Amazon Visa to be completely cancelled | Page 2 | Credit card reward programs | Discussion forum

Doug said

I just checked, with that attractive 1.75% amount you noted. That applies to the Rogers MasterCard, which carries an annual fee. The Fido MasterCard, which has no annual fee, is 1.5% plus 4% in FX transactions. Also, worth noting rewards are not true "cash back" (someone should challenge them on this!) as they must be redeemed for Rogers/Fido online purchases (i.e., new phone/accessories) or possibly as Rogers/Fido cell phone bill credits. Useless if you're a Bell or Telus wireless customer.

For these reasons, my "top picks" have been adjusted:
1. Home Trust Preferred Visa
2. Meridian Credit Union powered by Collabria Financial Visa that Peter mentioned
3. HSBC Premier World Elite MasterCard

Cheers,
Doug  

Actually the Rogers MC or Fido Mastercard you redeem towards cashback on your statement as a credit once per year if you call Rogers before December 1, it will be credited on your January statement.

see - https://rogersbank.com/legaldocs/en/Fido_MC_Rewards_Terms_and_Conditions.en.pdf

Number 7 - Redeeming rewards

You may also redeem your Rewards in the form of an annual statement credit to your Account by calling Rogers Bank at 1 855 775-2265. You must request an annual statement credit for each year that you wish to receive it by December 1st of that year. Annual statement credits will be awarded in January of the following year and the amount credited will be the total dollar value of the balance of your Fido Rewards Account as of the date the credit is issued to your Account.

I also need to choose something. I am liking what Fido is offering but I wonder if anyone has details about the Road assistant with Home Trust. I couldn't find any details on their web site. If their road assistant is good, I would most likely prefer using them. Also has anyone really used them outside Canada without any issue?

Nehpets said
TD Canada Trust offers a $USD credit card for Canadian clients HERE

However, because of TD's acquisition of banks in the U.S branded as TD Bank, with branches up and down the East Coast, and their high profile cross border banking arrangement for Canadian clients, on opening an account in a U.S. based TD branch, Canadians are eligible for a U.S. based, no fee, TD credit card.

Cross Border Banking Info..TD US

I've been using TD cross border banking since it became available several years ago and can say from personal experience it works flawlessly, with online transfer capability with good customer service when needed.  

Interesting. How do you fund the US account? If you still have to pay exchange, wouldn't it be easier to just use a no ForEx fee credit card? What's the advantage of maintaining an account in the states unless you have a USD funding source? I'm also on the left coast. Doesn't appear to be any US branches on this side of the country, so not an option I'm assuming.

Rick said
Interesting. How do you fund the US account? If you still have to pay exchange, wouldn't it be easier to just use a no ForEx fee credit card? What's the advantage of maintaining an account in the states unless you have a USD funding source? I'm also on the left coast. Doesn't appear to be any US branches on this side of the country, so not an option I'm assuming.  

Rick,

We happen to own a snowbird property in the U.S. so a U.S. based account is essential for admin purposes.

The U.S. based account is funded by EFT from my Canadian based TD $USD account.

U.S. funds are purchased periodically when the rate is favorable and deposited in Hubert's $USD HISA, then EFT transferred to TD, as outlined above.

I do believe that Royal Bank has affiliated banks in the U.S. even after the failure of their own U.S. holdings a few years ago, as well as BMO with their Harris Bank subsidiary.

However, I don't know if any other Canadian bank has as seamless a cross border banking protocol as TD has at this time.

Stephen

Rick said
Interesting. How do you fund the US account? If you still have to pay exchange, wouldn't it be easier to just use a no ForEx fee credit card? What's the advantage of maintaining an account in the states unless you have a USD funding source? I'm also on the left coast. Doesn't appear to be any US branches on this side of the country, so not an option I'm assuming.  

Agreed. That's the difficulty. You'd either need to deposit USD into your TD Bank N.A. USD chequing account, presumably with either the U.S. mobile app or in-branch at a U.S. branch, and then do either a free wire transfer or self-to-self internal transfer via Cross Border Banking. It's a lot of work to set up a U.S. account and FATCA rules may come into play in terms of the bank and the CRA disclosing your Canadian banking activities to the IRS, even if you're not a dual citizen. You could also deposit funds electronically into USD in a PayPal account and then withdraw to your TD Bank N.A. USD chequing account and use Cross-Border Banking to move the funds to TDCT's USD account. It's really tricky. 🙂

Rick said
Don't get it. If you aren't a customer that can use the rewards with the associated mobile provider, why do you need to phone in? Sounds onerous to me. What happens if you don't phone in? Does it just keep accruing forever? Also leery when companies start playing math games with the rewards...ie we charge you 2.5% BUT we'll give you 4% cashback on THOSE purchases only. I usually find out, somewhere down the road, things aren't exactly what you expected.

Agreed with you completely. It's unnecessary to have to phone-in. Bizarre system!

You made the right choice with Home Trust Preferred Visa's 1% cash back credit card with no annual fee, I think, Rick. 🙂

Cheers,
Doug

I just pulled the trigger to apply for Home Trust CC but got below message:

This product is currently not available to residents of Quebec.

I am just loving Quebec more and more everyday!

Now need to decide, Fido or Meridian! Uhum!

Save2Retire@55 said
I just pulled the trigger to apply for Home Trust CC but got below message:

This product is currently not available to residents of Quebec.

I am just loving Quebec more and more everyday!  

Got a family member that you can have the cards mailed to? Once you get it, go in and update your address online. Just reimburse the family member the nominal re-mailing costs. 🙂

Cheers,
Doug

Save2Retire@55 said

Is it that simple? I think they check the application and need address and phone number of employer. Also, if they do the credit check, I think they can see the current mailing address. It will be a false application altogether. I don't think it is a good idea 🙂  

Yes, they can see the mailing address, but provided your employer and all your demographic information (i.e., name, SIN, etc.) match, you should be fine. There's perfectly legitimate reasons why an Ontario resident might work in Quebec afterall.

You might want to update one of your bank statements to show an Ontario address to validate your residency, if asked, but it's unlikely especially if you're not exaggerating your income information in any way.

Using a false residential address would not constitute fraud or a false application in any way. Lying about your income or employment information would, for which you're not.

Most of the systems are automated anyway. I suspect it'd likely be approved and, even if it weren't, you wouldn't be penalized for the reason(s) above.

At HSBC Bank Canada, when doing credit card applications online, staff quite often were known to "fudge" the income numbers a bit by including a spouse's income in the applicant's income, that sort of thing. As long as the credit score was excellent, credit report had no blemishes and income information met HSBC MasterCard's strict requirements, the approval was almost instantaneous. Since the fax machine was located right near where I worked, we'd often get an "approval" fax minutes later, usually a minute or two after the client had just left, for which I'd be able to deliver to the account officer that submitted it.

For that reason specifically, I view credit card debt as the next significant potential cause of a "credit crisis". At least with unsecured or secured LOCs, supporting documentation is required. With credit cards, often there's no documentation required. 🙁

Cheers,
Doug

@Doug - Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

Doug said

No worries; not problem. Let me know if you end up replying. Even better, if you have a previous address that's still valid (i.e., a parent's address that you lived at temporarily between houses, perhaps), even better. 🙂

Cheers,
Doug  

That's actually a great idea. Just doing some more research before applying. There is a discussion on reddit and seems they reject so many applications for no real reasons. Some people even reported 800+ score but still got rejected.