Brim Financial Mastercards now charge a 1.5% foreign transaction fee | Credit card reward programs | Discussion forum

It's still not clear on if current card holders will be grandfathered or not.

If not and all cards are reduced rewards and charge an FX fee, I guess that's the end of this card.

I got the email now, this card is officially dead:

Thank you for being a Brim Mastercard cardholder! We are notifying you of important changes to your Brim Mastercard® Cardmember Agreement (the “Agreement”) which governs your use of your Brim Mastercard credit card account (the “Account”) and your Brim Mastercard credit card (the “Card”). We are also notifying you about changes to the Brim Rewards Terms and Conditions (the “Rewards T&Cs”) which governs your participation in the Brim Open Rewards Program.

There are two changes that will optimize the value you are currently receiving:

1. Your foreign exchange fee will be only 1.5%, while most other cards charge 2.5%, allowing you to continue to save on your cross-border shopping.
2. You’ll continue to earn unlimited rewards with merchant partners and you will earn 1 point for every $2 spend, with no maximum.
These changes are amendments to your Agreements with us and will take effect 60 days from the date of this email and no later than May 18, 2024 (the “Effective Date”). All capitalized words used but not defined in this notice have the meanings given to them in the Agreement. These changes apply to your Account regardless of whether you currently have a balance outstanding. By continuing to use your Card or the Account on or after the Effective Date, or if you have a balance outstanding on your Account as of the Effective Date, this means that you have read, understood and agreed to these changes.

The upcoming changes can be found here: Notice Of Change.

For additional details please visit: brimfinancial.com/legal

You don’t need to take any action as a result of receiving this update. Please continue to use your Brim Mastercard like you do today to continue enjoying savings and maximize your rewards.

The EQ bank card is .5% back, the WS is 1%.

I've been doing a lot of reading on this topic the past 2 days and have come to conclude that the BRIM card was just a proof of concept. They have no interest in continuing now that they have done that and have successfully won other contracts.

For me, the only no AF cards for no FX are now:

Home Trust CC VISA - good credit card option, not great customer service
EQ Bank MC prepaid .5% cash back - good for atms and paying if you carry a balance on the prepaid card
WS MC prepaid 1% cash back - nifty package. I like how the virtual card is a different number so if your physical or virtual card is compromised the other one will still be safe to use. I also like you can use an authenticator app which means you don't have a phone number or cellular connectivty on the phone you're using

Rogers World Elite CC can be an option for those with Rogers services as then you get enough of a bonus to cover your bill if you use the money to pay for your Rogers/Fido bill. You get charged the 2.5% FX but you get 4.5% on USD purchases and 3% on other foreign currencies. I've had bad experiences with Rogers CS in the past, but I think it's prudent to have this as a good back up CC in my case

There are cards with AF, but I'm not interested in that. I choose to got the path of variety to cover all situations possible. If I chose an AF card I'd have to use it for everything and then if it got nerfed etc, I'd be in a worse situation.

Some people like Wise as well, but I don't like all the info they want me to give them to get a card, but other may find them useful.

I had gotten lazy with using Brim on trips, but it's back to having a small army of options in the wallet to try and cover all scenarios.