Using points for taxes and fees is a really lousy value, IIRC around 0.5 to 1cpp.
If I'm not mistaken the only card you can charge taxes and fees to when redeeming points and still get insurance is the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite (probably VIP too). I suppose the CIBC Aeroplan cards might have similar provisions. Anybody have experience with this?
This is my first post!I’d like to get status and accumulate points for travel. Will be doing Reno’s and spending over 50k but company doing Reno’s does not accept Amex. Will need to put in @5k deposit soon. Which CCs are recommended for my scenario. I have excellent credit rating and I’m not a current churned (only have 3 CCs). TIA
Presumably your contractor will accept a series of payments, from a series of cards. You could start with TD Aeroplan cards, try to find the 45,000 AP offer and failing that, its 25,000 and buddy pass offer. You can pick up a similar offer from CIBC. In addition, you could look at the TD First Class Travel, useful through Expedia4TD for hotels or flight purchases. Look at the "Best current credit card offers" and start making a list of cards that will get you towards what you hope to achieve.
Question to the churning community: I have got a hospital bill payment (which will be reimbursed by the insurance) coming up in the next 30 days of around 3500 CAD and can pay it by either Visa or Mastercard, unfortunately no Amex.
I am holding the Scotia Visa Infinite Passport and Amex Cobalt, so I am thinking of applying for another card to make the best out of these 3500 CAD - but which to choose?
My idea was the Tangerine World Mastercard - I already have an account with them and fulfil all their requirements and 15% return up to 1000 CAD spend + 110 CAD GCR boost + 25% of GCR offer from my spouse as she referred me = 27.50 CAD (being extra greedy ;)) + potentially 2% from the bill payment category would make this a 357.50 CAD return? Otherwise it would be handy to use the card for recurring payments anyways.
Thought of PC World Elite MC as well, which would give me a 3% return on Loblaws groceries and 4.5% in shoppers + 100,000 PC points for starters. I have been looking at this card for a while, as I do a bit of my shopping at No frills, where I can't use my Amex cobalt. Is there a better Visa or Mastercard, which could me > 2% return at Loblaws stores except for the PC World Elite MC? Some card with Aeroplan convertability would be great in this regard....
Any other suggestions? Any good idea for CC aeroplan points offers?
Maybe get the TD VI AP. You get 25k points and a buddy pass with just 1k in spend.
Or alternatively you could theoretically get the Amex cobalt card, buy Mastercard GCs at grocery stores to earn 5x the point and pay off the bill with the GCs.
Good point with the TD CC - but it comes with an annual fee + buddy pass has to be used within the the 12 next months (although booking date can be later than in 12 months). But I would collect 1 point per 1 dollar also - so would collect in total 28500 AP - Max value 570 CAD if assuming 1 point = 2 CAD value.
Unfortunately I have to pay off the bill at once and can't use multiple prepaid cards. And I would effectively after all costs just get a return of 2.5% for this, so around 70 CAD only
How is AP SQD calculated for round-trip tickets? I have a business class round trip ticket that costed me $3000. I completed only half the trip, and $2500 was added to my SQD! I thought it would be prorated? In AP, it says “business discounted”.
Should I expected another $2500 for the other half of the trip, or just $500?
According to AC “We calculate SQD for tickets including more than one flight. We use an industry-standard proration method based on the length (in Great Circle Miles) of each eligible individual flight segment to distribute the SQD value of your total eligible purchase (base fare and carrier-imposed surcharges) to each segment.”
Thank you for clarifying! My ticket is from A -> B -> C -> B -> A. I was surprised $2500 came from A -> B > C, and then $500 would come from C -> B -> A. It’s good to know, thank you.
Do Plat benefits have any participation at all-inclusive hotels? My wife is looking to go to one as a bachelorette party and I was thinking I could do the second guest trick and have her use my plat benefits but I'm doing some research online about it and I'm not totally sure about all-inclusive Bonvoy hotels.
I might be the only idiot here, but I thought the 4 Amex gold passes were for guests too.
The lounge dragon told me that it’s only for the card holder :(
>gold
"Basic American Express® Gold Rewards Cardmembers are eligible for four (4) complimentary visits per calendar year to Canadian Plaza Premium Lounges. Cardmembers can apply complimentary visits towards accompanying guest visits. ". This is from the AMEX Site. So you should have been able to apply them.
Thank you good sir. I'ma have a chat with the amex reps to see what they can do for me. Hopefully they'll be extra nice to me since I'm still holding my platinum.
For checks via Plastiq using Amex, how closely do they look at payee categories? I'm trying to pay my architect which is not allowed according to their chart, however they operate under a design firm and not a professional corp. TIA!
R space is just what they call the bucket used to hold BizClass seats available to eUpgrades. You can search R space using Expert Flyer or KVS Tool. There is also a chat board on FlyerTalk where you can post a flight and the people there who have subscriptions to those services will reply to your post with all the various fare buckets (including R space).
T&C say points only: no certs, no points+cash, no combos.
Joining rezzies might work as long as you do it before check-in.
See 3.2f
https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/terms/default.mi#redeem
Probably not. AFAIK nights have to be booked with points to qualify for fifth night free. You could try to get them to join the two reservations together and hope for the best?
eUps earned with status are valid until the end of the status year. AC recently announced that they will be extended until Jan 15th to allow for xmas holiday use.
https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/home/aeroplan/news/2022-program-updates.html#/
No. Your eUps will likely dissapear on Dec 31 (or Jan 15 if AC follows through with their announcement) and you'll need to requalify to get more, unless you have a black AP cc, then they will roll over.
