I've got the Infinite Avion and I think it's a good card. Once a year they have a promotion where you can convert your avion points for 1.5x british airways or 1.5x asia miles. Another perk is you are able to find your own flight of choice to use your points at and not be tied down by partner travel sites such as travelocity and etc. But the main reason I'm sticking with the card is due to the excellent coverage of the travel insurance. Unfortunately that's why it is so expensive as well..

IIRC, there has never been a 1.5X Asia Miles promotion. Only BA.

No point going through referrals. Sign up via Great Canadian Rebate instead.

AMEX Gold Rewards:
- $150/year, first year free
- 25K MR after $500 spending
- $50 cashback from GCR

AMEX AeroplanPlus Gold :
- $120/year, first year NOT waived
- After $500 spending:
a) 26K Aeroplan via referral
OR
b) 25K Aeroplan non-referral + $40 cashback from GCR

i have the AMEX gold myself.
$1 = 4 points for gas, grocery, and restaurants.

funny thing is when i buy booze from the Liquor Depot in Lansdowne Mall, they count as $1 = 4 points.

in BC Liquor Store and other liquor stores i been, they only count as $1 = 1 point.

Which country do you live in that give you $1 = 4 points???

:suspicious:

canada lol
http://www.scotiabank.com/ca/en/0,,4657,00.html

AMEX has two new cashback cards https://www.americanexpress.com/ca/e...d25&card=card1

And they're transparent

http://i.imgur.com/b6ikNQk.jpg
They gave out the top one when they ran out of the transparent one early on.

1) SimplyCash
no annual fee, 5% cashback for 6 months for gas, grocery & restaurants for up to $250 in that period (spend $5000)
1.25% cashback on everything after 6 months
$25 rebate through GCR

2) SimplyCash Preferred
$79 annual fee, 5% cashback on ALL purchases first 6 months for up to $400 (spend $8000)
1.5% cashback on all purchases up to $100 000, 1.25% after
$50 rebate through GCR which almost covers for the first year.

Looking at getting a USD credit card. If you are a holder, which provider and how are you finding it?

Purpose of card is for cross boarder Gas / Seattle Premium Outlets / Costco / etc

This is what I am leaning towards to right now.
BMO U.S. Dollar MasterCard | Credit cards | BMO Bank of Montreal

I recommend Amazon.ca VISA card. No exchange fees, no annual fees.

+1 on this. You also get 1% cash back and $20 Amazon credit on approval.

Yes, this is a decent option.

However, there are some use cases where one might actually want a card that is in US dollars.

I use the TD US Dollar Visa card, which is included for free with the All-Inclusive banking plan.

TD Canada Trust | TD U.S. Dollar Visa Card

What I like to do is when the exchange rate is good, I'll buy a bunch of USD and put it in my US bank account. After that, when I use the TD US Dollar Visa, I just pay for it with the funds from the US bank account.

There might even be some cases where you need a real US credit card that's issued by a US bank, and that's possible too. I believe it's possible to do through RBC and TD, but the easiest way might be getting a credit card from Umpqua Bank (formerly Sterling Bank), which there are several locations just across the border.

https://www.umpquabank.com/personal-.../credit-cards/

From what I remember reading on RedFlagDeals, the branches just across the border are very Canadian friendly and they are very familiar with the process of issuing credit cards to Canadians.

just want to give a little update in regards to the MBNA SmartCash MC since it seems to be a very popular card

recently i found out there were some fraud charges on my card, looked up their CS number to call on their website(says its 24/7 to file for fraud) and it was all automated answering, no options to speak with someone. called the number (diff number than the first) on the back of the card and again got the same automated messages. fine, went on their website and spoke with a live chat agent n was told to log in and start online chat from there so they can verify me. logged in spoke with a diff agent and was given a number to call. called that number (3rd number) and again was given the same automated messages, figured i'd press 0 to reach someone and it did, only to be told fraud department is closed and not 24/7. add to the fact that each time i called it required me to put in my cc number and even the ccv on the back before i can even select any options, seems kinda super sketchy to me. shouldnt a real person verify me personally with my details n not verify me with my cc info via an automated process?!

In regards to the fraud on MBNA, I had fraud transactions on my smart cash card.

Got a phone call right away from their fraud department and they made me aware of the transactions .

It was a tedious process because of the paper work that they mail to you and which you have to mail back.

But with that all said and done all of the fraud was cleared up.

does anyone have a definite answer on whether applying for additional credit cards or cancelling the ones you have now negatively affect your credit rating on any way?

