AirMiles redemption for BMO investment voucher - what can you do with it? | GIC discussions | Discussion forum

Loonie said

If you collect AirMiles, you will know that it has become more and more difficult to use your points for anything with suitable redemption value unless you want a flight. They used to offer a lot of gift cards but they have gotten rid of almost all of them. I find there is very little left that I want to bother getting.

I noticed the other day that you can redeem about? 950 AM for $100 voucher for "investments" with BMO. There is another voucher for $500 as well if you have a lot more AirMiles. I don't want to open an InvestorLine account or anything like that which will have fees attached. I hunted around on the BMO site and I had difficulty figuring out what I could use these vouchers for which was not going to cost me money, one way or another. There are a few listed exclusions but they do not concern me.

The GICs all seem to require a minimum $1000, but you can only redeem 2 vouchers at a time and I don't have enough miles for 2 x 500, so I would have to put in some of my own money to bring it to 1000. Given BMO rates, I would rather put my own money somewhere else. For various reasons, this would, for me, be a non-registered investment.

Nonetheless, this is (potentially) the only way that I can see where you can actually make some money out of AirMiles. Usually, they just keep depreciating the longer you keep them!

But I want to have a plan before I order the voucher. I don't want to be stuck with something that will cost me more money to use.

I have written an email to BMO but the response was laughably useless.

So, I would like to know if anyone has redeemed AM for these vouchers, and, if so, what did you invest them in?

I buy Cineplex vouchers with my AirMiles. For personal use and gifits. My wife and I saved miles for 30 years or so. We had air miles MasterCard, bank accounts, and used our air miles card at Shell, Boston Pizza, etc. While we were not spending money just to get miles our efforts were not rewarded that well as we went on a 13 day trip of the UK using the air miles and had to spend another $6000 out of pocket. While I have been a long time BMO customer and used them in my car loan and mortgage years of need I find BMO no better than RBC. Lots of advertising, lots of fees, sucker rates, along with poor advice, while hoping you will be loyal to them only!! If you are the average guy and does not want to do some research I guess they are better than nothing. Use a financial institution for YOUR use and that may mean you have 3 or 4 financial institutions. Trust me, getting a % more is better than a gold loyalty card that you can show your friends!!! I now have 6 (including a brokerage account) and in my younger years always had 2 just in case one of the two let me down. But, Loonie, you are BETTER than the average guy. If you can get a deal on the GIC and you can see what rate it will give you overall and it is EQUAL to or better than what Accelerate offers, take it, and then move it when it matures. If you need an excel program to figure out what the rate you will get, let me know. I see they have a 100 and 500 dollar voucher....how much do you have to invest to use the 100 or 500 dollar voucher, what rate do you get, what term can you take 1 2 3 4 or 5 years, and ask them what the term investment yields. And you are right, most companies are diluting the value of points and allowing them to expire.

Loonie said

Thanks for your ideas, kanaka. I don't go out of my way to collect AirMiles any more either, as they have made it very not-worth-my-while. I agree, the fees that they make you pay for air travel make it a poor deal. This is why I was looking at the BMO offer, as I have a slew of AirMiles to get rid of. After that, I won't be bothering with them much.
So far, I have been unable to get anyone at BMO to tell me what I can invest in with this voucher which doesn't require me to add my own money to the pile. If I ever do get an answer, I will post it. Otherwise, everyone should beware.

HI, keep in mind AirMiles now expire. Try using for gifts or ???? And yes I often forgo taking the card out of my wallet when a merchant asks if I have AirMiles. It sounds like the BMO offer requires a visit to one of their financial folks at a branch looking for all of your investments along with a huge investment on your part to take advantage of the voucher. When details are very spare, be in doubt and be prepared for a big "sales job" and likely with some type of long term investment (while benefits dwindle over the term)!!!

Ok ,I found out how it works.
They have a bunch of exceptions, of course.
The teller I spoke to did not even know about them but offered to ask one of the financial people. I then spoke to a financial person who I had a dealing with a few months ago. She was not well versed in it either but confirmed I could use for a GIC with a minimum purchase of 1000. She suggested a rate riser that would give 1.5% the first year vs a plain GIC at 1%. And you can redeem the GIC on any anniversary. So 100 basically free as I don't really put any value on my air miles would give me roughly 11.5% for the one year, then withdraw! and invest elsewhere.

