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Which Credit Card?


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Because of restrictions that VISA applies to the Infinite program, banks are only able to offer Infinite-branded cards if the cardholder meets the minimum annual income requirement (typically students will not qualify unless in residency). In my experience, most banks are willing to waive annual fees for professional students, but that can only occur on cards that students qualify for.

 

A word of advice when you're comparing credit cards with points - carefully analyze the earning ratio of points/cashback as well as the redemption ratio. Often the Rewards calculations are purposely onerous to disguise their true value.

 

Example:

 

RBC Avion Infinite

1 point earned per dollar spent / 1.25 points earned per dollar spent on travel-related items / A $350 short haul ticket is valued at 15,000 points

 

The value of points is variable only depending on what tier they were earned in. The highest redemption rate is 2.92% ($350 ticket costing 15,000 points earned entirely at 1.25 per dollar). The lowest is 2.3% ($350 ticket costing 15,000 points earned entirely at 1 per dollar).

 

Scotia Passport Gold

1 point earned per dollar spent / 1 point = $1 of travel

 

This means the value of points is fixed at 1% of your spend.

 

CIBC Aventura Infinite

1 point earned per dollar spent / 1.5 points earned per dollar spent with gas stations, grocery & drug stores / A $400 short haul ticket is 10,000-20,000pts depending on the season

 

The value of the points is variable depending on the current point redemption rate for travel. If you get a $400 short haul flight ticket for 10,000 points, and you earned those points at a rate of 1.5 per dollar, then you are getting a 5.99% redemption rate. Conversely, if you get a $400 ticket for 20,000 points earned at 1 per dollar, then you receive a 2% redemption rate.

 

Food for thought.

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Thanks for the insight cibc guy. How difficult is it for me to switch between credit specialists? I'm not too happy with mine. I'm always being rushed when I meet the specialist and I have to wait 3 days for a reply via email. I don't really want such a relationship for the next 9 years...

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Because of restrictions that VISA applies to the Infinite program, banks are only able to offer Infinite-branded cards if the cardholder meets the minimum annual income requirement (typically students will not qualify unless in residency). In my experience, most banks are willing to waive annual fees for professional students, but that can only occur on cards that students qualify for.

 

A word of advice when you're comparing credit cards with points - carefully analyze the earning ratio of points/cashback as well as the redemption ratio. Often the Rewards calculations are purposely onerous to disguise their true value.

 

Example:

 

RBC Avion Infinite

1 point earned per dollar spent / 1.25 points earned per dollar spent on travel-related items / A $350 short haul ticket is valued at 15,000 points

 

The value of points is variable only depending on what tier they were earned in. The highest redemption rate is 2.92% ($350 ticket costing 15,000 points earned entirely at 1.25 per dollar). The lowest is 2.3% ($350 ticket costing 15,000 points earned entirely at 1 per dollar).

 

Scotia Passport Gold

1 point earned per dollar spent / 1 point = $1 of travel

 

This means the value of points is fixed at 1% of your spend.

 

CIBC Aventura Infinite

1 point earned per dollar spent / 1.5 points earned per dollar spent with gas stations, grocery & drug stores / A $400 short haul ticket is 10,000-20,000pts depending on the season

 

The value of the points is variable depending on the current point redemption rate for travel. If you get a $400 short haul flight ticket for 10,000 points, and you earned those points at a rate of 1.5 per dollar, then you are getting a 5.99% redemption rate. Conversely, if you get a $400 ticket for 20,000 points earned at 1 per dollar, then you receive a 2% redemption rate.

 

Food for thought.

Thanks for the breakdown. I've never given the CIBC card much thought, because I wasn't aware that their redemption amounts were so low. How much are the redemption amounts for more expensive tickets, like in the $600-900 range (this is the average of what i'm spending on a round trip ticket to fly out of my city).

 

One benefit of the Scotia card not mentioned is the 5% discount on all flights.

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Yes I feel that CIBC should probably do a better job of illustrating their points value by comparison as, at first glance, RBC & Scotia seem to do a much better job.

 

You can find the Aventura points breakdown here: https://rewards.cibcrewards.com/Travel/Default.aspx

 

For reference, Aeroplan points are listed here:

http://www3.aeroplan.com/FlightRewardChart.do?currentLanguage=en&supportCookie=true

 

That's also a good point about the 5% cash back for the Scotiagold Passport, it can be an awesome bonus when booking a trip. To clarify, the benefit isn't a 5% discount, but rather, if you book your trip through Scotia Rewards on your Passport Gold, they will credit you 5% of the trip cost back to your card after it is billed.

 

The one issue with that is to receive the 5% cashback, the trip must be booked using the Scotia Rewards call centre booking service. In my experience as an ex-Scotia employee, the booking service's travel pricing was on the moderate to high side. Basically, this meant that you could probably make up a 5% difference on your own by booking your trip through sites like expedia, travelocity, etc and still have full access to plan your own trip (rather than be restricted by seat availability, black out dates, etc).

 

Truth be told, when I was with Scotia I used the Amex Gold anyways for the superior points and easier travel redemption. Unfortunately that's not part of their Professional Student program, though some individual advisors will reduce the fee.

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It's hard to find a specialists who actually cares about the client. I'm not a banker, but I can smell BS when I'm being served BS. With senior specialists, you feel like a name or a number since they have seniority, security, and a long roster to begin with.

 

They want your business and return I want someone whom I can trust to be up to date with everything and be a competent banker. I understand that banks make a lot more from other means than giving med students LOCs at 3% prime, but they want your loyalty in the future once you settle down.

 

I know I can't have the perfect banker since they don't exist, but punctuality is super important when it comes to finances. I would love to have a banker to EXPLAIN things to me as opposed to tell me what is good for me.

 

That's my rant.

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It's hard to find a specialists who actually cares about the client. I'm not a banker, but I can smell BS when I'm being served BS. With senior specialists, you feel like a name or a number since they have seniority, security, and a long roster to begin with.

 

They want your business and return I want someone whom I can trust to be up to date with everything and be a competent banker. I understand that banks make a lot more from other means than giving med students LOCs at 3% prime, but they want your loyalty in the future once you settle down.

 

I know I can't have the perfect banker since they don't exist, but punctuality is super important when it comes to finances. I would love to have a banker to EXPLAIN things to me as opposed to tell me what is good for me.

 

That's my rant.

 

I think your criticisms of the industry are pretty common, truth be told. The requirements to first get into banking aren't very stringent; mostly it seems the banks want to have good sales people. I know that there are a lot of brand standards in place which should mean you get excellent service regardless of where you go, but unfortunately it ends up being dependent on the individual.

 

I would suggest you keep searching for someone you click with and then never let them go once found.

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