Credit Cards- switching from an Aeroplan to ??

DnA2010

Rope Drop!
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Has anyone researched credit cards lately? We currently have aeroplan, but given I don't see us as travelling as much for a while, and we have a decent amount of miles still, we'd like to switch...preferably a Mastercard as we do shop at Costo.

Any recommendations?
 
Has anyone researched credit cards lately? We currently have aeroplan, but given I don't see us as travelling as much for a while, and we have a decent amount of miles still, we'd like to switch...preferably a Mastercard as we do shop at Costo.

Any recommendations?

We have a Cashback Mastercard from CIBC, I think the name is Dividend Unlimited World or something like that. We put a fair amount on our MC and typically earn at least $1000 cash back over the course of the year.
 
We have the BMO World Elite Airmiles M/C. Yearly fee is $120. We use it to shop at Sobeys, Shell, Kent, Irving Oil, Jean Coutu, etc. and usually manage to accumulate over 6000 miles per year (Good for a return trip for the 2 of us to Florida from NB during non-peak season).
 
If you shop at Costco why not get the Costco Capital One master card? And you earn cash back.
 


If you shop at Costco why not get the Costco Capital One master card? And you earn cash back.
Contrary to common sense, the Costco Capital One MC is not a good card to use at Costco (other than for Costco gas). The card gives yo 0.5% cashback on the first $3,000 of non-resto/gas spending, and 1% after that. Three are other cards (both free and with an annual fee) that offer higher than that.
 
I'm in the same boat as you, particularly as TD is upping their fees in Nov. We're going with the Rogers Platinum. It has a better return than the Costco card.
 
We have the PC World Elite MC. We earn a ton of PC points as this is our main card and they add up very quickly so I make redemptions of $100 off our grocery bill several times a year. Obviously if you don't shop at Superstore/Indepdent/No Frills/Shoppers Drug Mart etc a lot then this won't be the card for you. No annual fee, too.
 


Has anyone researched credit cards lately? We currently have aeroplan, but given I don't see us as travelling as much for a while, and we have a decent amount of miles still, we'd like to switch...preferably a Mastercard as we do shop at Costo.

Any recommendations?
I've done quite a bit of research on credit cards. I guess I would say in order to give you a good recommendation, we would need to know more details, i.e.: 1) how much is your annual credit card spend? 2) how much of that spend is in the various categories that cards give bonuses on (e.g., grocery, gas, restaurants, etc. vs. "everything else") , and 3) what you are looking for in terms of rewards, i.e., cashback, hotel points, store rebates (e.g., PC Optimum points, Canadian Tire money), Air Miles, etc.?

Additionally, getting the best return on one card is almost impossible, as you can get more by having a 2-3 card combo, assuming you are willing to carry 2-3 cards on you and use the appropriate one at the appropriate location.

Assuming you are interested in cashback and want just one card, I would suggest the Rogers World Elite MasterCard (no annual fee). That will give you 1.5% on all your spending. There may be a better option, but without knowing your spending, it's difficult to recommend something different.

If you are willing to carry 2-3 cards, one good combination of cards would be the Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite ($120 annual fee, waived the first year) and the Rogers World Elite MasterCard (no annual fee). That combination would get you 4% on groceries and recurring payments, 2% on gas and transit, and 1.5% on everything else. All in cashback, but will cost you $120 in annual fees (which will be more than covered, vs just having the Rogers card, if you spend at least $4,800 annually at grocery stores, but excluding Costco and Walmart). If you eat out a lot, then you could also add the Simplii Cashback Visa (no annual fee) to give you 4% cashback on restaurant spending.

If you are open to more than just cashback, i.e., Canadian Tire money, then you could consider adding the Triangle World Elite MasterCard (no annual fee), which gives you the ability to pay bills that you would not otherwise be able to pay with a credit card (such as property taxes, utilities, etc.), giving you 1% return in Canadian Tire money, compared to 0% if you were to pay those bills from your bank account.

In any case, as I mentioned before, the best recommendation would need to be tailored to your spending, as well as your reward preferences. (As a side note, most of the Visa Infinite cards and World Elite MasterCards have minimum income requirements.)
 
