American Express Personal Platinum

The American Express Personal Platinum card is the main credit card I use. Yes, it comes with a high annual fee of $699, but I fully utilize all the benefits that it offers. I travel a lot, so the lounge access comes in handy and the hotel status upgrades have given me a lot of free additional perks over the years. Another reason I love the American Express Personal Platinum card is the flexibility of the American Express Membership Rewards points that I earn with the card. Membership Rewards points are worth a minimum of 1% in travel but they can be transferred to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio or Marriott at a 1:1.2 ratio which can offer even better value depending on what I’m booking. 

American Express Platinum Business

The American Express Platinum Business is very similar to the American Express Personal Platinum but it comes with a lower annual fee and some reduced benefits. As the name implies, it’s a business card so I only use this card for my business expenses. Interestingly enough, if you’re looking to ride the Amex train where you can earn enough points for a free flight around the world, the Amex Platinum Business card is the one you would start with since it comes with a monster 60,000 point sign up bonus when you spend $5,000 in the first three months. However, if you use my referral link, you get 75,000 points on a $7,000 spend.

WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard

As stated above, I was originally going to product switch to this card but once I decided to keep my Avion card, I applied for the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard. I’ve been flying WestJet on a pretty regular basis for a while now so the included companion voucher and free checked baggage were very appealing. I also have gold status with WestJet so when I use this card on WestJet flights, I’m earning an incredible 10% cash back in WestJet dollars.

PC Financial World Elite MasterCard

I do the majority of my shopping at No Frills which is owned by Loblaws and with the President’s Choice Financial MasterCard, I basically earn triple the PC Optimum points or 3% in cash back equivalent. Another advantage of this credit card is that it’s a Mastercard. Some of the merchants I shop at don’t accept American Express so I use this card instead. Although I don’t shop much at Shopper’s Drug Mart, you earn 45 PC Optimum points per $1 spent there which is essentially a 4.5% return. Shoppers Drug Mart often has some great promotions e.g. spend $75 and get 25,000 PC Optimum points so having this card is essential to fully maximize your return. Here’s my full PC Financial World Elite Mastercard review.

Home Trust Preferred Visa

Last year, CHASE decided to pull all of their cards out of Canada which meant I needed a replacement credit card without foreign exchange fees. At the time, the Home Trust Preferred Visa was a natural choice since it had no annual fee and had no forex fees. To be honest, I don’t love this card and I’m hoping a better card comes along. I have considered switching my no forex card to the Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite card or the Rogers World Elite Mastercard, but I don’t see a real need to make the switch yet. Read my Home Trust Preferred Visa card review now to find why this card is great if you’re looking for something simple.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Previously know as the Starwood Preferred Guest from American Express, the card has now been rebranded to Marriott Bonvoy to lineup with the reward program’s new name. With the Marriott Bonvoy American Express, you earn 5 points per $1 spend at Marriott properties which is an incredible earn rate. The sign up bonus 50,000 points is good enough for 5 free nights at a category 4 property when you take advantage of their book 4, get the 5th-night free promotion. I also love how this card gives you an annual free night certificate that can be used for a room worth up to 35,000 points. You get a sign up bonus of 51,000 points when using my referral link as long as you charge $3,000 to your card in the first three months of cardmembership.  The regular offer is 50,000 points on a $1,500 spend.

KOHO credit card

With KOHO, you preload your funds which essentially makes it a prepaid card that uses the Visa network for transactions. It’s a handy card if you’re looking to manage your spending while earning cash-back rewards on your purchases. Now you’re probably wondering why I’m carrying a pre-paid card when I have so many credit cards, well it’s mainly because of the referrals. When you sign up for KOHO using my KOHO referral code CASHMONEY, you get an extra 1% in cash back and I get a $20 commission. Want to learn more about KOHO? Read my KOHO review now and find out how you can earn up to $60 for free.