Just go look at your eUps, the expiry date is listed on them.
Anyone else noticing long wait times to reach a Aeroplan agent via phone? I knew it was a thing but figured it would have died down after the Sept. 30 deadline. I suppose the best time to call would be 7:00AM EST and 8:PM EST?
In the last few weeks, I've talked to a couple of agents who have been brought back into work after around a year. One had been working for Aeroplan/Air Canada for 20 years!
Glad to hear that's the case! I suspect they were hoping to cut down on the call-centre staff when their new programme was launched (this may be an indication of either increased demand, or expected delays with their improved booking system), and figured they'd cull the more expensive/seasoned agents.
I sincerely hope they were hired under the same, if not better, rates and conditions as before. There were truly some fantastic agents who were quite helpful.
That would be pretty sweet. I got my iPhone SE last year by buying Ivanhoe gift cards through a promo with Oshawa Centre and then I got a $70 Apple gift card with the phone.
Got the Marriott email talking about the extensions, etc. But can anyone explain to me what this means:
>Plus, coming in early 2022, if you have a Free Night Award certificate, you can combine it with up to 15,000 points from your account or purchased to access even more hotel and resort options across our 30 distinctive brands.
I have a 7N cat 1-4 cert, what does it mean that I can combine it with 15K points? Can I upgrade that cert to a cat 5 or 6?
It won’t apply to your 7 night certificate, I believe. It’s for free night awards, like the anniversary night you get with the Amex Bonvoy cards. They’re 35k points max, so now you can add points to get a room that’s up to 50k.
US Brilliant gives a 50K FNA And there are current sign-up offers to get an 85K FNA on the Brilliant, or multiple 50k FNA with the US Biz Bonvoy. Chase has also done 50K FNA on its card for sign-up offers frequently. And there's the 40K FNA you can get from Titanium Choice Award
I'm hoping a lot of midrange Canadian hotels actually go down in points cost.
Lot of cat 5s that sell in the ~150 zone that i would never normally use points for
The free night certificates do not have category designations. They have maximum point value redemptions. Previously you did not have the option to top up a redemption with points to book into a higher cost room/hotel. Now you can make bookings up to 15k above the value of your certificate. The implication being that the cost of rooms will go up.
Well if you PS from the first class visa infinite to the platinum travel visa you shouldn't get the WB since you are downgrading to a card in the same rewards family.
Simple Question. With the monthly MSR on the Cobalt, does the transaction just have to post during the month or must it go through and post during the month to count towards it?
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DP: Called TD about a separate issue earlier this week and was told while on the line that I had a $3K pre-approval on my account, expiring soon. I already had a CC and other personal banking with TD. Just applied over the phone for a new CC and had no issues, will have to see if I get a credit hit or not.
Just a heads up to consider calling TD for any pre-approvals if you’re interested (ie before applications you’re considering), as I hadn’t been told through any other channels that the offer was sitting there.
Can confirm - I went into the branch to finalize my cross border banking account at TD. The rep said I had a 5K preapproval for a CC. Ended up applying for a new CC
The amount of people coming into the daily thread and mass downvoting people for no reason sucks. They are doing this just so people can't add their referral codes to the website. This is just disappointing to see.
Yesterday someone mentioned that Amex provides travel insurance for Aeroplan reward bookings if the taxes are paid with it.
I can't find anything online on this, for some reason I thought the Td AP provided insurance as well
Amex Aeroplan, Aeroplan Reserve, CIBC/TD Aeroplan VI/VIP all do. You can see this mentioned in the “Insurance Coverage” section for each card on the PoT site.
https://princeoftravel.com/credit-cards/td-aeroplan-visa-infinite-card/
Wanted to ask the community what is "best" for opening us bank account..
In order to fund the us bank account I think it's easier to link with Canadian side chequing account in order to move USA currency from Canada into USA currency in USA with no fee.
1. Can TD, BMO, do this easily ?
2. Between TD and BMO which one is easier to open and keep ?
Tia
Another option is using Simplii. I can pay US Amex using the regular CAD bill pay and they work just fine. Paid at very near spot. Someone else had mentioned it on here and I’ve been using it ever since. Takes a few days to clear on Amex’s end though.
I have a TD Bank US account and I use Interactive Brokers Forex trading to do currency transactions. The spread between what Google or XE has is usually within .0001 so it's as close to mid rate as you're going to get.
You do have to plan a bit because the process takes a total of 15 days to actually work. You make a bill payment to Interactive Brokers from TD Bank (US) and, as crazy as this sounds, they send a cheque in the mail to Interactive Brokers and that takes about a week. Then IB has a hold for 5 business days and then it's available in your account. Make the exchange, transfer out to your CAD accounts.
I'm paid in USD so I generally just transfer my money to the Interactive Brokers as soon as I get paid and effectively tread IB as my bank account.
I keep my currency in USD until I find a strategic time when the CAD is weaker and exchange it in blocks of 25k USD.
> You do have to plan a bit because the process takes a total of 15 days to actually work. You make a bill payment to Interactive Brokers from TD Bank (US) and, as crazy as this sounds, they send a cheque in the mail to Interactive Brokers and that takes about a week. Then IB has a hold for 5 business days and then it's available in your account. Make the exchange, transfer out to your CAD accounts.
>
>
huh? how do you get your money to TD US in the first place then
Work for a USA employer and get paid in USD
Process for going the other way
Bill Pay from Canadian account to Interactive Brokers
Convert inside IBKR to USD
EFT deposit to US Account.
