Author Topic: what is best canadian credit card for rewards?  (Read 5102 times)

Offline mords

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what is best canadian credit card for rewards?
« on: January 28, 2011, 12:26:09 PM »
I have family in Toronto and they have the amex aeroplan card. Is that the best they can do there or is the canadian spg card comparable to the one we have here. Because I know the canadian spg  is something like $125 annually so it is very possible that the spg program works differently there. Anyone with knowledge on cc in Canada?

Offline Dan

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Re: what is best canadian credit card for rewards?
« Reply #1 on: January 28, 2011, 12:35:18 PM »
What do they pay for the Aeroplan card?
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Offline mords

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Re: what is best canadian credit card for rewards?
« Reply #2 on: January 28, 2011, 01:00:00 PM »
$100 or $120

Offline Dan

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Re: what is best canadian credit card for rewards?
« Reply #3 on: January 28, 2011, 01:02:48 PM »
$100 or $120
SPG transfers to Aeroplan at a 20,000:25,000 ratio.
Sounds like they'd be better off with that card, even at that high annual fee.
I take it they don't have SSNs?
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Re: what is best canadian credit card for rewards?
« Reply #4 on: January 28, 2011, 01:26:37 PM »
Your right they dont have SSN. And besides it wouldnt make sense for them to use an american cc in Canada since they would get hit with foreign transaction fees on purchases made there.

Offline YudiG

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Re: what is best canadian credit card for rewards?
« Reply #5 on: January 29, 2011, 12:09:50 PM »
You could use the Amex Plat which announced it will no longer have foreign transaction fees...

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Re: what is best canadian credit card for rewards?
« Reply #6 on: January 29, 2011, 12:47:29 PM »
but as he said no SSN

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Re: what is best canadian credit card for rewards?
« Reply #7 on: January 29, 2011, 04:33:09 PM »
You could use the Amex Plat which announced it will no longer have foreign transaction fees...

Even with no foreign transaction fee you would still be using the bank's currency conversion rate, which is always terrible. And as "how" says - still no SSN. However, there is a Canadian version of the AMEX Platinum (was this the version you were referring to?) as well as the AMEX Gold.

Another decent card is BMO's World Elite Mastercard.

Offline andrew

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Re: what is best canadian credit card for rewards?
« Reply #8 on: January 29, 2011, 06:09:35 PM »
amex platinum cdn aeroplan 25k sign up bonus   $499 yearly fee (could be pro rated)
""""""""gold      """"""""""""""""""20k  """"""""""""'''''''     $120 
http://www.americanexpress.com/canada/en/aeroplan_dclp_dtw11_en.shtml?&PID=124&BUID=AERO&PSKU=D43&AFFID=APDTW&ITU_id=100000345&CRTV=promogolden

amex premier rewards   15k bonus first year free https://www.americanexpress.com/canada/cardmember.shtml

amex starwood cdn first year free 10k bonus  pm me if you want this deal

the following website always has the latest deals in canada
http://rewardscanada.ca/
http://blog.rewardscanada.ca/
« Last Edit: January 29, 2011, 06:14:03 PM by andrew »

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Re: what is best canadian credit card for rewards?
« Reply #9 on: January 29, 2011, 09:51:01 PM »
The problem with the AMEX spg in canada is that amex is not accepted in a lot of places (grocery stores among others dont accept amex).

I used to have the amex platinum aeroplan, you get between 1.25 - 1.5 points for every dollar spent and access to lounges.

Now that I started using spg to lan, I gave that up and use the Amex SPG.

Again, you have a visa or mc also, I have the cibc aeroplan visa.

Hope this helps....

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Re: what is best canadian credit card for rewards?
« Reply #10 on: January 30, 2011, 01:46:28 AM »
Even with no foreign transaction fee you would still be using the bank's currency conversion rate, which is always terrible.
Funny, I've never found a credit card's conversion rate to be terrible (besides for any applicable forex fee).  In fact I've always found them to be nearly exactly what XE.com says it should be.
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Offline AsherO

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Re: what is best canadian credit card for rewards?
« Reply #11 on: January 30, 2011, 01:50:14 AM »
Funny, I've never found a credit card's conversion rate to be terrible (besides for any applicable forex fee).  In fact I've always found them to be nearly exactly what XE.com says it should be.

