Personal Finance

Best NO-FEE Credit Card

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  • Aug 13th, 2013 11:30 pm
Sr. Member
Jan 16, 2010
629 posts
21 upvotes

Best NO-FEE Credit Card

What's the best no-fee credit card out there?
60 replies
Sr. Member
Jan 16, 2010
629 posts
21 upvotes
Sorry, I forgot to mention no MBNA cards. I've had quite a history with them so I would prefer to avoid them.
Newbie
Mar 7, 2008
3 posts
It depends on what you like in return. I pay in full every month so I am only guessing my interest rate are. I have a PC Financial MasterCard, no annual charge, I think the interest is about 20%, I get 1% back in points to get groceries. 20,000 points is equal to $20 free food. I also have a Wal-Mart mastercard, also around 20% interest. 1% cash back in points at every store except Wal-Mart, at Wal-Mart you get 1.25% back, get to cash in starting at minimum of $5 (hope it makes sense, I do appoligise if it doesn't). No annual fee for that one. I also have a no annual visa with CIBC for 19.99%, just a basic one, with no point rewards. I tend to like to the ones with no annual fee ones with some sort of rewards given back. There is one with RBC and Starbucks, my brother tried to apply for that one, but got declined. He got one with Scotiabank (went in person) for the scene card, again no annual fee. Got a bonus of 2000 points (2 free movies or 1 free movie with a large pop and popcorn). Hope this helps a bit. There is also one for Sobeys and a different one for Target, no idea what they have to offer, no idea what you are looking for. Depends on what you like and what is the best deal for you.
Jr. Member
Mar 7, 2012
199 posts
70 upvotes
jewville wrote: What's the best no-fee credit card out there?
Depends.

- Is it a card you want to hold for a long time? When I think about the best no-fee cards, they're the ones with big signup bonuses in the first year.
- Do you do a lot of spending or a little? If it's less than $1000 a month, I'd concentrate on the signup bonus cards and turn (churn) those over time.
- Do you carry a balance? I have no recommendations for those who carry a balance, other than don't carry a balance.

If I had to recommend one card to get, it would be the Amex Gold Rewards card: 20,000 Membership Rewards points, for about $200 in value. The 20,000 is available through a referral from another cardmember (PM me, or others on these forums.)

Also, I can't say enough good things about MBNA, lately. I agree they were a different company many years ago. When I've had issues and problems, they have always been resolved to my satisfaction without a lot of hassle. Certainly less hassle than cards offered by the traditional big Canadian banks. I've made at least 2% on all my spending, and a boatload of signup bonuses.
Deal Addict
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Aug 1, 2008
1891 posts
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Montréal
I say best no fee credit card for all around is Chase Amazon.ca Visa. It has a nice 1% cash back (2% on amazon.ca) that redeem automatically as a credit to your statement when you reach $20. Plus it has no forex. Visa is accepted almost everywhere. If you want to have only one card, and make purchase on internet, it's a really good card I say.
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Deal Expert
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Mar 23, 2009
22529 posts
8938 upvotes
Toronto
Bomberman07 wrote: I say best no fee credit card for all around is Chase Amazon.ca Visa. It has a nice 1% cash back (2% on amazon.ca) that redeem automatically as a credit to your statement when you reach $20. Plus it has no forex. Visa is accepted almost everywhere. If you want to have only one card, and make purchase on internet, it's a really good card I say.
Yeah, that's great, but according to the thread they seem stingy with the credit limit and approvals. Certainly for me, it was by far the lowest approved credit limit. Furthermore, there is no purchase/warranty/travel/auto rental insurance whatsoever. Plus, some other no-fee cards have higher cash back. So, for me, this Amazon.ca card seems like a great secondary card.
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Aug 1, 2008
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EugW wrote: Yeah, that's great, but according to the thread they seem stingy with the credit limit and approvals. Certainly for me, it was by far the lowest approved credit limit. Furthermore, there is no purchase/warranty/travel/auto rental insurance whatsoever. Plus, some other no-fee cards have higher cash back. So, for me, this Amazon.ca card seems like a great secondary card.
it all depends on definition of BEST. Must he have only one card? Does he have a good credit file? Does he travel? Does he spend of lot? On what categories?


