Which Visa do you have?

[anarchy]

I have two Mastercards right now, PC which I use for PC Points and BMO which I use for Air Miles.

I used to have the Royal Bank student VISA back when I was in University but I stopped using it and they cancelled it on me. I'm going to be traveling to HK in November and was told VISA is more widely accepted.

So here's my dilemma. Which VISA should I go with? The cash-back ones like the TD rebate rewards seems okay with 1% cashback and no annual fee, but spending 10 grand a year and getting 85 bucks back isn't that appealing to me. A travel rewards card would be nice for sure but I don't know which one to go with.

Part of the problem also is that with three credit cards, I'll be using all of them rather then concentrating on one. That's why I'm reluctant to spend $120 on an annual fee as it might not even be my primary card. Anyways, any advice and/or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

[old&slow]

why limit yourself to one card?
That's what I meant...get the visa!

[Amysicle]

Do you tend to maintain a balance on your card?

If I were you and you do, I'd just go for a low-interest credit card. You seem to have the rewards covered. (I love my Moasik MC!)

[anarchy]

I'm not sure waht you mean by limiting myself to one card?
I stated that I have two Mastercards already - one PC and one BMO.

I just need a VISA and I should be covered.

As for maintaining a balance, I'm very good at not doing that now. I always pay off my balance in full once my statement arrives so I'm not too worried about getting a low-interest card.

As for the Mosaik card, it's okay but you only get one air mile per $40. My gf has an AMEX that gives her one air mile per $20, and there's no annual fee for that one either.

[2002civic]

Platinum Avion Visa FTW

[heinz256]

Originally posted by 2002civic
Platinum Avion Visa FTW

Do you need to pay an annaul fee for this type ?

[anarchy]

I've heard the Avion card is good but as I mentioned earlier, I'm a bit hesitant with the annual fee as I use my other cards often as well.

Is it really worth the fee and how do the travel rewards work for that?

[JRSC00LUDE]

It's totally worth it if you are like us and use it for everything you buy. I use it for all that I can and in the first year we signed up we had enough points for one round trip ticket to asia. Our trip was a year ago this past april. Since then, I've cashed in a round trip to winnipeg, vancouver and have about 70,000 points accrued again. In another 6 months or so I'll have enough for another free trip to asia!

[ken-gsr]

Originally posted by 2002civic
Platinum Avion Visa FTW

werd! I just got one of those myself. If you sign up for the gold bank coverage (i think it is $30/month, but all transactions are free) then you don't have to pay the anual $120 fee for the Avion card.

[anarchy]

JRS - do you mind me asking approximately how much you had to spend to get the trip to Asia?

Ken - what does Gold bank coverage mean do? What kind of transactions would be free? It doesn't make sense to pay $30 a month compared to $120 in a year.

Thanks for all your feedback so far everyone. It sounds like the Avion card would be a good choice if I decide to use that as my primary card compared to my PC and Mosaik mastercards.

[Ferio_vti]

Avion gives bonus points every year when you pay your annual as an incentive to stay.

I use Visa Aerogold myself. Mosaik is a joke for points. Back when Superstore only accepted MC, PC points raked up pretty fast there. And I have an Aeroplan Amex for Costco.

[JRSC00LUDE]

100,000 points at 1 point earned/1 dollar spent. I have a supplemental card for the wife too though so that really helps. We just put everything from gas/groceries/movies/whatever on it to make it worthwile.

The only reason we earned the first flight so fast was that when the card first came out they offered double points for a certain time (approx 6 months or so) so they really racked up fast. And yes, I think you get 10,000 points for renewing or something like that.

[MilanoRedTeg]

how many points with that card would you have to earn for free domestic trip lets say from here to Montreal?

[anarchy]

Wow I definitely won't be spending $100,000 in a year anytime soon.

Still is intriguing though.

[CLiVE]

Platinum Avion is great. We've taken several free trips to Hawaii, and other US destinations with it. It is amazing how fast the points add up. Before we knew it we had over 300,000 points due to promotions, etc.

[89coupe]

I like my TD Travel Gold, its paid for two trips to Vegas already and one trip to Van.

[JRSC00LUDE]

Originally posted by anarchy
Wow I definitely won't be spending $100,000 in a year anytime soon.

Still is intriguing though.

Just mod your car, get married and renovate your kitchen. You'll be there before you know it......:cry:

[anarchy]

Originally posted by JRSC00LUDE


Just mod your car, get married and renovate your kitchen. You'll be there before you know it......:cry:

:rofl: I'll keep that in mind

[xtrader101]

I have VISA but seldom use it.

What I used before was PC MaStercard which gives 1% rebates for groceries and something else. However, I now use SPG MBNA Mastecard exclusively. For the first year i think I can get 40,000 starpoints enough for a four nights stay at a nice hotel or convert it to BA Miles for a total of 50,000 ba miles, enough for a trip to london. One more thing, this CC has no annual fee.

My annual spending is around $30K.

[Ajay]

I have the CIBC Aventura which is like the RBC Platinum Avion except offered by CIBC.