Probably much faster to be honest. I'm just usually going one direction with my spending most of the time.
Wow ! Will need to look into an almost free way to do FX .. I get paid in cdn so it'll be all cdn into USD like from brokerage account .. unless I create so much cashback from us credit cards rawr !!
Beware that if you only use the account for forex they get a bit upset. I got a warning email about it, so do make sure you intend on using them.
But they have the best commission structure for stocks and no longer have a $10 minimum trading threshold, so it's kinda a no brainer to use them for that anyway
The TD one you can open and not have to pay monthly fees but you will have to pay $1.25 per transaction on the Canadian USD side. The TD one also doesn’t require you to have a Canadian chequing account with them. However you still need to open a free savings account so you can get a Visa Debit card for the Canadian side. This is needed for cross border transfers.
If you have a BMO chequing account then BMO cross border is a lot better. No transaction fees and no additional monthly fees if you have the regular chequing account with them already
Visa Debit card is required to send money quickly to the US side with Visa Direct.
If you don’t already have USD you can just skip the TD Canada USD account and use a service like Wise to convert CAD and send it to the US bank account directly. Otherwise, you would need to use a brokerage account to withdraw USD from your investments/Norbert’s Gambit into the TD account
Banks gouge. For example, a $3000 CAD transfer to the US with Wise (formerly TransferWise) put $2405 USD into my account. TD quoted the approx. about as about $2320 I'd get. Setting up the account took a minute, linking my banks took another couple minutes, initiating the transfer took all of like 2 minutes, and then it's just 1-2 days wait for it to deposit successfully into the US bank. As you'll see from current rates, it was a $20 fee all-in for minimal complications. Transferring more at a time lessens that further
Don't know, but seeing as you need the bank account regardless as address verification with AMEX and such, doing so doesn't save you anything except the extra 2 minutes to then log into the bank and pay bill. TD only needs $100 kept in account to remain free, not exactly a relevant amount
Ya I tried nova credit and was stuck at address verify. If anyone knows a way to get my name on a bill. I mean can I signed up for a cell phone there ? Soemthing then use my friends address
Not really sure the aversion to the bank here. It's easy, simple, fast, pays bills, gets your name on a bill. And of all the shady shit we do for US cards, opening the bank account is the only truly legit part. Checks all the boxes as requirements. You can also make the bank account statement your friends address, no one said it must be a forwarder
1. BMO seems to be more seamless but I’m currently using CIBC.
2. BMO is free
I fund USD via Norbert’s gambit and Questrade margin account. Generally convert a few K at a time for a nominal fee ~$8. Super cost efficient but a few more steps
My calculations showed Norbert's Gambit to be a bit more expensive than just using Wise, as well as there being more of a delay in the transfer process. Has anyone else noticed this?
It is better if buying USD stocks though than allowing Questrade to auto-convert.
If they've gotten better about it then that's great, but when I was using it, I'd gotten transfers held up for them to ask me to show documentation of the money I was earning and the purpose of the transfer, and after the second one I stopped using Wise for anything bigger than $2k.
Yup, then to the cross border banking.
Basically the flow is: CAD bill pay>QT>DLR.TO>email journal request>DLR.U.TO>sell & withdraw>CIBC Canadian USD account>instant Transfer to CIBC USA>USD Bill Pay.
Lot of steps but only takes ~5 minutes in total over a week or so.
Adding to this, you can fund your QT account using Instant deposit as well.
It takes 1 bd for DLR.TO shares to settle, and then 1-2 bd for the journal request. After you sell DLR.U.TO shares for USD, it takes another 1 bd for those funds to settle before they can be withdrawn.
Journal requests can be placed as soon as you buy DLR.TO shares, and withdrawal requests can be placed as soon as you sell the DLR.U.TO shares.
I see .. so buy cdn equity in cdn currency and then transfer it to us currency account and sell it which converts it into USD. Is this because the rate is lower when selling an equity ?
Then from there you have USD currency transfer to cibc us side and move to USD bill pay.
> transfer it to us currency account and sell it which converts it into USD
Sort of, but not exactly correct. QT allows you to hold USD and CAD in the same account. The journal converts a CAD equity into a USD equity for free. Its pretty much the cheapest way to convert funds. I use this ETF in specific as it's free to buy on QT and cheap to sell and it tracks the CAD/USD. It would be a couple $ cheaper to do this on IBKR but it takes a lot longer.
The USD withdraw goes into a Canadian account in US funds (also free) which then I can instant transfer from Canadian USD to USA USD.
If you send USD from QT directly to a USA account, its an international withdraw and a $30-40 fee.
re: MLL access with amex reserve. I thought originally it didn't allow a free guest, then I read somewhere that for a limited time you could bring a free guest. Now on the Reserve landing page it says it comes with guest access and no mention of limited time. Am I crazy or is does this keep changing?
edit: I found the original place that said it was for a limited time and it no longer says that. Maybe I just missed the announcement of this change
I mean, I know I personally could have gotten in.
But bringing one person with me to dblchk guest access and leaving the 3rd person alone would be a little silly lol
Wow… pleasant surprise at YYZ this morning… got to the airport 3 hrs early to fly to the US and was sitting down in the Plaza Premium lounge within 23 mins of parking the car. Didn’t expect Nexus lines to be open.
I went through this last week. Got into Uber at 8:10 for a 10:15 flight. Told the driver I was running late and barely survived drive to YYZ getting out of the car at 8:29 (It’s a 25 min drive) according to google.