STACK Mastercard

When STACK Mastercard was first launched, I didn’t pay much attention to it since I already had a no foreign transaction fee credit card. However, once I started reading the benefits of the card, I realized that it’s the best credit card for travel. Not only do you not pay any foreign exchange fees on purchases, but you also don’t pay any exchange fees when using local ATMs. The ATM may charge you a one time use fee, but in the end, there is no cheaper way to get cash when you’re travelling. I basically try to use this card exclusively whenever I travel outside of Canada as it’s more convenient than a US credit card.

RBC Visa Infinite Avion

I originally signed up for the RBC Visa Infinite Avion Card because it had a nice 25,000 points sign up bonus and the annual fee was free for the first year. My intention to transfer those points over to WestJet Rewards later and then product switch from this card to the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard, but then I realized that RBC Rewards is pretty flexible since they have multiple transfer partners such as British Airways Avios and a fixed travel program. I ended up keeping this card just to diversify my points.

TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card

This credit card is a joint card that my wife and I use. In the last year, we’ve barely used this card since I prefer to maximize our points individually on one of our American Express cards. My wife and I communicate on a regular basis about our finances so there’s no real need to have a joint card anymore, but we’ll keep this card active since we a TD All-inclusive banking plan which waives the annual fee for this card.

MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus MasterCard

I used this cash back MasterCard before picking up my PC Financial card but since then I’ve stopped using this card completely. Although I don’t charge anything to this card anymore, I decided to keep this card active since it’s my oldest credit card. My keeping this credit card active, it helps increase my credit score.

Best Credit Cards Canada

When it comes to credit card charges, we won’t be able to eliminate them completely. But with some simple adjustments to our spending, we can come pretty close to paying next to nothing, when paying with plastic.

Credit card fees to be aware of

I don’t think I need to explain why paying 19.99% interest is a bad thing. It’s the other credit card charges that aren’t always obvious that we need to worry about.

Annual fees – Credit card annual fees are pretty common with premium cards but that doesn’t mean we need to pay it. When signing up for a new credit card, many companies will waive the fee for the first year. Once approved, make a note in your calendar and cancel it before the fee kicks in the following year.

If you prefer not to cancel your card every year, check with your bank to see what you need to do to qualify for a free premium credit card. The bank will usually just waive the yearly fee if you have a certain type of account with them. The account may require you to keep a minimum balance, but it’s probably worth it if you’re getting the fees waived on a premium credit card.

Cash advance fees – Credit card providers make easy to borrow cash with “convenience” cheques, and the ability to withdraw money right from an ATM. However, the credit card charges are so high, it’s never worth it.

Credit card cash advances will almost always have a higher interest rate than if you made a purchase directly with your card. There’s also the cash advance fee that’s charged based on how much you’re taking out. Sure it’s only 1% in Canada, and there’s a cap, but why use cash advances at all? Finally, there’s no grace period with cash advances– you’re charged interest on the amount you borrower immediately.

The only time a cash advance should be considered is if you have a positive (credit) balance currently on your account. Many travellers do this as a way to get money abroad, but since most debit cards now use the VISA Plus network, there’s no real reason to do this anymore.

Paper statements – If your bank or credit card provider charges for paper statements, then the obvious thing to do is to go paperless. Statements will always be available free online, and you can set up your account to email you when the statement is ready. Paper statements might only be a few dollars, but it’s a waste of money no matter how you look at it?

Foreign transactions – Foreign transaction fees are sneaky since they don’t show up separately on your statements. Whenever you make a purchase in a foreign currency, VISA adds 2.5% right into the exchange rate. So you’re basically paying the spot rate + 2.5%. If you’re getting a refund in a foreign currency, do you think you’re getting that 2.5% back too? Nope.

To avoid this fee, simply pick up one of the Canadian credit cards with no foreign transaction fees.

Final thoughts

If you want to avoid credit card charges completely, then stop using credit. Okay, so that’s probably not a realistic solution, but it does work. The best solution is to simply pay off your full balance every month, and to not treat your credit card like “cash”. You also want to avoid any additional services that your credit card provider might try to sell you. Some fees are unavoidable, but you should be able to minimize them.