The battle of credit cards with HIGH base rate (1.5%+) in Canada

1. Lowest Annual Fee.
2. They don't care about income.
3. Customer Service is unbeatable.
4. Uncapped CB.

rhw123 wrote: ↑ Amex SCP requires $19,800 spend per year to break even with Rogers WE.
Brim WE is max 1.2% if you factor in AF.
CWB WE is max 1.52%.
MBNA WE is 1.67% cash back and requires $70,588 spend per year to break even with Rogers WE.

smartie wrote: ↑ I am old school. But for regular people, Rogers WE probably beat all of those considering amex acceptance issue, MBNA is not exactly 2%, CWE is new and lot people probably don't want to deal with Brim

Might be including 1.5% + cards is more comprehensive

titaniumtux wrote: ↑ I have CDC VISA Plat [Icey White] for 5%/everything and no-FTF, otherwise can use Mogo for 1.25-2.5% cashback especially for spend that's excluded from CDC's cashback, so these 2%/uncat Canadian credit cards are irrelevant to me. If you wanna argue that you're too cool to use prepaids, well CDC is working on putting in a crypto collateral to grant a "credit limit" and function as a secured CC. Their 2% card (Ruby Red) is dirt cheap.

EdisonL299 wrote: ↑ MBNA RWE
...
- Redemption: travel, e-gift cards
...

This is why I put up the redemption type for each card.
MBNA RWE gives 2% return if you redeem for travel or e-gift cards (not factoring annual fee here).

Also, for this card, I don't think anyone should redeem for cash back. Just like Amex Cobalt, should you redeem for cash back (1K MRS = $7)? Obviously no.

titaniumtux wrote: ↑ otherwise can use Mogo for 1.25-2.5% cashback especially for spend that's excluded from CDC's cashback,

EDL67134234 wrote: ↑ Isn't it a hassle keeping track of expenses and recurring payments that will be coming out? Or do you like etransfer and let cash sit there?

One of the benefits of credit cards is if you put expenses past your statement date, depending on Grace period, using a credit card is essentially an interest free loan for 50-60 days.

It frees up cash flow, you gain some tiny interest on it.

Also, is CDC's CRO coin that valuable?

1. e-transfer enough every week/fortnight/month or whatever to cover spend
2. OK. I must be doing it wrong then . Using an oversimplified example...$1k monthly spend, 1.2% HISA, 2% credit card with annual fee...you get $20/month cashback and $1 in HISA interest. Say you had that $1k sit in CDC prepaid card balance and earn nothing, but use their 3% cashback card (what I would consider to be a better equivalent to the big bank chequing/premium CC with AF waiver combo), you'd earn $30 cashback, no HISA interest. Now you wouldn't leave >$1k in card balance unless you were anticipating larger scale spending within the coming 2-6 weeks, so your remaining $$ that you'd save in HISA, could stash some TCAD in Crypto Earn in CDC and earn 6-14% for 0/1/3 months term deposits. If you were to put $1k in there and $1k in card balance, you've blown whatever you'd earn in HISA interest on $2k balance out of the water. Sure, I agree, CC's free up cash flows, but unless you're strapped for cash, the benefits of using a CC with a CL & grace period is trivial versus a prepaid
3. Their CRO coin is a utility coin. It fluctuates. You can convert it immediately to CAD or stablecoin or even BTC, ETH, etc. upon earning it. Some ppl hoard CRO to unlock more things at CDC or spend 'em on gift cards or other things. There's no real right or wrong way to use it. Even if my 5% cashback is nerfed by spreads, some immediate devaluation between when I earn and when sell it, say I lose to VISA's exchange rate when I could have used a US issued card or other things...I'm still up say 4-4.5% net, which is much better than what any CC can offer me

mrelusive wrote: ↑ How are you getting 1.25-2.5% on Mogo when the advertised rate is 1-2%… unless you are being creative with how you load it?

rhw123 wrote: ↑ It used to be that this kind of thread would be flooded by people arguing that their favourite travel card effectively earned more than 2% cash back because they could redeem their points for business class flights at 3.5 cpp or something. Where are they?

This time it's the crypto people flooding the thread, lol. Sign of the (pandemic) times?

1. the crypto products (payment cards) are new, especially in Canada
2. yes, travel cards are less relevant when most people aren't (or shouldn't be) travelling
3. Even still, those travel cards are mainly good for churning...most have 2.5% FTF and a handful of restrictions on highly optimized redemptions (high minimum to redeem, etc.)

rhw123 wrote: ↑ It used to be that this kind of thread would be flooded by people arguing that their favourite travel card effectively earned more than 2% cash back because they could redeem their points for business class flights at 3.5 cpp or something. Where are they?