I've done quite a bit of research on credit cards. I guess I would say in order to give you a good recommendation, we would need to know more details, i.e.: 1) how much is your annual credit card spend? 2) how much of that spend is in the various categories that cards give bonuses on (e.g., grocery, gas, restaurants, etc. vs. "everything else") , and 3) what you are looking for in terms of rewards, i.e., cashback, hotel points, store rebates (e.g., PC Optimum points, Canadian Tire money), Air Miles, etc.?

Additionally, getting the best return on one card is almost impossible, as you can get more by having a 2-3 card combo, assuming you are willing to carry 2-3 cards on you and use the appropriate one at the appropriate location.

Assuming you are interested in cashback and want just one card, I would suggest the Rogers World Elite MasterCard (no annual fee). That will give you 1.5% on all your spending. There may be a better option, but without knowing your spending, it's difficult to recommend something different.

If you are willing to carry 2-3 cards, one good combination of cards would be the Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite ($120 annual fee, waived the first year) and the Rogers World Elite MasterCard (no annual fee). That combination would get you 4% on groceries and recurring payments, 2% on gas and transit, and 1.5% on everything else. All in cashback, but will cost you $120 in annual fees (which will be more than covered, vs just having the Rogers card, if you spend at least $4,800 annually at grocery stores, but excluding Costco and Walmart). If you eat out a lot, then you could also add the Simplii Cashback Visa (no annual fee) to give you 4% cashback on restaurant spending.

If you are open to more than just cashback, i.e., Canadian Tire money, then you could consider adding the Triangle World Elite MasterCard (no annual fee), which gives you the ability to pay bills that you would not otherwise be able to pay with a credit card (such as property taxes, utilities, etc.), giving you 1% return in Canadian Tire money, compared to 0% if you were to pay those bills from your bank account.

In any case, as I mentioned before, the best recommendation would need to be tailored to your spending, as well as your reward preferences. (As a side note, most of the Visa Infinite cards and World Elite MasterCards have minimum income requirements.)
Where does it say you can pay bills with the Triangle card? I mean, I can pay my property taxes with any card, but I think there's a fee from the merchant.

Also, if your Aeroplan card is the TD one, I think the fee is going up in Nov, so now IS the time to convert, if you're going to do it. Not sure what those Aeroplan points are going to be worth once the plan changes over anyway.
 
Where does it say you can pay bills with the Triangle card? I mean, I can pay my property taxes with any card, but I think there's a fee from the merchant.

Also, if your Aeroplan card is the TD one, I think the fee is going up in Nov, so now IS the time to convert, if you're going to do it. Not sure what those Aeroplan points are going to be worth once the plan changes over anyway.
I pay my property taxes through my Canadian Tire Mastercard with no fee and get 1% back in Canadian Tire money. It's because the payment is made through Canadian Tire Financial Services.

The folks on another board I follow suggest signing up for the Aeroplan cards in November. They're predicting there will be a big bonus that lines up with the new Aeroplan.

Regarding the Rogers World Elite, there were changes in June that downgraded the benefits, effective in November. One change is that you now need to spend $15,000 annually on the card in order to keep it. Details of the changes are here:

https://creditcardgenius.ca/blog/rogers-mastercard-changes/
I had just signed up for the Rogers card when the changes were made. I was quite disappointed with the downgrade.
 
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Where does it say you can pay bills with the Triangle card? I mean, I can pay my property taxes with any card, but I think there's a fee from the merchant.
As ElCray mentioned, the Triangle cards have a "bill pay" feature (through Canadian Tire Financial Services) similar to what your bank account has. So, you can pay bills from your CTFS account, just like you would from your bank account. You are not going to the municipality/utility website and entering in your Triangle card number -- doing it that way typically incurs a fee from the municipality/utility (which usually outstrips any rewards you would get from the credit card), if they even accept credit card payments -- you are doing a bill pay from your CTFS account.
 
I pay my property taxes through my Canadian Tire Mastercard with no fee and get 1% back in Canadian Tire money. It's because the payment is made through Canadian Tire Financial Services.

The folks on another board I follow suggest signing up for the Aeroplan cards in November. They're predicting there will be a big bonus that lines up with the new Aeroplan.

Regarding the Rogers World Elite, there were changes in June that downgraded the benefits, effective in November. One change is that you now need to spend $15,000 annually on the card in order to keep it. Details of the changes are here:

https://creditcardgenius.ca/blog/rogers-mastercard-changes/
I had just signed up for the Rogers card when the changes were made. I was quite disappointed with the downgrade.
I believe that $15000 annual spend is a requirement for any Mastercard World Elite card. It's the premium card and a premium rate is paid by the merchant every time you use it, so they don't want it to just be someone's secondary card that's a money-grab for the bank.
 