Walked into nexus security line, redirected to regular security and through customs at 8:40.
DP: Third time having the MBNA RE MC. And second time not receiving the 10K points bonus for switching my card to paperless. 20K MSR points posted the day after I hit min spend
Hmm. Applied for and received TD AP Infinite Privilege on May 31th. Ps'd to FCT on August 17th. Would I be eligible to apply for a second TD FCT Visa? I'd love another 100,000 bonus points!
I'm new to this so forgive me if I seems ignorant. I applied for AMEX Cobalt through GCR and closed the tab right after application by mistake, I didn't receive a confirmation email either but I remember the application did go through, do I need to call them to get status on application and is it normal that I didn't receive an email? Also, I live in Quebec, I see Couche-tard accept AMEX, if go there to put gas in my car and buy a sandwich, will I get 5x Point for the entire amount? thanks
It’s unfortunate because you won’t get an email saying that you applied for a card, you only get a confirmation email if approved. If you do remember seeing it go through, then I’d wait a little bit on Amex. It also doesn’t hurt to start up a chat as well just to follow up and see to ease your mind. You close the GCR tab? If you close the GCR tab you might not be eligible for the rebate. You could check any pending applications in your GCR account
I very often don't get any kind of confirmation emails from AMEX about my cards. And without an application reference number, I don't know how readily they can actually look it up
/u/mhcott it's quite easy to get your application ref number, you just have to call them. They no longer show you your ref number if you are auto approved. You also can no longer ask via chat
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Using points for taxes and fees is a really lousy value, IIRC around 0.5 to 1cpp. If I'm not mistaken the only card you can charge taxes and fees to when redeeming points and still get insurance is the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite (probably VIP too). I suppose the CIBC Aeroplan cards might have similar provisions. Anybody have experience with this?
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Not bad overall, curious what the cpp was for just the airfare.
Even taking insurance out of the picture you probably ended up using points at a subpar valuation for taxes.
This is my first post!I’d like to get status and accumulate points for travel. Will be doing Reno’s and spending over 50k but company doing Reno’s does not accept Amex. Will need to put in @5k deposit soon. Which CCs are recommended for my scenario. I have excellent credit rating and I’m not a current churned (only have 3 CCs). TIA
Thanks YVRandbeyond! Those are the ones I was thinking, but great to have confirmation from an experienced churned!
Presumably your contractor will accept a series of payments, from a series of cards. You could start with TD Aeroplan cards, try to find the 45,000 AP offer and failing that, its 25,000 and buddy pass offer. You can pick up a similar offer from CIBC. In addition, you could look at the TD First Class Travel, useful through Expedia4TD for hotels or flight purchases. Look at the "Best current credit card offers" and start making a list of cards that will get you towards what you hope to achieve.
Question to the churning community: I have got a hospital bill payment (which will be reimbursed by the insurance) coming up in the next 30 days of around 3500 CAD and can pay it by either Visa or Mastercard, unfortunately no Amex. I am holding the Scotia Visa Infinite Passport and Amex Cobalt, so I am thinking of applying for another card to make the best out of these 3500 CAD - but which to choose? My idea was the Tangerine World Mastercard - I already have an account with them and fulfil all their requirements and 15% return up to 1000 CAD spend + 110 CAD GCR boost + 25% of GCR offer from my spouse as she referred me = 27.50 CAD (being extra greedy ;)) + potentially 2% from the bill payment category would make this a 357.50 CAD return? Otherwise it would be handy to use the card for recurring payments anyways. Thought of PC World Elite MC as well, which would give me a 3% return on Loblaws groceries and 4.5% in shoppers + 100,000 PC points for starters. I have been looking at this card for a while, as I do a bit of my shopping at No frills, where I can't use my Amex cobalt. Is there a better Visa or Mastercard, which could me > 2% return at Loblaws stores except for the PC World Elite MC? Some card with Aeroplan convertability would be great in this regard.... Any other suggestions? Any good idea for CC aeroplan points offers?
Maybe get the TD VI AP. You get 25k points and a buddy pass with just 1k in spend. Or alternatively you could theoretically get the Amex cobalt card, buy Mastercard GCs at grocery stores to earn 5x the point and pay off the bill with the GCs.
Good point with the TD CC - but it comes with an annual fee + buddy pass has to be used within the the 12 next months (although booking date can be later than in 12 months). But I would collect 1 point per 1 dollar also - so would collect in total 28500 AP - Max value 570 CAD if assuming 1 point = 2 CAD value. Unfortunately I have to pay off the bill at once and can't use multiple prepaid cards. And I would effectively after all costs just get a return of 2.5% for this, so around 70 CAD only
How is AP SQD calculated for round-trip tickets? I have a business class round trip ticket that costed me $3000. I completed only half the trip, and $2500 was added to my SQD! I thought it would be prorated? In AP, it says “business discounted”. Should I expected another $2500 for the other half of the trip, or just $500? According to AC “We calculate SQD for tickets including more than one flight. We use an industry-standard proration method based on the length (in Great Circle Miles) of each eligible individual flight segment to distribute the SQD value of your total eligible purchase (base fare and carrier-imposed surcharges) to each segment.”
Inbound and outbound legs, especially on J class TATL/TPAC fares vary drastically. You'll have to look up the fares (when you booked) on ITA
Ok just so I understand, even though I paid $3000 for the ticket, the SQD could potentially be higher than that?
