cards.

not2old

Isn't credit card arbitrage dangerous?

at $120 a year fee & must have an minimum income of $60k, young Gozit likely wouldn't qualify

RBC Visa Infinite Avion Credit Card Review

When first getting this card it states welcome bonus 15,000 points. What is the money value of those 15,000 points?

Going on what you posted about "paying off a credit line with points" - how does that work?

Aviator

https://points.rbcrewards.com/Catalogue/Financial

There are other cards that offer points as well which are a lot lower cost, such as the Signature RBC Rewards card. The RBC Visa Esso card gives more value per point if you buy gasoline.

Not all cards and rewards are created equally.

BA travel with points is the best ROI. We use them for the kids to travel, much better value than booking with Avion points, so long as anywhere you go is via EGLL.

Yorkiechef

I too have a pc rewards card that has 120000+ points, canadian superstore has offers from 3000 points for $40 of fuel to 25000 points for spending $250 on food in the store, we have collected that 3 times already and have only been here 8 weeks. cost nothing to get it and is now worth $120.

SchnookoLoly

We find aa general rule that if you can redeem points for about 1c per point then you're in decent shape (assuming you earn at one point per dollar spent).

For Gozit, a cash back card might be the better option since the points ones often have fees.

Gozit

Wow... Very interesting to hear stories about the whole womens inequality thing. Didn't realise it was like that even in Canada back then.

I remember stories from my Nanna when they were preparing to move back home in the mid 80s when my Nannu was still working here, she would go back to check on the house, and the builders/contractors wouldn't want to speak with her because she was a woman. She told them "Well if you want your ****ing money you better talk to me, because this is where the money comes from!" Never had a problem since

Thats interesting about paying the card off so fast. I'd probably just pay the statement off at the end of the month.

Thanks, thats useful info. I was wondering about taking a card out with RBC and my chequing being with CIBC. So verdict is authorised user = no credit so will take that option off the table. That makes sense though, I was perplexed when I first thought it WOULD give me credit.

I see lots of students with the RBC signature card mentioned below, that still earns points like the Infinite Avion that my parents have.

OK, good to know... Maybe i'll take that one off the list. I'm mainly interested in travel rewards, since that is 99% of my major non-essential expenses. I am leaning more towards the RBC Signature card at the moment, or maybe the Preferred card that my parents used to have before switching to Avion if they will approve me for it.

Yes, this is true. But with RBC the points don't expire, so in theory I could earn them forever and in 4-5 years redeem them. I would be OK with that. RBC doesn't charge a booking fee iirc, last time we booked flights through it on my parents card there was no booking fee and 1 whole ticket was covered by points (This flight was to Malta)

Yep, that sounds right on. Parents have the Infinite Avion now at my advice, they had the Preferred card before and I was puzzled when the Avion Infinite had the same requirements and annual fee, so they switched.

Like I said above I am looking more favourably towards the RBC Signature card, or the Preferred or the avion non-infinite, since these cards don't have an income requirement.

The esso card is interesting but the nearest Esso station is a 20 minute drive from me, and we usually fill up at Canadian tire because thats where the car wash is.

Ok, will keep that in mind... I'll look at cash back too, since supposedly if the cash back is better than the points, then I can get the "cash back" and use it towards travel if I so desire.