Doing This Makes You Your Credit Card Companies’ Best Man

Say NO to Cash Advances

First Published Date: May 30, 2015

As I am writing my next book Credit Card Hacks: What Credit Card Companies Don’t Want You to Know, I would like to share some points I just finished writing about cash advances. This is a feature your credit cards offer that should be avoided at any cost and here is why.

Want to be the most popular person at your credit card companies? Taking out cash using the cash advance feature will definitely do the job. Credit card companies make the most money when you take out cash advances. The interest charge starts the moment you take out cash at 22 to 30 percent, or at even higher rates. And then in addition to that, you will be forced to pay another 1 to 3 percent cash advance fee.

And there is more. What your credit card companies don’t want you to know is that you could still be paying interest on cash advances, even if you have paid the full cash advance amount you took out, if your credit card has balances – even a single dollar. So it is possible you may be paying high interest on something you thought paid off.

So, how you can stop paying high interest charges? You have to bring down your balance to zero. But there is more to it and topics like this and much more will be revealed in my next book Credit Card Hacks: What Credit Card Companies Don’t Want You to Know. Currently I am finishing up its last two chapters and expecting to be published on the Amazon Kindle platform in the next 3 to 4 months.

Keep an eye on A Dawn Journal, as I will keep you posted with any updates as I continue working on it.

How to Fix Credit Score

Tips to Fix Credit Score

First Published Date: February 18, 2015

A bad credit score can make it difficult to get a loan or mortgage and also force you to pay more interest than you would normally pay with a better score. Today, I will talk about some simple things you can do to improve your credit rating.

Check Credit Report – Contact credit bureaus like Equifax or TransUnion to obtain a free copy of your credit report every year. This can be done online as well. If you find any errors, have those corrected by filling out a form or you can contact your financial institution if they caused the error.

Have A Mixture of Credits – Having different types of credits such as credit cards, personal loans, and mortgages help improve your credit score.

Don’t Be Rough on Your Bank Account – Stretching your bank accounts beyond their limits such as writing NSF cheques, drawing overdrafts, etc. will hurt your score.

Pay Off Credit Cards – Paying off your credits positively affect your credit score more than paying off other instalment loans such as mortgages, personal loans, etc. Try not to exceed 30 personal balances on each card in which you carry a balance.

Use Old Cards Sometimes – Don’t keep too many credit cards, but don’t close your oldest credit cards either. Charge a few dollars on those oldest cards occasionally and pay them off right away. Keeping these cards active will have greater weight on your credit score.

Don’t Believe – Don’t believe ads that promise to fix your credit score faster by paying them fees. The facts that affect your credit score cannot be erased or fixed by someone and will follow their course to stay on your report until they complete their timeline. Only you can improve your credit score by acting responsibly and taking proper steps in the right direction.

TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card or TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card?

Aeroplan Visa Infinite and First Class Visa Infinite

First Published Date: April 27, 2014

Since TD started offering the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card, it started head-to-head competition with TD’s own TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card. Both of these are fee-based premium cards offering Aeroplan Miles and TD Points with identical features and perks, and that raised the confusion of which one is better (or worse) in terms of giving more value for your money.

I have tried to find out some simple differences that would make it easier to choose the right card (except the obvious different types of reward points) going through the TD website, but I had no luck. So I took a simple approach to solve this problem – by walking into a TD branch and talking to a branch manager. Surprisingly enough, she was able to decipher the whole confusion in a simple way and that’s what I was looking for.

Here are some simple but effective tips she gave to choose the right cards (and these are what makes these two cards different than each other):

TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card

It’s good when you want to use your points for booking flights only. It’s not good when you want to book anything else such as vacations, hotels, etc. Points accumulate faster for flights than TD reward cards.

TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card

It gives more value when you use your points to book vacations, hotels, car rentals, or to redeem for rewards. You can use it to book flights as well, but for the sole purpose of booking flights only, Aeroplan is a better option.

As I prefer to use a premium card for various reasons, and not just booking flights only, my own preference is not an Aeroplan credit card. Also, the TD manager I was talking to pointed out that she would stick to her TD First Class Visa Infinite card.

New Aeroplan Program Highlights | What You Need to Know

Everything You Need to Know About Air Canada’s Refreshed Aeroplan

Air Canada Aeroplan starts a new airline loyalty flight on November 8, 2020 with a redesign of their Aeroplan program. Today, I will give you a brief summary of what’s important.

For detailed information, visit the Aeroplan Website. Also, you can watch my video on Aeroplan here:

New Aeroplan (Air Canada) | What You Must Know Now

Aeroplan New Earn Structures and Longer Expiration

The earning structures are changing from being based on miles flown to amounts spent. Points expiration will stretch from 12 months to 18 months. Also, there will be options to recover your points without a hefty penalty.

Those Hated Fuel/Carrier Surcharges Are Gone

The new Aeroplan will have no more fuel surcharges. Those ridiculous, pesky surcharges or fuel fees or carrier fees/surcharges will be eliminated. Instead, there will be a flat $39 Cad fee to book partner flights.

Every Seat Is A Reward Seat

A major complaint with the Aeroplan program was that there were no reward seats available. This will change. No more seat restrictions or blackouts. If you can buy a ticket, you will be able to book it with Aeroplan points under their new program. Canada seats will be available based on market value. There will be options to pay using points + cash or points only. Partners' seats will be based on fixed points.

There will be 4 travel zones: North America, South America, Atlantic, and Pacific.

There will be a variety of ways to use points such as to upgrade to business class, purchase Wi-Fi, pay baggage fees, enter elite lounges, etc.

Points Sharing

You will have the ability to pool points together to earn or redeem. Up to 8 members allowed. This is a good feature for families.

Stopovers + Open-Jaws

You will be able to add 5000 points to get a 2nd destination on a one-way trip. You can add Open-Jaws for free on a round-trip. I explained what an Open-Jaw is in the video.

Amazon Canada Rewards Visa Credit Card Review

A Visa Card That Saves You Foreign Currency Transaction Fees

First Published Date: December 5, 2013 ADawnJournal.com

Probably 90 percent of retailers have some sort of credit cards tied to some kind of reward points of their own, so why not Amazon Canada? Today, I will talk about some of the features the Amazon.ca Rewards Visa card offers.

The instantaneous benefit of this card is that once you are approved, Amazon.ca will take off $15 of your next purchase on the Amazon online store. And then there are ongoing reward points for each transaction you make (whether online or offline). For example, spending $1 at Amazon.ca earns 2 points (works out to be 2 percent cash back) and spending $1 anywhere else (where Visa is accepted) earns 1 point (works out to be 1 percent cash back).

There are also promotional financing offers on qualifying purchases of $199 or more. For example, you can take 6 months to pay without paying interest on $199+ or 12 months to pay on $499+ purchases. These can change any moment. So check at Amazon.ca before you make any large transactions to take advantage of promotional offers.

The best feature of the Amazon.ca Visa card is that it does not have any foreign exchange fees when you use your card outside Canada. All other major credit cards charge a 2.5 percent fee if you make any transactions outside Canada. If you travel a lot, saving 2.5 percent on each transaction can save you a lot of money.