I believe that $15000 annual spend is a requirement for any Mastercard World Elite card. It's the premium card and a premium rate is paid by the merchant every time you use it, so they don't want it to just be someone's secondary card that's a money-grab for the bank.
Interesting, I hadn't seen that for either the BMO Air Miles WE or the PC Financial WE cards. Will do some digging as that is something I would want to be aware of!
 
If you are willing to carry 2-3 cards, one good combination of cards would be the Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite ($120 annual fee, waived the first year) and the Rogers World Elite MasterCard (no annual fee). That combination would get you 4% on groceries and recurring payments, 2% on gas and transit, and 1.5% on everything else. All in cashback, but will cost you $120 in annual fees (which will be more than covered, vs just having the Rogers card, if you spend at least $4,800 annually at grocery stores, but excluding Costco and Walmart). If you eat out a lot, then you could also add the Simplii Cashback Visa (no annual fee) to give you 4% cashback on restaurant spending.

One tweak I would make to this is the Meridian Visa Infinite. It has a lower annual fee than the Scotia Momentum ($99 vs $120) and a lower fee for additional cards ($30 vs $50). It also returns more on Pharmacy (2% vs 1%) and more on gas (4% vs 2%). It does, however, offer less on recurring payments (2% vs 4%). We spend enough on gas and enough recurring payments that it makes sense for us to hold both cards (i.e. we make more back in cash at 4% on recurring payments to offset the additional cost of the Scotia Momentum card).

Here is a spreadsheet that I maintain with the cards I use for each type of transaction highlighted in green. Note that I get my insurance provided elsewhere, so these comparisons are only on cash back features of the cards.

527996
 
Interesting, I hadn't seen that for either the BMO Air Miles WE or the PC Financial WE cards. Will do some digging as that is something I would want to be aware of!
I have held several World Elite MasterCards (BMO AM, Triangle, PC Financial, Alaska Airlines, WestJet) over the years, and none of them had a minimum annual spend requirement. The only one that has one, as far as I know, is the Rogers card, and that was only a recent change. Prior to this year, there was no minimal annual spend requirement on that card either. I can say with 100% certainty that I haven't spent more than $15k annually on any of those cards.
 
Can't say I'm familiar with a "minimum spend" requirement for my BMO World Elite Airmiles M/C, but I do know the annual salary requirement to qualify is quite high !
 
I've done quite a bit of research on credit cards. I guess I would say in order to give you a good recommendation, we would need to know more details, i.e.: 1) how much is your annual credit card spend? 2) how much of that spend is in the various categories that cards give bonuses on (e.g., grocery, gas, restaurants, etc. vs. "everything else") , and 3) what you are looking for in terms of rewards, i.e., cashback, hotel points, store rebates (e.g., PC Optimum points, Canadian Tire money), Air Miles, etc.?

Additionally, getting the best return on one card is almost impossible, as you can get more by having a 2-3 card combo, assuming you are willing to carry 2-3 cards on you and use the appropriate one at the appropriate location.

Assuming you are interested in cashback and want just one card, I would suggest the Rogers World Elite MasterCard (no annual fee). That will give you 1.5% on all your spending. There may be a better option, but without knowing your spending, it's difficult to recommend something different.

If you are willing to carry 2-3 cards, one good combination of cards would be the Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite ($120 annual fee, waived the first year) and the Rogers World Elite MasterCard (no annual fee). That combination would get you 4% on groceries and recurring payments, 2% on gas and transit, and 1.5% on everything else. All in cashback, but will cost you $120 in annual fees (which will be more than covered, vs just having the Rogers card, if you spend at least $4,800 annually at grocery stores, but excluding Costco and Walmart). If you eat out a lot, then you could also add the Simplii Cashback Visa (no annual fee) to give you 4% cashback on restaurant spending.

If you are open to more than just cashback, i.e., Canadian Tire money, then you could consider adding the Triangle World Elite MasterCard (no annual fee), which gives you the ability to pay bills that you would not otherwise be able to pay with a credit card (such as property taxes, utilities, etc.), giving you 1% return in Canadian Tire money, compared to 0% if you were to pay those bills from your bank account.