I could have answered that my RWE is the best no fee credit card. But it's so hard to get.
I feel the need... the need for speed.
Deal Fanatic
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Mar 3, 2002
9417 posts
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The following are the best no-annual fee cash back credit cards (based on cash back) available in Canada:


1. MBNA Rewards World Elite Mastercard (not easy to obtain)

2. MBNA Rewards Travel Platinum Plus Mastercard (not easy to obtain, but the Loyalty dept./supervisors are able to issue it)


3. Capital One Aspire Cash World Mastercard (if you can't get #1 or #2; this card has better travel insurance benefits)

4. Amazon.ca Rewards Visa (for anything you buy that's not in Canadian currency).

5. Canadian Tire Mastercard (for paying gas and electricity bills or bills that you can't normally pay with a credit card)


Also, for the MBNA cards, you can earn more than 2% cash back by shopping through this site: https://www.onlinembnarewardsmall.com/a ... yoffer.htm
Deal Expert
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Mar 23, 2009
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Bomberman07 wrote: it all depends on definition of BEST. Must he have only one card? Does he have a good credit file? Does he travel? Does he spend of lot? On what categories?
You don't have to travel a lot or spend a lot to take advantage of insurance benefit. Warranty extension or trip interruption insurance is still useful to a lot of people, even if just used occasionally. And if you look at only cash back cards the Aspire Cash World card has 1.5% cash back as well as warranty extension, trip interruption insurance, and rental collision. And if you can't get the Aspire Cash World, there's the Aspire Cash Platinum which still offers 1.25% cash back as well as warranty extension and collision.

The only real benefits of the Amazon.ca card is only the lack of forex fees and the 1% cash back (or 2% on Amazon.ca). Since it's missing so many other features and it's a lower rate card, I think for most people it's better suited to being a secondary card for out-of-country purchases while travelling and for online purchases on eBay or from US retail stores and the like.

As for the credit file being good or not, it seems the low-credit-limit Amazon.ca card is actually harder to get for many people than some of the other cards with more features.
I could have answered that my RWE is the best no fee credit card. But it's so hard to get.
RWE IMO is the best no-fee credit card if you have it, but in practical terms it doesn't really exist for most people. For most people it's a card that officially costs $89 per year.
Sr. Member
Jan 16, 2010
629 posts
21 upvotes
Who is the most lenient on credit card limits?
Sr. Member
Jan 16, 2010
629 posts
21 upvotes
What's easier to get Chase cards, Canadian Tire cards, or the Wal-Mart card?
Deal Addict
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Aug 1, 2008
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jewville wrote: What's easier to get Chase cards, Canadian Tire cards, or the Wal-Mart card?
I say chase is the hardest to get. Don't know about the other two
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Mar 23, 2009
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Chase gave me the lowest credit limit. MBNA gave me the highest, by a large margin. (So high that I asked them to cut it in half, and not to ask me if I wanted to raise the limit in the future.)
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Aug 1, 2008
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EugW wrote: Chase gave me the lowest credit limit. MBNA gave me the highest, by a large margin. (So high that I asked them to cut it in half, and not to ask me if I wanted to raise the limit in the future.)
yeah MBNA is giving away credit it's crazy. I had a BT card maxed and they gave me RTP with $9k credit limit :P Where chase is not willing to do business with me :(
I feel the need... the need for speed.
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Mar 3, 2002
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Bomberman07 wrote: yeah MBNA is giving away credit it's crazy. I had a BT card maxed and they gave me RTP with $9k credit limit :P Where chase is not willing to do business with me :(
Your issue is specific to the Chase Amazon.ca Visa. Chase issues a lot of credit cards (Sears, Best Buy or Futureshop, etc.). It's possible you could get a Sears credit card without issue from Chase.

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