Can someone else verify?? This is a good tip for sure!!

Loonie this response from BMO is once again misleading as the URL leads you to ALL GIC's they offer of which some are in the EXCLUDED list as I found on the Airmiles website as posted above. ie the Cashable Variable Rate GIC as also recommended by the Financial Person (not a teller) at my BMO branch. BTW the teller was not aware of the program at all and the Financial person had to read up on it! Why would you risk buying a voucher only to find out you have been mislead and not be able the buy the investment of your choice (from the URL)? We might all be better just using the Airmiles for a new hand mixer!!! Maybe your answers are coming from and poorly trained CSR from an offshore operation.

Whew. I would do everything in emails for proof of commitment. I have asked for what investments are eligible contribute too. I look at it not as mathematical as you. If I have no value for your air miles and invest 1000 out of pocket and give a 100 voucher and invest for one year....I make more than 10% and then cash it in and move it elsewhere. Basically Air miles is giving me 100 cash. I would doubt if you could buy 2 500 vouchers and invest as 1000 with no money out of pocket.....that is probably an exclusion!! Keep in mind you can use 2 vouchers per quarter or 3 times a year. I will tell you what answer I get from them and whether I consider it valid.

Kanaka:

Remember - BMO is the place that offered me a $350 bonus if I invested $10000 for 9 months at 1.2%. It worked out to something like 6%. My wife and I both jumped in for the requisite 9 months.

I actually sat with a branch investment person and told her what I was about to do and she smiled and said something like, "wow, that's a good deal". I printed all the paperwork in case it disappeared -- but the $350 arrived as promised. And, as promised, I moved the money to somewhere better at the 9 month mark.

GS

Hi GS and Loonie.

GS I don't have a problem with what you did. BMO will win some and lose some. And it kind of shows what QUALITY OR HOW PROFESSIONAL that the Financial Person WAS NOT, doesn't it?? My question to you is out if curiosity only, did you pay any fees to transfer? BMO offered me the same 2 times but I am retired and see no need to buy RRSP's and am currently getting out of them to minimize income tax in my later years with the forced RRIF and to avoid any clawbacks.

Loonie I have to admit BMO MasterCard had always treated me well, even if I was wrong.
I would talk to a financial person first and make sure what voucher you use and how much out if pocket you are going to spend on what investment. And confirm as being for sure. I just vacant believe BMO can't proved a list of eligible investments to use the voucher with......or what is the catch??

In High School I had a teacher for a business class I took and I have always tried to use his theory.
If you want a suit go to a men's clothing store not a department store.
If you want your automatic transmission repaired go to a transmission shop, not a dealership.
You well get professional work or product that is repaired or fits properly, etc.
Get the drift of what he was saying?? It still applies today.

I am Manulife and they are comparable to BMO for offering a variety of products including GIC's. Both fall under the category of department store or dealership.
When I retired I was allowed to put a huge chunk (but not all) of severance pay into an RRSP to soften the income tax blow. I also had GIC's with Peak now Manulife as well. If I had parted out my GIC's for higher interest with financial institutions that specialize in higher rates I would be ahead by $2000 per year. A tough decision to make to betray your advisor a bit and to handle on your own and the extra effort you have to make. That $2000 times the 7 years it has been there would have gone in my pocket and also help offset the income tax when doing partial withdrawals from an RRSP. I am working with some of the Manitoba CU's and finding much higher rates and also like to not keep all of my eggs in one basket so I am working with three of them and looking for number four, and no I don't have that much money. But I am able to set up my GIC's that are outside of my RRSP in five year ladders with interest paid annually to live with along with my pensions while leaving the principal alone. So eventually I will be siphoning off interest annually at the 5 year interest rate and hopefully my total GIC's will be in an amount evenly divided by 5 to allow reasonable access to funds on an annual basis. One issue I have is convincing my wife to spread the funds out, because she thinks our advisor is a nice guy. I think he would be nice too, if he could do as well as me!!! Lol