Rogers World Elite Mastercard | Page 2 | Credit card reward programs | Discussion forum

I wanted to do a comparison.

MBNA 2% card vs this card.

Break even:

2-1.75 = .25 =.0025

annual fee = 89

89/.0025 = 35,600

But if you factor in a spend of foreign money of 500

MBNA has 2.5 fee (correction both have 2.5 fee, original had MBNA with only 2.5 fee) so 2.0.

4 - 2 =2 (corrected)

500 x .02 = 10 (corrected)

add that to annual fee

89 +10 = 99 (corrected)

99 / .0025 = 39,600 break even now (corrected)

and if you spent 5000 in another currency it would be

189/.0025 = 75,600 to break even (corrected).

So, if you travel extensively. Rogers is the card to have.

It could be beaten by a combo though.

Like Brim and Cobalt or HT Visa and MBNA.

Than it's back pretty much on an even playing field again so 35,600 spend to break even.

Rogers even beats the Cobalt if you do extensive spending in other currencies as Cobalt is 5% minus 2.5 fee = 2.5 in select categories. Which is beaten by the roger’s card if in a currency other than Canadas.

Basically, I'm saying if you travel the Rogers card is the best over all, all in one card. If you don’t travel and spend over 35,600 there is probably a better option, if your spending isn't that variable.

The cobalt is a tricky card. Everyone’s personal spending habits and soon to be spending habits must be factored in. For me it's not good enough compared to the Rogers card. Even with a combo.

It's the only competitive card that has basically no FX (it has fx but points basically remove it). Combined with the safety of not needing to worry about an annual fee.

It would even beat the GMC Visa, SPG cards and other niche cards (cards that kind of force you to spend at their properties, and are not always easy to use for many people) that pay out quite a bit.

Current card set up:

Costco 3% restaurants
PC 3% grocery
Tangerine 2% categories and pays out every month
Simply Cash AMEC for online purchases and amazon 1.25%
Everything else Rogers 1.75%

Removing Costco though as has fee associated with it. Not getting Canadian tire because don’t shop there.

Keepers:
PC, Tangerine, Simply Cash and Rogers.

With this combo getting around 2% return probably. Is it worth it to have 4 cards to get .25% more... At 40,000 that is 100 dollars more...

Need at least two cards.

If went with 2 cards only. Would go with PC and Rogers

If went with three PC, Rogers and Simply Cash.

Going to go with four though. It's the right amount that I can manage properly. I've been finding.

What do you people think? Just Rogers and the rest back ups. Simplify life.

Have reoccurring bill for the other cards to keep active but just use Rogers and forget about complications of having multiple cards with multiple billings I have to keep an eye on?

Thanks.

I think that if you are prepared to do all this calculating, then you are entitled to however many extra pennies you can squeeze out of it.

Personally, I feel I have enough challenges in life already, and wouldn't want the stress of either figuring it all out or making sure to implement it correctly. For me, the net difference is not sufficient to warrant all the effort. This depends on the individual.

I try to keep the number of cards to a minimum. However, I think it's necessary to have at least one each of Visa and MC. If one system goes down or you have a problem with them, there's always the other one, so you're not stuck. (One of our favourite restaurants ONLY accepts Visa.) And Amex doesn't really fill this need as it's not accepted everywhere. It's difficult, however, to get a good Visa card. I have an old plain jane one from BigBank which suffices, but gives a poor return. You could also look at the Scotia momentum series or Meridian for that purpose. Make sure you use them all once in a while so that they don't cancel them on you - this happened to me once with a USD card from TD-CT.

Although I don't use it, Tangerine is better than most because it gives the cash back monthly. So you don't have to worry about losing it if you die - should you care. I think too that with Tang you don't have to request it (someone will correct me if I'm wrong).
The Rogers card is a nuisance in that regard, if you aren't a Rogers customer. You have to remember to request the cash back in November in order to receive it in January. Just mark it on your calendar.

I prefer cards that enable auto-pay of their bills from my bank account. At last inquiry, Rogers didn't do this, so the bill must be paid manually. It's something else to remember or put in the calendar which requires action. Although it costs you a few cents in lost interest, I think it's easier to just pay it when the bill arrives, so you don't have to worry about it. I prefer things that will look after themselves if I should be hospitalized etc.

I suppose that, for some people, it is a way of transferring the cost of debt to a lower-interest vehicle. And it beats payday loans.
In that case, the real problem is carrying debt, not how you pay your credit card bill.

There are two types of lines of credit. The first is "secured". In this case, you put up collateral, such as your house, so the line of credit is a registered lien against your house, whether you are using it or not. This involves legal fees to set up and ultimately discharge but the rate is a bit lower than the "unsecured" line of credit which depends entirely on your personal creditworthiness.

Top It Up said
This is the first time I've ever spent time reading over posts on RFD at the link above and was taken by this question / response

My question - how do you make sure there's enough money in the chequing account? Presumably a good RFDer would want to keep a chequing account balance as low as possible and all other cash in savings/elsewhere, so it's always seemed to me that if you need to map out your cash needs for the next few weeks, you might as well just pay the bills manually at the same time. Are you using the overdraft in some way that doesn't seem clear to me?

ANSWER - I have all the credit card PADs hit my line of credit.

---------------------------

I've never had a line of credit because I guess I never needed one so I don't know the cost or benefit of having one HENCE the question IS that an efficient / effective use of a line of credit?  

They have good ideas over there. I read it sometimes.

It's not for me though. It's very smart if you're in debt.

Another poster said they use their Tangerine overdraft for all their PADS which makes more sense.

Chequing has Zero in it. Once hit with CC bill and gets email and pays.

I would just worry missing the email and having to pay a fee for the days I forgot.