What is the best rewards card for me given my spending habits ? | Credit card reward programs | Discussion forum

Are you saying that you put all of these expenses on the credit card, so that you put in total about 36,000/yr on the cards? Generally speaking, the more you put on the card, the more worthwhile it is to have a card with a fee.
Another consideration is, what kind of reward are you looking to get? Do you want travel, cashback, or something else?
Do you need or want the insurance policies that a lot of credit cards offer? If so, which ones? They can potentially save you a lot if you rely on them.
There are a lot of things to consider.

I primarily use two Mastercards, and like you seem to do, put EVERYTHING on the cards.

I use a Capital One Aspire Cash World Mastercard for most purchases, except as noted below. It is a no fee, 1.5% cash back card, with 1% of that coming as you earn it and the other 0.5% is paid out at the card's anniversary. The "points" go into a reward account and you need to decided when to do something about them. They will mail you a cheque or use the points to reduce your current balance. I move them monthly to reduce my balance. (I never carry a balance from statement to statement on any card.)

My second primary card is an MBNA Smart World Mastercard - no fee, first $400 of grocery and gas spending in the calendar month gets 2% back as points. When 5000 points are accumulated they mail you a $50 cheque. I use it from the 1st of the month till I hit the $400 of monthly spending.

I also have an Amex Air Miles card - used only at Costco and it collects Air Miles, an RBC Shoppers Optimum Mastercard - used only at Shoppers Drug Mart and it collects Shoppers Optimum points, an RBC Target Mastercard used only at Target and that gives me a 5% discount on all purchases there, a CIBC Dividend Visa Card that I use for anywhere that doesn't take Mastercard, it gives me UP TO 1% back but I never reach the spending limits needed.

I also have a CIBC Petro Canada Mastercard for when the price of gas makes their 2 cents per litre discount better than the 2% or 1.5% from the two primary cards, an Amazon Visa card, a Home Depot, Citibank, I think, Mastercard and likely one or two more - all these were opened to get some sort of amazing opening offer.

Greg
GS

Here is a link to a website that tries to compare various travel reward cards. It looks like the latest comparisons were posted last month. I hope it helps.

http://www.rewardscanada.ca/

The Cap1 Apsire Travel MC cards got downgraded late 2013/early 2014. They got rid of the World version and removed the 0.25% bonus on the Platinum version. So now it's just a flat 1% with annual fee. Still worthwhile if the benefits suits you.

MBNA has a 2% cb card. The Rewards Platinum or World versions. Both 2%, both has fees, both with extra benefits. The difference is the World version has concierge service.

If you dont want forex fees, the Chase Amazon.ca, Chase Sears, and Chase Meriott will accomplish that. I believe the Amazon.ca and Sears one is no annual fee also.

I currently use the Amazon.ca as my main one as was declinced for the Cap1 Apsire World MC (1.5% cb) and also the MBNA RTP (2% cb). The Amazon.ca gives me 1% cb, but it's still better than my old TD Rebates Rewards.

Like Loonie said, you'll have to research and do the math yourself. Only you yourself know your situation. We can really only give card suggestions for our situations.

Putitonthecard said

[snip]

What would you recommend for US purchases ? Is there a card that provides rewards for purchases in USD without charging a premium for conversion ?

Thanks again !

Samantha

Samantha:

I have two US$ cards -- one US based and one Canadian based. I buy US$ and hold it in my ING US$ account for when I need to pay either card down.

The US based card is from RBC Bank (Georgia) and the Canadian based one is what someone here called BMO Mosaik, but the Mosaik name is long gone. I use the RBC card ONLY when the BMO card won't work -- such as to top up my US Tracfone which needs a US based card to work. Everything else goes on the BMO card. I pay them $49 per year to get 1% back and most years come out ahead by a few dollars.

I also pay them $329 per year for 31 days of unlimited out of province travel insurance. This is cheaper than the additional coverage I get for my longer trips. Travel insurance is a real nightmare when one really reads the policy. I have a good friend who just settled a lawsuit and it only cost $15k for the lawyer to fight a $100k bill.

Greg

Loonie:

My RBC Bank (Georgia) card is part of the Cross Border Banking package (free almost) from RBC. I say almost free as their Checking account incurs a $2.95 per month fee. I hold my nose each month and pay it. I have their checking account with a debit card (the only debit card I use) that comes in handy at Costco in the US as I don't want to use my Canadian$ Amex card in the US. I also have their previously mentioned US$ Visa card as well as a $2000 line of credit to cover overdrafts on the checking account. I set that up when RBC Bank had branches in the US and the account person I was dealing with got "bonus points" when customers added products. I liked him and it cost me nothing.

I asked them to increase it from $2k to $4k last year and they agreed to increase it, but only to $3.5k and sent me 5 pounds of paper to fill out. I still have it here collecting dust. (The banks really need to look at their customer's banking as a whole rather than as individual silos. One could generate $20,000 of profit for the bank in one area and then be nickeled and dimed to death in another.)

TD has a similar package with a higher fee - but it could be waived with a minimum balance if I recall correctly.

I've been an RBC customer for 50+ years and now have all my primary banking with them, and don't mind most of their practices, so don't want to change. I pay no fees with them other than trading fees at Direct Investing and the smelly $2.95 US$ checking account fee that really irks me.

To pay my BMO US$ Mastercard balance I have it set to automatically be paid from my US$ BMO chequeing account. When I need to pay it I initiate a transfer from ING US$ account to BMO US$ account and that flows the money. At times I have needed to transfer money from my RBC US based US$ account or my RBC DI US$ trading account to my RBC Canadian based US$ account and from there I need ING to pull it to ING and then push it to BMO. When that happens I need an extra 7 days to let it settle in ING. (It's OK -- I have it all figured out!)

Greg

Loonie:

Remember, it is a US$ bank account paying a US$ credit card.

Greg

According to BMO when you have a BMO US dollar chequing account and a US dollar MasterCard you can pay the US dollar MasterCard bill from your US dollar checking account as a transfer. Not a bad option but keep in mind you cannot post date the transfer of funds. You can also convert Canadian dollars from your BMO savings or chequing account instantly to your US dollar account at the current exchange rate. Both options do NOT have the normal 2% handling fee as you would find on most Canadian dollar credit cards used for American dollar purchase. There is a fee for the US dollar BMO MasterCard but is waived based on a annual usage of at least $1000.