In any case, as I mentioned before, the best recommendation would need to be tailored to your spending, as well as your reward preferences. (As a side note, most of the Visa Infinite cards and World Elite MasterCards have minimum income requirements.)


Thank you for the detailed reply- we try to do pretty much everything on a credit card, other than Costco, and we are mainly getting our groceries from Costco these days so MC is the way to go I was thinking. We used to spend a lot on gas, as I commuted a fair distance, but that has reduced since I've been working from home, so our spending habits are mainly Costco, some gas, a bit of shopping here and there, and then random larger purchases (ie car maint/tires, house and car insurances, vet bills etc)


Totally fine to carry multiple cards
 
Thank you for the detailed reply- we try to do pretty much everything on a credit card, other than Costco, and we are mainly getting our groceries from Costco these days so MC is the way to go I was thinking. We used to spend a lot on gas, as I commuted a fair distance, but that has reduced since I've been working from home, so our spending habits are mainly Costco, some gas, a bit of shopping here and there, and then random larger purchases (ie car maint/tires, house and car insurances, vet bills etc)


Totally fine to carry multiple cards
Maybe this combo would work for you:
  • Triangle World Elite MC (no annual fee, earns CT money): 3% at grocery stores (excluding Costco & Walmart), 4% at Canadian Tire (and partner stores), 5-7c/L on gas at Canadian Tire and Husky gas stations, 1% on utility/tax bills (not otherwise payable by credit card) via CTFS, free roadside assistance.
  • Rogers World Elite MC (no annual fee, earns cashback): 1.5% at Costco, Walmart and everywhere else, 0.5% net return on non-C$ purchases. (Need to spend a minimum of $15,000 annually on this card to prevent being downgraded to the Platinum version.)
  • Simplii Cashback Visa (no annual fee, earns cashback): 4% at restaurants (but only if you spend a lot dining out, otherwise, probably not worth carrying an extra card for the extra bit of return).
With that, you would be only getting 1.5% on recurring payments (i.e., internet/TV/mobile/insurance/etc) and non-CT/Husky gas vs. 4% that you could be getting with the Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite, but you aren't paying any annual fees. So you have to do the calculation, i.e., do you spend more than $4,800 annually on recurring payments and non-CT/Husky gas? That's the break-even point for the $120 annual fee on the Scotia card, so you should add that to the mix above if you spend more than that. (The break-even if you also want a supplementary card for your spouse would be $6,800 rather than $4,800.)

Once travel restrictions ease up and we can freely travel, then a card that earns on travel spend would be needed in the mix, such as the HSBC World Elite MC, which gives you 3% on travel (hotels, airfare, car rentals, etc) and 1.5% on everything else. This card can replace the Rogers card as it has the same base 1.5% earning rate.
 
Maybe this combo would work for you:
  • Triangle World Elite MC (no annual fee, earns CT money): 3% at grocery stores (excluding Costco & Walmart), 4% at Canadian Tire (and partner stores), 5-7c/L on gas at Canadian Tire and Husky gas stations, 1% on utility/tax bills (not otherwise payable by credit card) via CTFS, free roadside assistance.
  • Rogers World Elite MC (no annual fee, earns cashback): 1.5% at Costco, Walmart and everywhere else, 0.5% net return on non-C$ purchases. (Need to spend a minimum of $15,000 annually on this card to prevent being downgraded to the Platinum version.)
  • Simplii Cashback Visa (no annual fee, earns cashback): 4% at restaurants (but only if you spend a lot dining out, otherwise, probably not worth carrying an extra card for the extra bit of return).
With that, you would be only getting 1.5% on recurring payments (i.e., internet/TV/mobile/insurance/etc) and non-CT/Husky gas vs. 4% that you could be getting with the Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite, but you aren't paying any annual fees. So you have to do the calculation, i.e., do you spend more than $4,800 annually on recurring payments and non-CT/Husky gas? That's the break-even point for the $120 annual fee on the Scotia card, so you should add that to the mix above if you spend more than that. (The break-even if you also want a supplementary card for your spouse would be $6,800 rather than $4,800.)

Once travel restrictions ease up and we can freely travel, then a card that earns on travel spend would be needed in the mix, such as the HSBC World Elite MC, which gives you 3% on travel (hotels, airfare, car rentals, etc) and 1.5% on everything else. This card can replace the Rogers card as it has the same base 1.5% earning rate.
I think the HSBC card has no foreign exchange fees too.
 

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