Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Rewards/Travel Credit Cards

getbak · 04-18-2011, 07:33 PM

If you want no fees, decent accumulation rates, and a real tangible reward, it's hard to beat the Smart Cash Platinum Mastercard that MBNA offers: http://mbna.ca/smartcash_cardlist.html

You get 3% cash back for all gas and grocery purchases, and 1% of all other purchases on the card. Every time you accumulate $50 in rewards, they send you a cheque.

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The card I'm using primarily now is the ScotiaGold Passport Visa: http://www.scotiabank.com/cda/conten..._LIDen,00.html

The drawback is that it has a $110 annual fee, however, you get travel medical, lost luggage, trip cancellation/interruption, etc. insurance for any travel paid for on the card. So, as long as you do use it for booking travel and would have purchased the insurance separately, the included insurance offsets the annual fee. They also have a sign-up bonus that basically covers your first year's fee.

As for the Rewards, you get 1 point for every dollar you spend (awarded once a month when your billing cycle closes, and they round to the nearest dollar for the total of all purchases made in the month). Each point is worth 1 cent on their travel booking website.

When redeeming the points, there are no restrictions as to how many you have to use, or limits on how many you can use. If you have 21,589 points, you can use them for $215.89 towards your travel booking. There is a special website you have to use to book the travel rewards, but they have the exact same prices you can find at Expedia or anywhere else.

Finally, the thing that pushed them over the edge for me is that when you book a flight, cruise, or travel package through their rewards site, they give you 5% cash back on whatever costs you have to pay out-of-pocket for the trip.

For example: I got the card in May of last year. In August, I booked a trip to Barbados with Air Canada Vacations through the Rewards site. The total cost of the trip was about $1,700. I had accumulated about $260 worth of Rewards Points at that point (they were giving out a $200 sign-up bonus last year), so my out-of-pocket costs for the trip were about $1,440. About a week after I got home from my trip, I received a credit on my account for $72 (5% of the out-of-pocket costs).

Most of the cards available are virtually interchangeable, but the Scotiabank one is the only one I've found that offers the 5% cash back when you book travel through their site.

Whatever you do, make sure you check out the fine print on the redemption rules the cards have. Some of them promise a lot of points, but their redemption rules are so convoluted that the points aren't worth as much as they promise, or you'll have to accumulate points for the next five years before you can even think of redeeming them.

Capital One has a card that accumulates double the points of all the others, but when you look at their redemption rules, they use a sliding scale, so anything between $0 and $150 requires $150 worth of points, and so on. So, you've accumlated double the points, but actually getting double the value is a lot tougher.

04-18-2011, 07:33 PM	#9
getbak Franchise Player Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Calgary, AB Exp:	If you want no fees, decent accumulation rates, and a real tangible reward, it's hard to beat the Smart Cash Platinum Mastercard that MBNA offers: http://mbna.ca/smartcash_cardlist.html You get 3% cash back for all gas and grocery purchases, and 1% of all other purchases on the card. Every time you accumulate $50 in rewards, they send you a cheque. ---------- The card I'm using primarily now is the ScotiaGold Passport Visa: http://www.scotiabank.com/cda/conten..._LIDen,00.html The drawback is that it has a $110 annual fee, however, you get travel medical, lost luggage, trip cancellation/interruption, etc. insurance for any travel paid for on the card. So, as long as you do use it for booking travel and would have purchased the insurance separately, the included insurance offsets the annual fee. They also have a sign-up bonus that basically covers your first year's fee. As for the Rewards, you get 1 point for every dollar you spend (awarded once a month when your billing cycle closes, and they round to the nearest dollar for the total of all purchases made in the month). Each point is worth 1 cent on their travel booking website. When redeeming the points, there are no restrictions as to how many you have to use, or limits on how many you can use. If you have 21,589 points, you can use them for $215.89 towards your travel booking. There is a special website you have to use to book the travel rewards, but they have the exact same prices you can find at Expedia or anywhere else. Finally, the thing that pushed them over the edge for me is that when you book a flight, cruise, or travel package through their rewards site, they give you 5% cash back on whatever costs you have to pay out-of-pocket for the trip. For example: I got the card in May of last year. In August, I booked a trip to Barbados with Air Canada Vacations through the Rewards site. The total cost of the trip was about $1,700. I had accumulated about $260 worth of Rewards Points at that point (they were giving out a $200 sign-up bonus last year), so my out-of-pocket costs for the trip were about $1,440. About a week after I got home from my trip, I received a credit on my account for $72 (5% of the out-of-pocket costs). Most of the cards available are virtually interchangeable, but the Scotiabank one is the only one I've found that offers the 5% cash back when you book travel through their site. Whatever you do, make sure you check out the fine print on the redemption rules the cards have. Some of them promise a lot of points, but their redemption rules are so convoluted that the points aren't worth as much as they promise, or you'll have to accumulate points for the next five years before you can even think of redeeming them. Capital One has a card that accumulates double the points of all the others, but when you look at their redemption rules, they use a sliding scale, so anything between $0 and $150 requires $150 worth of points, and so on. So, you've accumlated double the points, but actually getting double the value is a lot tougher. __________________ Turn up the good, turn down the suck!