Have the same card as you, very good card imo. But in terms of their customer service and in your case, correcting fraud charges. I believe the lack of quality in their customer service is due to cutbacks and layoffs in the past recent months. Feel bad for the company, but I guess cash back for customers is a higher priority.

when i spoke with the cs rep it did not give me any confidence at all. i actually have 3 fraud charges. 1 was $3XX purchase made at "Donny's Funky Broadway" in michigan, 1 purchase of $10 at World Outreach in burnside, australia, and 1 refund of $10 at World Outreach all within 2 days of each other. When i questioned the rep abt the world outreach charges he said oh it could just be a mistake that they charged the wrong card, it was refunded in the end so its not consider fraud. im like wtf, what r the ODDS of charging the wrong CC number and charged my cc along with the correct expiry date!? the rep then told me my cc was actually flagged for fraud monitoring since dec yet i was never informed of this until i called yesterday.

when u apply for any kinda of a credit, weather it be a cc or loan, the creditor does a credit check on ur credit file through equifax or transunion. these credit checks r consider "hard hits" where it was affect ur credit rating negatively in some sort of way. each hard hit credit check takes a few points away from ur total credit status. so if u apply for new cc often, those points can add up and negatively affect ur credit rating.

as for canceling unused cc, it is advised that u do not cancel cc, especially if its a large limit cc as this lowers the over all credit limit(the limit of all ur cc combined) on ur credit file that u have been granted when applying for a cc. it does not negatively affect ur credit score, but in the eyes of creditors, re: banks, they'll question y ur lowering ur over credit limit thinking that ur not able to pay it off so less likely to grant u new cc.

this incident has left me unimpressed. this is actually the first time i dealt with their cs. with their recent computer system upgrades causing shit tons of problems and their lack of a dedicated phone app, i guess this might be the final straw for me to switch cc. and to add, the cs agent i spoke with had thick heavy indian accent which lead me to believe cs is outsourced to a third world country. seemed super sketchy when i called.

Having too much credit though is also a bad thing which is why some people would suggest cancel unused or lower the limit. It's suggested that leaving a long time card is good because you keep that relationship with the bank or whichever credit union the card is from which may be beneficial for deals, low rates etc. When a bank sees that you have lets say 50k in credit limit and you want to borrow 300k for a mortgage they might think hmmm this guy could rack up 50k tomorrow on a spending spree thus he could potentially be 350k in debt now, is he a risk to pay me back my 300k?

At the end of the day, there is no magic formula a bank or any lender uses to calculate things nor is there some magic formula we must follow for excellent credit scores.

For scores, pay your shit on time always and your score won't be a problem. Cancelling cards, having too many will affect your score in a minor way but nothing crazy.

For lenders, think of if a friend were to ask to borrow $500, $5000 etc. You take their history i.e. available credit, previous history, how much they make etc and think of risk. Can I trust to borrow this person this amount? Do I think they're capable of paying me back based on previous and current data? Everyone is a different story and as such they evaluate everyone on a case to case.

yes in the eyes of creditors, there is no magic formula one can use, its all about risk management. credit scores is one thing they take into account along with many other things.

Same thing happen with my CIBC tim card. So I question the agent what if I lost my card and need to call when the office is close. He keep saying the phone is 24/7 I got his ID and his name. Call after hours and bam is close. So I call in to complain the agent lie. Basically their supervisor can't give me a straight answer what number should I call that's open 24/7 if my card was stolen because the number on the card and the open on their website that adversite as 24/7 isn't open.

Going to only carry my Captial One CC with me when I got travel as they have way better service and you can actually connects to someone 24/7.

What credit card should I get as a student?

MBNA Smart Cash.

This is not a student card.

It's not classify as a "student card", but it would be one that a "student" would 99.9995% chance qualify for.

I remembered there was an income requirement when I applied for the card a few years back. As I look on the MBNA website, it is no longer there.

You might be right. My bad!

Most MBNA cards (including some of the slightly more "premium") ones, as long as you list you're a student, they are fairly lenient when it comes to approval.

The Smart Cash is one of their most basic one - OP would get approved for sure. Providing he haven't been bankrupt, or any sort of bad history.

2% Cash back on Gas / Grocery. 1% on everything else. Yes, there might be some slightly better ones out there, but they come with a heavy income requirement or annual fee. And it's not tiered unlike some of the big banks.