Best credit card?

[ChisJo]

Good day everyone,
I was thinking about getting a new credit card that had benefits on it (mine does not), but do not want one with airline benefits, seeing as the AC situation doesn't look so hot right now.
I still want a card that gives me some good benefits for travelling. My bank doesn't really have any Credit cards like that. I really wanted the Disney Visa, but since I am Canadian, I cannot get it.
I really only ever use my card to travel and to put my University tuition on it.
I was wondering if any of you could provide me with a good Credit card suggestion.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Jo

 

[DSNY FN]

Don't get an AMEX try getting a GM visa or something like that.

 

[Amberle3]

I highly recommend staying AWAY from any product that is tied to Bank of Montreal. 3 people in my family have had very bad experiences with them.

- AMEX will give Airmiles.
- CIBC has options for either a percentage rebate or travel miles for various airlines
- President's Choice has a card that earns you PC points to redeem at the store.
- TD has cards with travel points or GM points
- RBC has a card that offers reward points
- Scotia Bank has a rewards card.

I personally like the Amex. The GM card takes forever to earn enough points to do anything with.

 

[Debbie]

Love my PC Mastercard! We just today bought $69 in groceries-and paid just $19. We use it for everything, and in our family. . . that's a lot!

 

[bcnancy]

Hi There,
I suggest that you look into TD GOLD TRAVEL VISA. It is a good
credit card and new. It has no black out travel times and no
airline restrictions. Every dollar you spend gives you a point.
Since you are going to use a credit card why not one that gives
good benefits.
Nancy

 

[MikeyNS]

I personally use the Royal Bank Avion card.. again no blackouts and no airline restrictions. We put everything on our Visa and pay it off every month. Needless to say we have many many "free" flights (you do have to pay the tax on the ticket, but that's only like $100).

Well worth it IMHO!

 

[Susan--Ontario]

I don't own any credit cards that don't have a loyalty program. Why would you? We have saved over $3500 so far on cars with our GM Visa card through TD. It works really well if you are ever planning on buying a new car. You can earn up to $500 per year on the card. I think they changed it so you have to cash them in after 5 years instead of the seven it used to be. When you go to buy the car you negotiate your price etc. and then when they ask you what you want to put down you pull out your GM visa. They call the rewards centre and you talk to the person and redeem your money. Three times we've had close to $1500 to put down on our car. It's real money. It takes it off of what you would otherwise finance. We do watch our yearly accumulations though because once you hit the $500 maximum you want to switch to another card until your new use year.

We switch to our PC financial. We always put our Disney bill on this card. That way when we come home we have money to buy food. It too works very simply. You accumulate your points and then go grocery shopping. When your bill is totalled you hand them your points card and they take off of your bill the amount of the points you are redeeming. Very painless and again it's real money.

Check out all the programs but remember you don't want to have to pay a yearly fee to the credit card. That can nullify your rewards.

Good Luck!!

 

[bunnyfoo]

I use the BMO Air Miles MasterCard ... Like Amberle3, I had a bad experience with them when I first started using the card but I sent in a letter and they had a manager fix the situation. They gave me a ton of Air Miles so I didn't complain too much more about it. I haven't had any problems with them since. I think they must have improved their customer service. I like that you can redeem the Air Miles for things other than airline tickets.

A friend of mine has the PC MasterCard and likes it a lot. He says every few months he has enough points to redeem for free groceries.

The Toronto Star recently published an article that compared the benefits of different reward credit cards. There were two parts to it I think. I can only seem to find the Saturday portion. The Sunday section came with a little chart which showed the break-even points.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...geid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1083967808332

 

[Rebecca P.]

There was an article in the Star in the past couple of weeks comparing all the loyalty cards. The best seemed to be TD Gold Travel which I have. Easy to redeem points and the best part is you can take advantage of all the Disney discounts. You just have to tell the agent EXACTLY what to say when they call Disney!

Rebecca

 

[barb45]

Funny I should run into this question since yesterday I spent about 2 hours crunching numbers to figure out which card is best. Right now I have the CIBC Shoppers Optimum Card and I think I will stick with it. There is no fee and you accumulate 5 points to every dollar you spend. I looked at my last years spending and got about $300.00 free at Shoppers Drugmart (everyone needs shampoo and tp). Then I take my savings and use it for whatever I want (usually travel). Then I am not locked into someone's travel plan and I can book the best deal for me. I compared my $300 free with what I would have gotten with the Avion card or the TD Gold card (both of which have fees) and I got more than 3 times the benefit than the Avion card and more than double the benefit than the TD Gold card. I will be sticking with the card I have until I find something that dollar for dollar is better. I'm interested in the PC card though - it sounds like a good deal too. One thing I realize is that if you have to spend the money (AND you always pay your full balance every month) you should put everything on the credit card to get the points. AGAlN this is only if you pay the full balance every month - you gain nothing if you have to pay interest.