Credit Card Rewards

[dalmedical12]

Hi everyone,

 

Anyone out there have an awesome Rewards Card? I can put my car payments and Tuition on it so I'd like to see some rewards...it might even be worth it to get a Credit Card with Fees I'm told. Any ideas or experiences?

I'd love won with travel rewards/aeroplan, etc.

 

Thanks

[Michelle]

I really love my TD Visa. You collect points on every purchase, and points can be used for any airline, hotel, cruise, car rental, vacation package, etc. No restirictions. Your points will even cover taxes and extra fees. I put absolutely everything on my visa and haven't forked over money for a flight in several years....my points have covered all my travel...and I travel a lot!!

[classA]

Most universities will not accept a credit card for tution payment. Might want to look into that.

[lansky]

I paid for my tuition with my credit card a few years ago when I was really short on cash. What you would need to do is go to your bank and ask to transfer funds from the credit card to your bank account and then transfer money from your bank account to the school account.

 

But I really don't think its a good idea to use your credit card for big purchases unless you are able to pay off the balance quickly, because the interest rate on most credit cards is close to 20%!!!! thats a lot of interest!!

 

You would be better off taking a line of credits.....Just my 2 cents..

 

 

Cheers,

 

Lansky

[classA]

They do not give you rewards on cash transfers anyways. Well no credit cards that I know of. Other wise you just take cash out and put back in the next day and rack up points like no tommorow.

[blinknoodle]

Some schools do let you pay for tuition on your credit card. Mine doesn't.

 

I suggest looknig through this thread as a start:

http://www.premed101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16449

[dalmedical12]

Yeah, I know for certain that my school does. And that's the plan...Pay it with the credit card and then pay that off right away with the LOC...I don't think that should be a problem.

 

Just wondering which TD Visa that was?

 

Thanks

[A-Stark]

I have an Royal "Classic" Visa with rewards points. It works well enough and you can use it for merchandise, gift cards, travel, etc.

 

I'm pleased to know that Dal accepts credit card tuition payment... though I kinda doubt that my credit limit will allow for it!

[Satsuma]

I recently switched my old visa for a new TD visa (not sure exactly the name of it) ...but you actually accumulate "cash back"...like instead of points it's money that will eventually be subtracted from your balance.

 

Much more useful for me than collecting points to buy stuff I probably wouldn`t buy anyway.

[BMO guy]

I believe the only big schools that has stopped credit cards for tuition payments are U Toronto, U Alberta and UBC (that I know of for sure).

 

U of A is saving nearly $1.4Million by stopping this option. I believe U Toronto is the only school that also does not allow you to use the Interac option (which UBC and U of Alberta does).

[classA]

Western doesnt either this happened a few years back.

[pbp34]

I use Citibank's Enrich card. It's one of only 2 cards in Canada right now that gives you 1% cashback. The other is capital one I believe. These cards have no fees.TD Visa's card gives you 1% but only after the first 3000 spent though so it's not as great.

 

It's usually not worth paying fees for a card. And the aeroplan/air miles cards are never worth it. They are usually around 0.5 or 0.6% return, but it's restricted to flying only, where cash can be used on anything

[drdev]

Paying for tuition has made me a tun of credit card points!

 

You don't get cash back but you can use it for travel or products ect.

[MD Financial]

MD Financial, in collaboration with National Bank of Canada's Partnership Branch offers a Gold and Platinum CMA/MD MasterCard credit card1 exclusively to Canadian Medical Association (CMA) members and their families.

 

Benefits of the CMA/MD Platinum card include:

 

• No annual fee for the first two years (special offer for medical students and residents). The annual fee is applicable afterwards which is currently $100 per year.2

 

• 1.5 points for every $1 spent on your card.

- 11,000 points earns you $100 in travel rewards. If you redeem at least 50,000 points you earn $100 in travel rewards per 10,000 points.

- Exchange your points for entertainment, merchandise, gift certificates flights, hotels and vacation packages.

 

• No blackout periods - travel where and when you want. Book your trip through the travel agency, airline3 or distributor of your choice.

 

• A comprehensive insurance program: including extended warranty, collision damage waiver on car rental, and many more options.

 

For more information, visit mdfinancial.cma.ca.

 

 

1 Banking products are provided by National Bank of Canada’s Partnership Branch through a relationship with MD Management Limited. Subject to credit approval by National Bank of Canada.

 

2 Grace period: No interest will be charged on purchase made during the month provided I pay my balance in full within twenty-one days following the date of the statement. This grace period shall not apply to cash advances equal to 3% of the unpaid balance indicated in the monthly statement or a minimum of $10.00. Monthly statement: A statement of account is sent on a monthly basis. Example of credit charges calculated over a period of thirty (30) days. Example A: If the average balance on your card is $500 and the interest rate is 19.5%, monthly interest charged would be $8.01. Example B: If the average balance on your card is $3,000 and the interest rate is 19.5%, monthly interest charged would be $48.08.

 

3 To ensure proper coverage in the event of legal action, we strongly advise you to carry out your travel-related transactions via a travel agency or airline with a valid Canadian permit. Some conditions apply. For more details, please consult the Rewards Program rules online at www.nbc.ca/rewards.

MD Financial includes CMA Holdings Incorporated companies offering financial planning and a banking referral service through MD Management Limited, mutual funds by MD Funds Management Inc. and MD Private Trust Company, investment counseling services by MD Private Investment Management Inc., estate and trust services by MD Private Trust Company and insurance products by MD Life Insurance Company and MD Insurance Agency Limited.

[BMO guy]

BMO Bank of Montreal Air Miles Reward Miles allows you to earn Air Miles not only on your credit card purchases, but also through your everyday banking as well. Earn additional miles just by having a line of credit, savings account, mortgage or business banking products. The more products you have, the more miles you earn.