+1

I too was wondering what RD was talking about.
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Offline Ryan

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Re: what is best canadian credit card for rewards?
« Reply #12 on: January 30, 2011, 02:22:18 AM »
My Canadian credit cards all use the banks' rate for currency conversion. If you are making significant foreign currency purchases on the card then it starts to add up in comparison to the XE rate. However, I haven't made foreign currency purchases in a while on these credit cards as I have been able to get a few American cards.

Maybe the credit card companies in the US use a better conversion rate.

Offline Chaikel

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Re: what is best canadian credit card for rewards?
« Reply #13 on: January 30, 2011, 02:48:39 AM »
My Canadian credit cards all use the banks' rate for currency conversion. If you are making significant foreign currency purchases on the card then it starts to add up in comparison to the XE rate. However, I haven't made foreign currency purchases in a while on these credit cards as I have been able to get a few American cards.

Maybe the credit card companies in the US use a better conversion rate.
There was a massive class action suit about 5 years ago, since then the CC companies charge the real rate, so most just added a forex fee
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Offline AsherO

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Re: what is best canadian credit card for rewards?
« Reply #14 on: January 30, 2011, 03:09:13 AM »
There was a massive class action suit about 5 years ago, since then the CC companies charge the real rate, so most just added a forex fee

I remember the lawsuit, don't remember ever seeing a check.

I think one of the things you could qualify by was for days outside the US, and I had lots of those...
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Offline Chaikel

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Re: what is best canadian credit card for rewards?
« Reply #15 on: January 30, 2011, 03:18:48 AM »
I remember the lawsuit, don't remember ever seeing a check.

I think one of the things you could qualify by was for days outside the US, and I had lots of those...
I got a letter that said to send dates and bills of out of country charges, for max of $25. Wasn't worth the time.
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Re: what is best canadian credit card for rewards?
« Reply #16 on: February 02, 2011, 09:49:55 AM »
Question:
My wife lives in the US and has US credit cards under her social security. She used to live in Canada and still has a social insurance number and address there. If she would apply for canadian CC's under her social insurance number would that totally not affect her credit here in the US?

Offline mords

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Re: what is best canadian credit card for rewards?
« Reply #17 on: February 02, 2011, 01:43:06 PM »
I dont know an exact answer. But my brother signed up for an american credit card with his social insurance number because he did not yet have a ssn and he was approved which leads me to believe that the american card was able somehow to access his SIN because they would not have approved him otherwise i'm assuming. So it is possible that there is some sharing

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Re: what is best canadian credit card for rewards?
« Reply #18 on: February 02, 2011, 02:34:21 PM »
After a little bit of research I think that between aeroplan and starwood the aeroplan is better to keep for miles unless u want the starwood for hotels  The starwood amex  charges like $50 or so per additional cardholder. However the aeroplan gives u at least one additonal cardholder free and i believe even two. Plus on the aeroplan the points are 1=1  ratio and every dollar after $10000 dollars spent is 1=1.25 points ratio. Also most flights out of Canada is with Air Canada. And for instance if you are looking for a flight out of Canada within a few days notice and you only have starwoods u would not be able to transfer with enough time to be able to book. And 70% of the time you would be anyways transfering from starwoods to your aeroplan account because u most likely will be flying Air Canada. So I say you might aswell just earn aeoplan miles and have it waiting in your account for when you want to fly.

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Re: what is best canadian credit card for rewards?
« Reply #19 on: November 15, 2011, 11:05:50 AM »
I dont know an exact answer. But my brother signed up for an american credit card with his social insurance number because he did not yet have a ssn and he was approved which leads me to believe that the american card was able somehow to access his SIN because they would not have approved him otherwise i'm assuming. So it is possible that there is some sharing
Which cc company?
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