As competition heats up, Canadians have options for finding the best rewards credit card

They need to find a new stock photo instead of that one with someone’s nasty ass ingrown nail holding a bunch of cards.

Altera wrote: ↑ They need to find a new stock photo instead of that one with someone’s nasty ass ingrown nail holding a bunch of cards.

Dude has bitten off all his nails from the stress of all that credit card debt

I miss the Marriot Visa and our friends down south can apply right now with a sign up bonus of 100K points!

vkizzle wrote: ↑ I miss the Marriot Visa and our friends down south can apply right now with a sign up bonus of 100K points!

I find it funny, that a couple new cards come out with Forex free feature, and a couple more WE cards with no annual fee, and that somehow is a competition.
If there really were some kind of competition, we would have even half the selection of good cards as our southern neighbors.
But we don’t.

Our cards are laughable. There are a couple of cheap imitations of US based credit cards offering us crumbs. Sad really.

“It’s that aspirational aspect, it gives you something to dream for. Taking a flight to Tahiti is a lot more fun than buying a fridge.”

True, lol.

“If you like to travel and only travel at Christmas, but all Christmas dates are blacked out, then that’s probably not the card for you.”

Again, true.

If one wants premium class air travel, one usually has to be flexible in dates and connections. I didn't have much trouble getting premium class seat to Europe, but I needed to travel a few days after I wanted to, and I had to connect through another city to get where I wanted to go. If one wants multiple premium class seats, is inflexible about the date and flight number, and wants only nonstop service without a connection, well, that isn't easy to pull off. I know a guy who has nearly 1 million BA Avios points accumulated (from RBC Avion transfers over the years) and he has never once made a redemption as he only wants First Class nonstop service on BA metal YYZ-LHR during peal summer dates. He never finds availability (checks in April for July trip) so ends up booking travel and paying for it and saying "I'll use the points another time" yet that time never comes. Maybe when he retires and is more flexible in when he wants to fly. BA has a lot of good availability from London to most European cities, but that doesn't help if one lives in YYZ and wants to fly nonstop to London, Paris and Rome.

vkizzle wrote: ↑ I miss the Marriot Visa and our friends down south can apply right now with a sign up bonus of 100K points!

Overall Chase has some awesome cards in the US. The Marriott card, as well as the CSR card offer a lot more value than most Canadian cards.

I miss my Marriott Visa a lot. One of my big foreign exchange spends was Marriott hotels within Asia. The SPG card can't come close as I lose 2.5% on the foreign exchange fee, which isn't worth the 1 additional Marriott Rewards point per dollar I get versus the Marriott Visa.

I get Canada is a small market, and a lot of other countries with similar credit card spend per capita have worse options than we do. However, being so close to the US, we kind of see how it "could be" and wish for greener pastures to come our way. I hope something good does come...

what competition

Three words: illusion of choice.

ilove wrote: ↑ what competition

A list of new cards released this year, especially Rogers WE, Triangle WE and Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite.

coolintheshade wrote: ↑ https://www.thestar.com/amp/business/20 ... -card.html

Not sure where these guys are finding this “competition”, aside from high income based cards.
Canadian credit cards suck compared to other countries.

Which countries, aside the US?

AmEx can be good, but either big AF or big FTF, so might be ok to use foreign AmEx in their homelands.

Competition in Canada for credit cards is on the rise. Expect Simplii to launch visa cards later this year. Perhaps no where near the US market, but we're also but a sliver of their population. Understandable that travel cards are mainly limited to big five, since they're the only ones who can afford to take the hit from churners. But cashback cards are getting better, and certainly not limited to big five.

The US market certainly has a wide variety of cards...

HermanH wrote: ↑ The US market certainly has a wide variety of cards...

That’s bad ass!
I want one!
With a huge ass limit!

EdisonL299 wrote: ↑ A list of new cards released this year, especially Rogers WE, Triangle WE and Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite.

Sure, but the real competition lies in card devaluation.
MBNA just butchered the TrueLine into two cards.
No more super low interest rate, and they’ve added an annual fee.
This after adding annual fee to Smart Cash not long ago.
RWE will be the next victim.

Also of interest, the famous 0%/12 PP card is no longer in the selection of MBNA cards.
Although the application link in the OP of the thread for that card still works, for now.

I don't understand why there is no no-fee 2% cashback on everything card without any insurance. Is that asking too much?

coolintheshade wrote: ↑ Canadian credit cards suck compared to other countries.

If it makes you feel any better, the rewards here are much better than the UK, where the average no-fee CC gives you around 0.5% cashback, the equivalent Amex premium cashback card (with AF) gives you 1.25%, and nothing really comes with perks like travel insurance, rental car insurance, roadside assistance, airline lounge passes etc. Also until recently, it was very common for many places to charge surcharges for credit card (and even sometimes, debit card) payments - not no-name cheap restaurants, but major online companies (airlines, hotel chains etc.).

So, it could be worse!

MoneyHypeMike wrote: ↑ I don't understand why there is no no-fee 2% cashback on everything card without any insurance. Is that asking too much?

Basically, yes.

A no-fee, 2% everything (non-tiered, non-promotional-rate) cashback card is extremely rare.

In the US, only one card fits that criteria (Citi Double Cash).

Outside of the US, I doubt you'll find such a card.

MoneyHypeMike wrote: ↑ I don't understand why there is no no-fee 2% cashback on everything card without any insurance. Is that asking too much?

Is 1.5% close enough? Rogers/Fido, no insurances, no annual fee.

Manatus wrote: ↑ So, it could be worse!

We have to be careful what we wish for. We demand higher rewards, so issuers charge higher merchant fees. Merchants pass this on to us through higher prices. Higher prices leads us to get premium cards with even more rewards. And around and around it goes.