 

Also BMO is the only bank that allows you to earn Air Miles by using your debit card. As you have all mentioned on this thread, that schools no longer accept credit cards for tuition payments, they do however allow you to use your debit card for payments. Thus giving students with a BMO Bank of Montreal account a great way to earn additional Miles by doing their everyday banking with us.

 

Because Air Miles Reward Miles is not a "BMO Product", everytime you go to a participating merchent (ex. Shell, Sport Chek, Boston Pizza, Safeway...and hundreds more see: http://www.airmiles.ca) you will earn points from them. For example if you use your Air Miles to get gas at Shell, you will earn Air Miles from Mastercard by earning the miles, bonus Air Miles from BMO by banking with us, as well as Air Miles from Shell by buying their gas!!

 

Please contact me at howe.gu@bmo.com for additional information

[jgray2]

it's that time of year again, and so i thought i'd bump this thread.

 

also, only because no one has posted anything for MBNA ... i thought i'd put in some information for their MBNA SPG Mastercard.

 

• 1 point per 2$ spent. for every 5k spent, you get a 5k bonus (so you get 1 point/dollar spent, up to 30k in spending per membership year).
  
• SPG points are used for the starwood hotel chain, including westin, sheraton, four points, etc. one hotel night stay will cost roughly 2-7k points per night for most hotels.
  

• if you stay at the sheraton in toronto for CaRMS, a 179$ hotel room can be had for 7k points (7k in credit card spending) ... a
  2.55%
  return. even if you were originally planning on staying at a lower end hotel that was 90$ per night, if you stayed at the sheraton downtown instead, you'd still get a
  return of 1.3%.

  
  

• alternatively, you can transfer them to your own airline points program (in my case, i use american airlines (a oneworld member) as you cannot do aeroplan). there are over 20 airline partners to choose from.
  

• for every 20k points you transfer, you get a bonus 5k airline points for a total of 25k points
  .

  
  

• by spending 20k, you get a free round-trip flight within north america for when you've graduated from med school. pretend you're flying from toronto to houston in august, your rate of return will be
  2.6%
  . if you've spent 32k, and want that same flight in business class, your rate of return becomes
  8.6%
  (prices taken from aircanada.com).

  
  

• this card automatically gave me the platinum version (i was just a med student when i got my card). this gives you purchase protection, extended warranty, car rental insurance, and common carrier accident insurance.
  
• there is no annual fee. ever.
  

 

and just to let you know, for med school and general expenses alone, i've spent roughly 70k over the last 3 years (more than half of which was tuition).

 

other credit card comparisons:

• 1% cash back or 1% in travel awards = 1% return
  
• pc financial = 1% return in groceries. (i keep my card because every 4 months, they offer me 17.50$ in groceries if i use the card 4x within a certain period of time ... otherwise, it stays tucked neatly away in my desk drawer)
  
• rbc visa = you get 1% back in travel, or <1% back in merchandise/gift cards (6000 pts = 50$ gift card)
  
• bmo airmiles = usually a max of 1% return on the flights that i've tried to schedule myself (assuming you spent 20$/1 airmile). it is ~0.7% return on gift cards. the bonus is that the return becomes a bit higher if you need to book last-minute flights (but still giving them the minimum advanced notice they require) since the airmiles agent is allowed to book you into higher fare buckets.
  
• md financial = 1.5 points/dollar, and 10k pts = 100$ in travel after redeeming 50000. this is a 1.5% return. the annual fee is 100$/yr, although it is waived for the first two years. but seriously ... 100$/year?
  

 

of course, even those cards are much better than the cards that most of my friends use -- the ones that simply don't give rewards.

[whale.of.a.time]

Also, for those of you attending Dal this year....they're no longer going to allow credit card payments of tuition, starting Sept 1, 2009.

 

Which means PAY YOUR TUITION EARLY for this semester if you want any VISA points, because after that it's no dice.

[FABS]

Hi everyone

 

is it normal for your LoC bank to request that you cancel and close any other credit cards with other banks?

 

Scotia is asking me to do that and I am having a hard time giving up my Airmiles Mastercard with BMO for a Scotia Passport Gold Visa...

 

any sugggestions? does anyone know anything about the gold passport visa?

[rmorelan]

Hi everyone

 

is it normal for your LoC bank to request that you cancel and close any other credit cards with other banks?

 

Scotia is asking me to do that and I am having a hard time giving up my Airmiles Mastercard with BMO for a Scotia Passport Gold Visa...

 

any sugggestions? does anyone know anything about the gold passport visa?

 

I think it is pretty common - first you have a maximum limit to the amount of credit in total, and second they are offerring such a low interest rate on med credit lines because I suspect they want to get you for life as a customer (it sure isn't because they are being "nice"). Having business at another bank interfers with that long term goal.

[mandolin]

I would certainly get a second opinion elsewhere. i.e., contact at least 1 or 2 other LOC providers and see what they say.

 

Do you have a lot of consumer debt? MD Financial did not ask me anything of the sort, but I don't have a debt load (apart from a mortgage).

[FABS]

thanks for the help everyone!

 

I have a monthly bill of $500-$1000 which I pay off everymonth on my MC so not huge debt at all...

 

MD is awesome for that, I emailed the rep today and he said they dont care if you keep other credit cards with other banks...soooo Scotia is not looking so good to me anymore

 

oh well, its between those two

 

BMO wasnt even offering prime...brutal

[9mAoTo]

I went with RBC for my LOC. They offered me a credit card with no requirement to cancel my other 2 cards. Personally, I would shop-on if I were you....

[whale.of.a.time]

I didn't have to cancel my other cards either...Don't settle for that!