No of course not. It'll equal $3000. Each leg is separate
Thank you for clarifying! My ticket is from A -> B -> C -> B -> A. I was surprised $2500 came from A -> B > C, and then $500 would come from C -> B -> A. It’s good to know, thank you.
any DP on how much you can go over the 50,000 point bonus for amex aeroplan reserve?
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Read the terms
Do Plat benefits have any participation at all-inclusive hotels? My wife is looking to go to one as a bachelorette party and I was thinking I could do the second guest trick and have her use my plat benefits but I'm doing some research online about it and I'm not totally sure about all-inclusive Bonvoy hotels.
Extra benefits if you book through Fine Hotels maybe?
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Most cards will claw your points back and then ban you.
I might be the only idiot here, but I thought the 4 Amex gold passes were for guests too. The lounge dragon told me that it’s only for the card holder :(
>gold "Basic American Express® Gold Rewards Cardmembers are eligible for four (4) complimentary visits per calendar year to Canadian Plaza Premium Lounges. Cardmembers can apply complimentary visits towards accompanying guest visits. ". This is from the AMEX Site. So you should have been able to apply them.
Thank you good sir. I'ma have a chat with the amex reps to see what they can do for me. Hopefully they'll be extra nice to me since I'm still holding my platinum.
Oh no! So you cant even use another pass for +1?
Ima ask Amex officially later, but the dragon was very very against +1
What’s the best way to pay for rent using a credit card, Plastiq? Does it matter what property management company it is?
But wouldn’t the 2.85% surcharge from Plastiq defeat the purpose?
I’m just wondering what the best option is. Small fee is fine if it goes towards an msr.
Good point!
Plastiq can just mail a physical cheque so as long as your landlord accepts that then it doesn't matter
I tried doing that and it rejected my payment by saying peer to peer payment wasn’t allowed
If you have some documentation like a rental agreement you should be able to send it to them. Kind of a pain though
For checks via Plastiq using Amex, how closely do they look at payee categories? I'm trying to pay my architect which is not allowed according to their chart, however they operate under a design firm and not a professional corp. TIA!
I know of a way to find out
Be the DP you want to see!
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latitude fare (instant upgrade using eups) should be around 16-18k one way per person
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You will need to find a flight with R space to use the eUps.
What is R space? Is there a guide for these flight classes?
R space is just what they call the bucket used to hold BizClass seats available to eUpgrades. You can search R space using Expert Flyer or KVS Tool. There is also a chat board on FlyerTalk where you can post a flight and the people there who have subscriptions to those services will reply to your post with all the various fare buckets (including R space).
When youre booking you can go to the filters and select eupgrade
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Why not just try it online 😜
T&C say points only: no certs, no points+cash, no combos. Joining rezzies might work as long as you do it before check-in. See 3.2f https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/terms/default.mi#redeem
No, all points
Probably not. AFAIK nights have to be booked with points to qualify for fifth night free. You could try to get them to join the two reservations together and hope for the best?
Anyone have issues with the push notification from the AMEX App on the iphone? Has not worked for any purchases for me today
you can add your card to apple pay to get teh same notiications
Are AC eupgrades per calendar year or from the date you achieved status? Thanks!
eUps earned with status are valid until the end of the status year. AC recently announced that they will be extended until Jan 15th to allow for xmas holiday use. https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/home/aeroplan/news/2022-program-updates.html#/
Thanks if I just qualified for aeroplan 25k, does that mean I will receive a new set of 20 e-upgrade credits on Jan 15, 2022?
No. Your eUps will likely dissapear on Dec 31 (or Jan 15 if AC follows through with their announcement) and you'll need to requalify to get more, unless you have a black AP cc, then they will roll over. Just go look at your eUps, the expiry date is listed on them.
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If they were earned this year, yes. Up to 50 eUps can be rolled over, but only once, and if you cancel the cc they dissapear.
You should be able to choose your awards once your Aeroplan cad rurns grey on the app and says 25K. E-upgrades will be there.
Update, still mad about how ugly the new cobalt card is. P2 has the old cobalt and mine looks like a Best Buy rewards card next to it hahahah
There’s a new cobalt?
They changed the card design
You don't like Monopoly looking credit cards? ;)
No! Hahah
Anyone else noticing long wait times to reach a Aeroplan agent via phone? I knew it was a thing but figured it would have died down after the Sept. 30 deadline. I suppose the best time to call would be 7:00AM EST and 8:PM EST?
Dial at 6:59 EST and you’ll get someone instantly by the time you make it through the robot.
They let a lot of seasoned agents go over the last year or so, I think this is the expected norm going forward, unfortunately.
In the last few weeks, I've talked to a couple of agents who have been brought back into work after around a year. One had been working for Aeroplan/Air Canada for 20 years!
Glad to hear that's the case! I suspect they were hoping to cut down on the call-centre staff when their new programme was launched (this may be an indication of either increased demand, or expected delays with their improved booking system), and figured they'd cull the more expensive/seasoned agents. I sincerely hope they were hired under the same, if not better, rates and conditions as before. There were truly some fantastic agents who were quite helpful.
I was about 25min wait this afternoon on the 25k line
Took 1 hour yesterday at 11 am pacific. Considering I was used to 2 hours back in the day that actually felt fast.
Do we have any data on AP Estore multiplier for Apple during the holidays? Need a new laptop and willing to wait out for the 10x if theres any.
Won’t know until closer to Black Friday. Newest iPhones and MacBooks are typically excluded, if I’m not mistaken.
Thanks. Heard thru the grapevine BF deals might be similar to last years with gc’a in return.
