Credit card for direct DVC purchase

[accm]

Good to know! I haven’t looked into an HSBC card before, will research this one. Ty!

We chose the HSBC card for our purchase back in December, but a word of warning - make sure you have a branch nearby to "confirm" your identity. My husband got his card, called to activate it and mentioned he'd be putting a substantial amount on the card in US funds right away (to which they said OK, we'll note that), and then a few weeks later his card was blocked, saying he needed to come into a branch to confirm his identity. The nearest branch to us is 3hrs away. So we've been using our Rogers card instead, which is not ideal. If I had known, I would've gone with the Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite Card.

Also, in our experience not financing, they'll divide the purchase price into 4 payments - at time of purchase, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days.

 

[efrant]

Do you have to physically be in the US to open an RBC US bank account?

You should even be able to do it over the phone (or even online maybe) if you are an existing RBC customer. I don't have an RBC Bank account in the U.S., but I do have one of their credit cards in the U.S., and I was able to apply over the phone (as a RBC customer in Canada) and have it mailed to my Canadian address. That said, RBC's credit card offerings in the U.S. aren't the best.

I have the Rogers world elite MasterCard. I believe it’s 2.5% for foreign transactions with 3% cash back so it mostly offsets? Although I do wonder if the underlying rate MasterCard gives me isn’t the most favourable so I’m not really getting 0.5% cash back. Will look into the platinum option.

The underlying rate that MasterCard gives you is about ~0.4% above (on average) what the traded rate is, so the net 0.5% cashback you are getting for USD purchases on the Rogers World Elite offsets that. That said, if you use a card that has a higher return (like the 1.5% on the HSBC World Elite MC, or the 2% on the Brim World Elite), you'll be better off, assuming the amounts you are spending are actually meaningful.

 

[bankr63]

I have the Rogers world elite MasterCard. I believe it’s 2.5% for foreign transactions with 3% cash back so it mostly offsets? Although I do wonder if the underlying rate MasterCard gives me isn’t the most favourable so I’m not really getting 0.5% cash back. Will look into the platinum option.

Actually I misspoke, mine is World Elite as well, I just think of it as a plat card.
I've tracked exchange on all our trips and will say that the exchange rate tracks almost exactly to the BOC posted rates. There can be a little discrepancy because you can't see at exactly what time the exchange happened, but it is obvious that there is no inflation or discounting of the rate (aside from the FOREX fee).
ETA: Just read @efrant's response. I can say o.4 has not been my experience. The difference I see has been 0.01-0.02% comparing to noon rates on BOC site, and most often it matches exactly.

 

[youngdeb12]

We have the Scotia Gold Amex and I just put a USD charge through on it over the weekend and the exchange they gave me was almost exactly the posted spot rate.

 

[efrant]

Actually I misspoke, mine is World Elite as well, I just think of it as a plat card.
I've tracked exchange on all our trips and will say that the exchange rate tracks almost exactly to the BOC posted rates. There can be a little discrepancy because you can't see at exactly what time the exchange happened, but it is obvious that there is no inflation or discounting of the rate (aside from the FOREX fee).
ETA: Just read @efrant's response. I can say o.4 has not been my experience. The difference I see has been 0.01-0.02% comparing to noon rates on BOC site, and most often it matches exactly.

Several folks over on redflagdeals took the time to pull MasterCard, Visa and Bank of Canada daily rates, and found that Visa and MasterCard typically vary from the Bank of Canada rate by between 0% and 1%, with the average closer to 0.3%-0.4% for Mastercard, and slightly higher for Visa. I agree, these are obviously very small variances, and for most people, it's irrelevant. But, if your spend is high, it can make a difference.

As an example, I just pulled the MC (from here) and BofC rates (from here) for Feb. Here is the result:

	MasterCard​	Bank of Canada​	Difference​
01-Feb-22​	1.2729​	1.2694​	0.3%​
02-Feb-22​	1.2708​	1.2677​	0.3%​
03-Feb-22​	1.2718​	1.2679​	0.4%​
04-Feb-22​	1.2789​	1.2758​	0.3%​
05-Feb-22​	1.2789​	1.2758​	0.3%​
06-Feb-22​	1.2789​	1.2758​	0.3%​
07-Feb-22​	1.2767​	1.2688​	0.8%​
08-Feb-22​	1.2723​	1.2709​	0.1%​

 

[youngdeb12]

Several folks over on redflagdeals took the time to pull MasterCard, Visa and Bank of Canada daily rates, and found that Visa and MasterCard typically vary from the Bank of Canada rate by between 0% and 1%, with the average closer to 0.3%-0.4% for Mastercard, and slightly higher for Visa. I agree, these are obviously very small variances, and for most people, it's irrelevant. But, if your spend is high, it can make a difference.

As an example, I just pulled the MC (from here) and BofC rates (from here) for Feb. Here is the result:

	MasterCard​	Bank of Canada​	Difference​
01-Feb-22​	1.2729​	1.2694​	0.3%​
02-Feb-22​	1.2708​	1.2677​	0.3%​
03-Feb-22​	1.2718​	1.2679​	0.4%​
04-Feb-22​	1.2789​	1.2758​	0.3%​
05-Feb-22​	1.2789​	1.2758​	0.3%​
06-Feb-22​	1.2789​	1.2758​	0.3%​
07-Feb-22​	1.2767​	1.2688​	0.8%​
08-Feb-22​	1.2723​	1.2709​	0.1%​

FWIW, I booked my room on the 5th and the rate Amex charged me (didn't post until the 6th) was 1.2749, which is better than the posted BOC rate.

 

[efrant]

FWIW, I booked my room on the 5th and the rate Amex charged me (didn't post until the 6th) was 1.2749, which is better than the posted BOC rate.

That's certainly possible. The range for MasterCard and Visa isn't 0%-1%, that's just a typical range. I can't find the post where the guy compared the rates, but they were negative in some cases. And from what I understand, Amex is slightly better than MC in terms of the rate it gives you. (It's tougher to compile for Amex, because they don't post their rates.)

 

[Prince John Robin Hood]

Do you have to physically be in the US to open an RBC US bank account?

You can do it from Canada

 

[SleeplessInTO]

Just wanted to circle back on this thread and say "thank you" to everyone that commented. I learned a lot. Not a very exciting conclusion: In the end, work got insanely busy and I didn't have time to apply for a new credit card before VGF sales opened, so I put the purchase through on my Rogers World Elite Mastercard. Hopefully this thread will be useful to others looking for a good travel card