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Top United States Credit Cards Offered in Canada (updated January 17, 2015)

A new United States currency credit card is being offered by Scotiabank, so I will be updating the list. I have also added the Desjardins credit card to the list as well.

U.S. affiliated credit cards offered by Canadian financial institutions means that you can pay your bills in U.S. currency. The benefits of having such a credit card is that you can convert your Canadian dollars into American dollars when the Canadian dollar is strong (though this has not been the case for a while now) to lock in a more favourable rate ahead of time to be used later on.

Personally, when the Canadian dollar was much stronger than the U.S. currency, I converted a lot of Canadian dollars into American, just in case the Canadian dollar dropped a lot in value, which it has. This gave me more flexibility, because I can either convert the money back into Canadian and benefit from the spread or I can use the U.S. dollars whenever it makes more sense for me, such as paying off a U.S. Dollar credit card.

Below is the updated list of credit cards issued by Canadian financial institutions, there are a few slights changes to the highlights, from last time, to some of the credit cards:

1) Desjardins U.S Visa Card

  • $30 USD annual fee
  • No annual fee for supplementary cardholders (for spouse and other family members)
  • No rewards

2) BMO U.S. Dollar MasterCard

  • $35 USD annual fee
  • No annual fee for supplementary cardholders (no limit mentioned)
  • No rewards

3) Scotiabank U.S. Dollar Visa Card

  • $35 USD annual fee
  • No annual fee for supplementary cardholders (no limit mentioned)
  • No rewards

4) CIBC U.S. Dollar Visa Card

  • $35 USD annual fee
  • No annual fee for supplementary cardholders (to a maximum of 3)
  • No rewards
  • No foreign transaction fees when shopping in the US

5) RBC U.S. Dollar Visa Gold

  • $65 USD annual fee
  • $30 USD for supplementary cardholders
  • Earn 1 RBC Rewards point for every $1 spend on all purchases
  • No foreign transaction fees when shopping in the US

6) TD U.S. Dollar Visa Card

  • $39 USD annual fee
  • No annual fee for supplementary cardholders (up to 3 limit)
  • No rewards
  • No foreign transaction fees when shopping in the US

The main issue I have with these credit cards is that the foreign transaction fee is only waived for purchases made in the United States. Too bad it does not waive the foreign transaction fee elsewhere. That being said, you can still use this credit card for foreign purchases and you still might come out ahead anyway because you are paying in USD Sometimes the USD is stronger against a certain currency than the Canadian one. You will just need to do a comparison.

See also:

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