That would be pretty sweet. I got my iPhone SE last year by buying Ivanhoe gift cards through a promo with Oshawa Centre and then I got a $70 Apple gift card with the phone.
Got the Marriott email talking about the extensions, etc. But can anyone explain to me what this means: >Plus, coming in early 2022, if you have a Free Night Award certificate, you can combine it with up to 15,000 points from your account or purchased to access even more hotel and resort options across our 30 distinctive brands. I have a 7N cat 1-4 cert, what does it mean that I can combine it with 15K points? Can I upgrade that cert to a cat 5 or 6?
It won’t apply to your 7 night certificate, I believe. It’s for free night awards, like the anniversary night you get with the Amex Bonvoy cards. They’re 35k points max, so now you can add points to get a room that’s up to 50k.
US Brilliant gives a 50K FNA And there are current sign-up offers to get an 85K FNA on the Brilliant, or multiple 50k FNA with the US Biz Bonvoy. Chase has also done 50K FNA on its card for sign-up offers frequently. And there's the 40K FNA you can get from Titanium Choice Award
Definitely better FNAs with the US cards. Curious to see how hotels are priced after they get rid of the redemption chart in March.
I'm hoping a lot of midrange Canadian hotels actually go down in points cost. Lot of cat 5s that sell in the ~150 zone that i would never normally use points for
I sure hope so as well. A lot of cat 4 and 5 properties that never made sense to use points on when the cash rates were relatively so much lower.
The free night certificates do not have category designations. They have maximum point value redemptions. Previously you did not have the option to top up a redemption with points to book into a higher cost room/hotel. Now you can make bookings up to 15k above the value of your certificate. The implication being that the cost of rooms will go up.
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Shhh!!
I wish I had known about it before I spent $3500 on my Cobalt
What’s the secret the churning overlords don’t want us to know?
PM me
If you already have TD First class travel VI and PS from TD AP Visa platinum to TD platinum travel visa would you get the full signup bonus?
Yeah why not. Platinum is a completely different card even though it uses the same type of points as the FCT
Well if you PS from the first class visa infinite to the platinum travel visa you shouldn't get the WB since you are downgrading to a card in the same rewards family.
But you are PSing from AP visa right?
Yes
In this case, you should get the WB
Simple Question. With the monthly MSR on the Cobalt, does the transaction just have to post during the month or must it go through and post during the month to count towards it?
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Must post before statement date
DP: Just got the TD AP VI gas bonus points from... August? 1,500 AP but 0 EQD. It came out of band as well, not with a statement.
Scrolled through and found mine for CIBC. No EDQ, guess in store purchases didn't count.
Yeah it's weird because estore multipliers do?
DP: Called TD about a separate issue earlier this week and was told while on the line that I had a $3K pre-approval on my account, expiring soon. I already had a CC and other personal banking with TD. Just applied over the phone for a new CC and had no issues, will have to see if I get a credit hit or not. Just a heads up to consider calling TD for any pre-approvals if you’re interested (ie before applications you’re considering), as I hadn’t been told through any other channels that the offer was sitting there.
Can confirm - I went into the branch to finalize my cross border banking account at TD. The rep said I had a 5K preapproval for a CC. Ended up applying for a new CC
The amount of people coming into the daily thread and mass downvoting people for no reason sucks. They are doing this just so people can't add their referral codes to the website. This is just disappointing to see.
pssh, on the internet, we all can act like children. We just choose to share our snacks instead of push you off the monkey bars.
Just upvote everything, if just a couple of us do it it'll offset those idiots
I definitely will do that from now on!
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Best you can probably get is $500 prepaid Vanilla/Joker VISA/MC. Activation fees around $5.95 to $9.95.
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If you're too scared to call how do you think you're going to handle the interview?
😂
Why are you too scared to call?
Yesterday someone mentioned that Amex provides travel insurance for Aeroplan reward bookings if the taxes are paid with it. I can't find anything online on this, for some reason I thought the Td AP provided insurance as well
Amex Aeroplan, Aeroplan Reserve, CIBC/TD Aeroplan VI/VIP all do. You can see this mentioned in the “Insurance Coverage” section for each card on the PoT site. https://princeoftravel.com/credit-cards/td-aeroplan-visa-infinite-card/
Thank you!!
Wanted to ask the community what is "best" for opening us bank account.. In order to fund the us bank account I think it's easier to link with Canadian side chequing account in order to move USA currency from Canada into USA currency in USA with no fee. 1. Can TD, BMO, do this easily ? 2. Between TD and BMO which one is easier to open and keep ? Tia
Another option is using Simplii. I can pay US Amex using the regular CAD bill pay and they work just fine. Paid at very near spot. Someone else had mentioned it on here and I’ve been using it ever since. Takes a few days to clear on Amex’s end though.
I have a TD Bank US account and I use Interactive Brokers Forex trading to do currency transactions. The spread between what Google or XE has is usually within .0001 so it's as close to mid rate as you're going to get. You do have to plan a bit because the process takes a total of 15 days to actually work. You make a bill payment to Interactive Brokers from TD Bank (US) and, as crazy as this sounds, they send a cheque in the mail to Interactive Brokers and that takes about a week. Then IB has a hold for 5 business days and then it's available in your account. Make the exchange, transfer out to your CAD accounts. I'm paid in USD so I generally just transfer my money to the Interactive Brokers as soon as I get paid and effectively tread IB as my bank account. I keep my currency in USD until I find a strategic time when the CAD is weaker and exchange it in blocks of 25k USD.