I love it. It costs me $120/year and ya you pay 19.5% interest but the rewards are worth it and if you don't carry a balance you don't need to worry about the interest rate.

I have two Mastercard's and an Amex and I only use my Aventura because it's the only one that has any use to me really.

[anarchy]

I sent in an application for the Avion card but now the Td Travel Gold and the CIBC Aerogold ones look appealing as well.

Any one use these cards and have an opinion on how they compare to RBC Avion?

[89coupe]

I like my TD Travel Gold, but I already said that...LOL

It has an annual fee though.

They key is to use it for every and any purchase. This way you build up points quickly.

I pay for everything with it.

Gas, Food, Gifts, everything!

[Ajay]

Originally posted by anarchy
I sent in an application for the Avion card but now the Td Travel Gold and the CIBC Aerogold ones look appealing as well.

Any one use these cards and have an opinion on how they compare to RBC Avion?

Do NOT get the Aerogold. I had it before I switched to my Aventura and it was the worst card I had. You can only use the travel reward miles on Air Canada or their partners (which I found to be few and far between) and for the amount of points required for shitty flights it wasn't worth it.

The Aventura and Avion are the same in the sense you can book a flight with whichever airline is convenient for you. Not sure if the TD Travel card works the same way but if I can give you advice I would stay away from the Aerogold.

[HRD2PLZ]

I have the Platinum Avion. The Aerogold card is pretty bad, lots of people I know with it complain about it and most of them have switched or are switching to either the Avion or Aventura card.

[tylere]

I have a Scotiagold Passport that has been good to me, free flights on any airline at any time. If you do any sort of traveling get a Gold card that has lots of benefits, the annual fee is well worth it. I had to use the trip interruption insurance two years in mexico during hurricane season, one call and VISA had a taxi pick me up at the resort, take me to the airport and got me on the next flight out all at NO COST or leg work for me, they took care of everything. Even people who had travel agents helping them out had more of a hassle as at the time there were a limited number of flights out.

Emergency card replacement is also great when you are in Australia and lose your wallet, I had my passport and a second card in my hotel but visa wired me 1000 bucks, had a courier chase me down in Newcastle the next day with a replacement card, canceled my debit card with the bank and requested a replacement drivers license for me….

[ashee]

I have a CIBC Visa, Royal Bank Starbucks Visa and a TD GM Visa, it sucks that the GM Visa only lets you redeem on brand new vehicles because I just bought a used GM and wasn't able to use my $300 GM dollars, boo.

[bksze]

Strictly depending on your spending habits but if collecting rewards is what you're after, you better consolidate the collecting.

I use the CIBC Aerogold Visa as well as the AMEX gold Aeroplan Plus. This allows me to collect the points from both cards towards one single purpose.

The reason I chose to collect Aeroplan over airmiles is due to the flexibility for international flights.

The reason I chose to collect Aeroplan over the Avion card is due to the fact that the Avion only allows use to put a maximum of $2000 of value towards any plane ticket. This essentially cuts international business class tickets out of consideration unless I want to pay the remainder.

With the AMEX it charges an extremely high interest rate, I believe something like 30% however it's got an unlimited credit limit and since I never maintain a balance, I dont' have a problem with that. The gold version also allows you to collect 1.25 miles for every dollar spent over $10 000.

[GTS Jeff]

TD Gold Elite - 1% cash back and it comes free if you can swing it right.

[anarchy]

Originally posted by bksze
Strictly depending on your spending habits but if collecting rewards is what you're after, you better consolidate the collecting.

I use the CIBC Aerogold Visa as well as the AMEX gold Aeroplan Plus. This allows me to collect the points from both cards towards one single purpose.

The reason I chose to collect Aeroplan over airmiles is due to the flexibility for international flights.

The reason I chose to collect Aeroplan over the Avion card is due to the fact that the Avion only allows use to put a maximum of $2000 of value towards any plane ticket. This essentially cuts international business class tickets out of consideration unless I want to pay the remainder.

With the AMEX it charges an extremely high interest rate, I believe something like 30% however it's got an unlimited credit limit and since I never maintain a balance, I dont' have a problem with that. The gold version also allows you to collect 1.25 miles for every dollar spent over $10 000.

Good advice. I don't see myself using more than $2000 on a plane ticket as I won't be flying business class anytime soon so that is not a perk for me for Aeroplan. Also, I don't see myself spending more than $10,000 points within one month.

I also don't carry a balance so interest rates are not important. It looks like I made a good choice with Avion, and I will definitely be consolidating my rewards.

[xtrader101]

Amex 2% cashback above $5000.

http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=480490&page=30&highlight=amex+gold

I am going to apply for this one soon.

[JAYMEZ]

Originally posted by 2002civic
Platinum Avion Visa FTW


:werd: .. Has a good aero plan on it!

[TomcoPDR]

Originally posted by GTS Jeff
TD Gold Elite - 1% cash back and it comes free if you can swing it right.

X2, and a free auto club service (2 tows free within city)