Outside of the top 5 big banks (TD, Royal Bank, CIBC, Bank of Montreal, Scotiabank), which control much of the financial industry in Canada, it is slim pickings thereafter. American Express has a decent foothold in the Canadian credit card market, but there are a few companies that can breakthrough if they made some bolder moves.
The credit card cash back market is actually starting to heat up in Canada. Could we be seeing a shift in the industry from miles and points to cash back?
We recently wrote about the positive changes with the elimination of the reward redemption tiers to the Capital One Aspire Travel World Elite MasterCard. Now you can get straight up 2% return on travel expenses, including partial redemptions. But all good things come with a catch. There is now an increased annual fee, from $120 to $150. Below are the new highlights of the credit card:
I’m sure that I was not the only person unhappy about the tier reward system implemented by the Capital One Aspire Travel World Elite MasterCard. After years of complaining (including from myself directly to Capital One), our cries have finally been heard!
Have you ever signed up for a credit card because you thought the design on the card was really cool and you just needed to add that to your collection? I definitely have. This happened when I went to my very first live Ottawa Senators game at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa and I noticed they were booths set up for the Ottawa Senators MasterCard offered by MBNA.
There have been a slew of credit cards being discontinued in Canada. The trend seems to be co-branded credit cards. So now I am wondering if it would make sense to shift towards a cash back credit card portfolio rather than focusing so much on earning miles and points.
I thought 2014 was the year of the discontinuations, but 2015 is starting to take a big hit as well. Both the Capital One IHG World MasterCard and the Capital One IHG Platinum MasterCard have been discontinued. Below were the highlights of the two credit cards:
It’s no secret that annual fees are a nuisance. However, in some cases there are enough perks associated with certain credit cards to justify annual fees. Furthermore, if annual fees were not an issue, I would probably not care as much about churning credit card as much, so in some cases, I would simply renew the credit card. If annual fees weren’t an issue, I would probably be travelling much more often, which is why my portfolio may seem more travel centric.
We all generally have some recurring bills, namely: cable, telephone, cellphone, Internet, hydro, gas, water, etc. These types of bills can really add up to a lot of expenses per month, so it is important to maximize the value of…
With several updates to the credit card scene and gas prices slowly creeping back up, now is as good as time as any to update the top credit cards list for gas purchases.