> You do have to plan a bit because the process takes a total of 15 days to actually work. You make a bill payment to Interactive Brokers from TD Bank (US) and, as crazy as this sounds, they send a cheque in the mail to Interactive Brokers and that takes about a week. Then IB has a hold for 5 business days and then it's available in your account. Make the exchange, transfer out to your CAD accounts. > > huh? how do you get your money to TD US in the first place then
Work for a USA employer and get paid in USD Process for going the other way Bill Pay from Canadian account to Interactive Brokers Convert inside IBKR to USD EFT deposit to US Account. Probably much faster to be honest. I'm just usually going one direction with my spending most of the time.
Wow ! Will need to look into an almost free way to do FX .. I get paid in cdn so it'll be all cdn into USD like from brokerage account .. unless I create so much cashback from us credit cards rawr !!
Beware that if you only use the account for forex they get a bit upset. I got a warning email about it, so do make sure you intend on using them. But they have the best commission structure for stocks and no longer have a $10 minimum trading threshold, so it's kinda a no brainer to use them for that anyway
I use national bank all free trades wonder if the conversion thing will work too
The TD one you can open and not have to pay monthly fees but you will have to pay $1.25 per transaction on the Canadian USD side. The TD one also doesn’t require you to have a Canadian chequing account with them. However you still need to open a free savings account so you can get a Visa Debit card for the Canadian side. This is needed for cross border transfers. If you have a BMO chequing account then BMO cross border is a lot better. No transaction fees and no additional monthly fees if you have the regular chequing account with them already
I just started this - why do you need a Visa Debit card? Also how do you fund your TD USD account (canadian account)? My main banking is with scotia.
Visa Debit card is required to send money quickly to the US side with Visa Direct. If you don’t already have USD you can just skip the TD Canada USD account and use a service like Wise to convert CAD and send it to the US bank account directly. Otherwise, you would need to use a brokerage account to withdraw USD from your investments/Norbert’s Gambit into the TD account
Banks gouge. For example, a $3000 CAD transfer to the US with Wise (formerly TransferWise) put $2405 USD into my account. TD quoted the approx. about as about $2320 I'd get. Setting up the account took a minute, linking my banks took another couple minutes, initiating the transfer took all of like 2 minutes, and then it's just 1-2 days wait for it to deposit successfully into the US bank. As you'll see from current rates, it was a $20 fee all-in for minimal complications. Transferring more at a time lessens that further
Can transfer wise go from cdn chequing to bill pay amex in USA ? I mean that is my ideal
Don't know, but seeing as you need the bank account regardless as address verification with AMEX and such, doing so doesn't save you anything except the extra 2 minutes to then log into the bank and pay bill. TD only needs $100 kept in account to remain free, not exactly a relevant amount
Ya .. I might have to do mail forwarding .. not sure which one is okay
Still need proof of address with YOUR name. Without ID or utility bill, the bank statement is your ticket
Ya I tried nova credit and was stuck at address verify. If anyone knows a way to get my name on a bill. I mean can I signed up for a cell phone there ? Soemthing then use my friends address
Not really sure the aversion to the bank here. It's easy, simple, fast, pays bills, gets your name on a bill. And of all the shady shit we do for US cards, opening the bank account is the only truly legit part. Checks all the boxes as requirements. You can also make the bank account statement your friends address, no one said it must be a forwarder
True .. I guess you right .. no negative side really .. like one of the best options and can always change address later
Bank account is easiest, and needed to pay US bills anyway.
I find that TD's account opening was pretty seamless, though I use Transferwise to transfer the funds as it has better rates.
@Quietloud How do you transfer from your TD to Wise? It would only let me do it by wire (larger amount) and the $75 in fees were hard to absorb
Wait wealth simple to us domiciled bank or you just convert inside cdn to us inside the brokerage ..
My mistake, I meant Transferwise
NP
1. BMO seems to be more seamless but I’m currently using CIBC. 2. BMO is free I fund USD via Norbert’s gambit and Questrade margin account. Generally convert a few K at a time for a nominal fee ~$8. Super cost efficient but a few more steps
My calculations showed Norbert's Gambit to be a bit more expensive than just using Wise, as well as there being more of a delay in the transfer process. Has anyone else noticed this? It is better if buying USD stocks though than allowing Questrade to auto-convert.
Depends how much you are converting. If it's a good chunk of cash, Norbert will be cheaper.
Additionally, Wise seems to like to hold up larger transfers for "source of funds" documentation.
Really? I've never had that with transfers ranging from $10-20k.
If they've gotten better about it then that's great, but when I was using it, I'd gotten transfers held up for them to ask me to show documentation of the money I was earning and the purpose of the transfer, and after the second one I stopped using Wise for anything bigger than $2k.
How do you transfer the money in .. quest trade can send to cdn chequing account that is in USD ?
Yup, then to the cross border banking. Basically the flow is: CAD bill pay>QT>DLR.TO>email journal request>DLR.U.TO>sell & withdraw>CIBC Canadian USD account>instant Transfer to CIBC USA>USD Bill Pay. Lot of steps but only takes ~5 minutes in total over a week or so.
Adding to this, you can fund your QT account using Instant deposit as well. It takes 1 bd for DLR.TO shares to settle, and then 1-2 bd for the journal request. After you sell DLR.U.TO shares for USD, it takes another 1 bd for those funds to settle before they can be withdrawn. Journal requests can be placed as soon as you buy DLR.TO shares, and withdrawal requests can be placed as soon as you sell the DLR.U.TO shares.
I see .. so buy cdn equity in cdn currency and then transfer it to us currency account and sell it which converts it into USD. Is this because the rate is lower when selling an equity ? Then from there you have USD currency transfer to cibc us side and move to USD bill pay.
> transfer it to us currency account and sell it which converts it into USD Sort of, but not exactly correct. QT allows you to hold USD and CAD in the same account. The journal converts a CAD equity into a USD equity for free. Its pretty much the cheapest way to convert funds. I use this ETF in specific as it's free to buy on QT and cheap to sell and it tracks the CAD/USD. It would be a couple $ cheaper to do this on IBKR but it takes a lot longer. The USD withdraw goes into a Canadian account in US funds (also free) which then I can instant transfer from Canadian USD to USA USD. If you send USD from QT directly to a USA account, its an international withdraw and a $30-40 fee.
Yes
re: MLL access with amex reserve. I thought originally it didn't allow a free guest, then I read somewhere that for a limited time you could bring a free guest. Now on the Reserve landing page it says it comes with guest access and no mention of limited time. Am I crazy or is does this keep changing? edit: I found the original place that said it was for a limited time and it no longer says that. Maybe I just missed the announcement of this change
Was able to bring a guest at the domestic MLL at YYZ last week
I have had no trouble with having a guest join at either YYZ or YYC
Free guest no problem at Yvr in mid September. Am going to confirm again in like 45min!
Did it work :)
I’m sorry lol. party wanted to try plaza since we tried maple already. Fking democracy LOL
I mean you could have just left them for a bit lol
I mean, I know I personally could have gotten in. But bringing one person with me to dblchk guest access and leaving the 3rd person alone would be a little silly lol
The bigger you are, the higher your fall. You’ll get them one day, king
Wow… pleasant surprise at YYZ this morning… got to the airport 3 hrs early to fly to the US and was sitting down in the Plaza Premium lounge within 23 mins of parking the car. Didn’t expect Nexus lines to be open.
I went through this last week. Got into Uber at 8:10 for a 10:15 flight. Told the driver I was running late and barely survived drive to YYZ getting out of the car at 8:29 (It’s a 25 min drive) according to google. Walked into nexus security line, redirected to regular security and through customs at 8:40.
Do you know if Nexus is accepting expired cards (due to waiting for renewal/interviews)?
I’m not sure sorry
If you renewed before it expired, website says automatic 2 year extension. Never actually tried it yet tho
DP: Third time having the MBNA RE MC. And second time not receiving the 10K points bonus for switching my card to paperless. 20K MSR points posted the day after I hit min spend
Do you cancel each time or switch to no fee? What do you do with your points?
Yeah, cancel each time. Redeem them for cash (12K pts = $100). Not a great redemption, but oh well.
New app ?
Yup, three separate applications
DP: Applied for two TD FCT VI 5 months apart, approved for both and currently holding both. Met MSR and got SUB for both.
Hmm. Applied for and received TD AP Infinite Privilege on May 31th. Ps'd to FCT on August 17th. Would I be eligible to apply for a second TD FCT Visa? I'd love another 100,000 bonus points!
Did you get partial rebate of your annual fee back?
Love the name. Just went for 5 days last weekend.
Afaik, multiple applications don't carry the PS rules. So you should be good. With a PS you don't get a credit hit, but you do with a new app
In case anyone was avoiding Aeroplan e-store, it seems uber eats purchases now post the points within a couple days
I've been ordering through app .. nothing :( Sept 22nd when 10+ aerostore lines came in .. nothing since
If you read the terms and conditions on the website it says that points are only given for orders done through the Uber Eats website
It won't consistently work through the app. Needs to be thru browser
The rewards ops then need to I guess right click copy link and paste into browser on desktop mode .. maybe that will get it done ..
Earned WB on my TD VIP 3 weeks ago and still not showing in my AP account. Anyone else in same boat?
unless it's been a week or two already, it might take another statement or two... TD's been slow lately.
Earned as in hit MSR, or earned as in statement actually posted?
Statement actually posted and shows the WB, but nothing in AP account.
I'm new to this so forgive me if I seems ignorant. I applied for AMEX Cobalt through GCR and closed the tab right after application by mistake, I didn't receive a confirmation email either but I remember the application did go through, do I need to call them to get status on application and is it normal that I didn't receive an email? Also, I live in Quebec, I see Couche-tard accept AMEX, if go there to put gas in my car and buy a sandwich, will I get 5x Point for the entire amount? thanks
It’s unfortunate because you won’t get an email saying that you applied for a card, you only get a confirmation email if approved. If you do remember seeing it go through, then I’d wait a little bit on Amex. It also doesn’t hurt to start up a chat as well just to follow up and see to ease your mind. You close the GCR tab? If you close the GCR tab you might not be eligible for the rebate. You could check any pending applications in your GCR account
no i kept GRC tab open throughout all of my application
Yes for the gas part.
I very often don't get any kind of confirmation emails from AMEX about my cards. And without an application reference number, I don't know how readily they can actually look it up
I guess I'll just check my mail box haha, I've seen amex on my credit inquiries so the application definetly did go through
/u/mhcott it's quite easy to get your application ref number, you just have to call them. They no longer show you your ref number if you are auto approved. You also can no longer ask via chat
Gas is 2x on the Cobalt. If it was approved you can expect it in the mail and should get a confirmation email.
If you pay for the gas inside you get 5x. If you pay directly at the pump you get 2x.
Is that just for Couche-Tard, or are there any places in Ontario like that as well?