Which Credit Cards Offer Airport Lounge Access?

Free Lounge Access with Credit Cards

First Published Date: December 13, 2015

When you are on a long international flight, the crummy and horrible waiting area can be a torturous place to spend your time. Your travel experience can get even worse if you have several never-ending layovers in between. Lounge access can make your whole journey memorable, with free amenities such as better food, resting area, shower facility, drinks, workstation, and much more that you would not have access to otherwise. Airport lounges are the travel industry’s best-kept secret and annual membership is expensive. But savvy travellers can score access to these calm, secluded, and ultimate relaxation area lounges for free, regardless of their flight class, with some credit cards that offer free lounge access.

Credit Cards with Lounge Access

1. BMO Air Miles World Elite MasterCard

Credit Card Annual Fee = $120

Lounge Access = 2

2. BMO World Elite MasterCard

Credit Card Annual Fee = $150

Lounge Access = 4

3. Amex Air Miles Reserve

Credit Card Annual Fee = $299

Lounge Access = 4

4. ScotiaBank Amex Platinum

Credit Card Annual Fee = $399

Lounge Access = 10

5. Amex Business Platinum

Credit Card Annual Fee = $399

Lounge Access = Unlimited

6. Amex Aeroplan Plus Platinum

Credit Card Annual Fee = $499

Lounge Access = Unlimited

7. Amex Platinum

Credit Card Annual Fee = $699

Lounge Access = Unlimited

How Financial Crisis Affected Credit Card Borrowers

Record Debts Being Written Off

Published Date : Sep 29, 2009

The financial crisis in which we have been living for some time now has changed the realities which we had accepted for some time, and many of those realities have changed for the worse. But for borrowers on credit cards who had been panicking about the pursuit from the issuers, there is one statistic which has improved. The issuers of credit cards are charging off a record amount of debt – meaning that they have accepted that people are not able to make their payments, and chasing them for those payments will not change the reality that they simply cannot afford to pay. It should be noted that this is not the case for every customer – if you can afford to pay but don’t want to, then the status quo will remain.

The simple truth of the matter is that with the unemployment rates having increased due to the global financial crisis, there are more and more people who simply cannot meet their credit card payments. Traditionally, this has led to  a troublesome situation where the banks pursue people to make any kind of payment at all, promising in many cases that if you can make “just a small payment” your account will be held for a while and that pursuit will be ended. For many customers, this pleasant notion has been miles away from the reality, which has been that a small payment alerts the company to the fact that you are responding to pressure, and the pressure just gets ramped up that little bit more.

When a company finally accepts that there is nothing they can take from you, they charge the debt off. What this means in practice is that they lay off collections activity and write the amount off, taking a hit on their profits which needs to be covered by the amount of money each bank sets aside for such reasons. It does mean that annual bonuses for the bank workers will be a little bit lower, but you will find fewer and fewer people complaining about that eventuality. As much as the everyday workers at a bank are relatively blameless for the profligacy of the bank’s lending policy, we are all having to cut out coats according to our cloth these days.

The fact remains that people who knowingly borrow and spend recklessly will have to be pursued to make their payments. Now is not a good time to take out a credit card and run up a mountain of debt which you have no intention of meeting. Quite apart from anything else, banks are still hugely reluctant to lend large amounts of money unless they are sure, on the basis of their own research, that they will see a good return on that investment. If you have a good credit rating, they may well still lend to you – but would you want to risk a good rating now of all times? If, however, you are looking for a fresh start, now could be the best time to get that start.

Follow These Simple Credit Card Tips

Don’t be a slave to your credit card

First Published Date: Nov 25, 2009

All Canadians agree that the credit card is one of the best things to happen on us of this generation. It comes in handy at those times you just need that item and you have no cash in your wallet, or sometimes you just do not like carrying cash all over the place. All you do is simply swipe your card and the transaction is done. Even with all the convenience that the credit card has brought, many people are discovering that little care needs to be taken in their management, lest one becomes a total slave to the plastic card.

When the credit card is not used intelligently, one will actually end up losing a lot of their money and begin a vicious circle of earning to repay a never ending debt. But with good insight and following some simple tips, anyone is bound to save themselves a big load of their cash. These are tips that have been followed universally and you can benefit from them as well.

To start with, the worst thing you will ever do with your card is to carry over a balance. Avoid carrying a balance on your credit card like you would avoid the plague. Canadian credit card providers are the beneficiaries when you do not pay up you whole balance. However, when it looks like you are stuck in a corner and may have to carry over a balance, it would be better if you considered alternative borrowing methods which are slightly cheaper.

Coming on the heels of that tip is the second one which simply says you desist from taking cash advances. When you use your credit card for buying purposes only, most Canadian banks give you an interest free grace period during which you can actually pay back the debt. However, trouble is when you dare take a cash advance using your credit card. Here there is nothing like a grace period. From the moment the cash rolls from the machine to your hands and until you pay up, there is a great interest consideration. And on top of that interest you must remember that the dispenser of the cash will also post charges that you pay for. Once again in the unlikely case that you have to borrow cash this way, it is in your best interest that it is paid as soon as possible.

Today every other Canadian banking institution is advertising their credit cards but the wise person will take time to read the fine print before they commit themselves to any particular card. It is usually the things they do not say loudly in the adverts that really count. Choosing one without care may tie you down to a card whose condition you may not meet adequately in the future.

The one important tip we cannot forget to mention is the importance of you always paying up on time. You actually opt for pre-authorized monthly payments which will ensure you are always on time with your payments. The secret with credit cards is to make sure you do not get to pay interest at all, and this becomes possible only when you pay your bills within the grace period. Of all the loans that people procure, credit card debt is the most expensive of them

Do You Really Need That Extra Credit Card?

Avoid Extra Credit Cards

First Published Date: Nov 30, 2009

It may appear that today many Canadians are walking a sort of a tightrope and the decision they make may not really be about whether or not to have a credit card but how many they are going to have in the first place. We all know with acclaim that with a credit card you can get to spend money you do not have, as long as you are able to pay up when you earn, there really should be no cause for alarm. Depending on how efficient you are with your payments, this can either be a blessing or a curse.

There is so much freedom and ease in amassing credit cards these days that one may need to really ask themselves if the really need to have that extra card they are applying for, or they just want an extra reason to spend money they have not earned. Because we do not have to pay upfront, there are many people who will get the extra card just in order to beat the limit they have in the other card they have, thus managing to acquire stuff they otherwise would not be able to afford. Of course the truth of the matter is if you are short of cash and you really need something, all you do is pull out your card and the shop attendant will swipe it and you walk away with all you ever needed, just as simple as ABC. It can come in handy when you are between the devil and the deep sea in some situation, which at times could actually be life saving.

We all know also that having a credit card helps you avoid the inconvenience of having to walk around with lots of cash and with a good use of one you will be able to track all your expenses. Shopping can become quite convenient and for those who may want to borrow some cash in future they provide a good credit history for you. There are even some companies who offer special discounts for those who shop using their credit cards and so you can imagine that there are plenty of advantages of owning a credit card. All you need to take care of is the management of your debt repayment and you will be safe.

However, just like with any other good thing there is always the downside of having a credit card. It becomes very easy fro the frivolous spender to amass a big amount of debt in small bits until most off the time they discover they are buried deep in it. In a little while many people discover that they were actually spending money they were not going to have in the next many months, it is no wonder that some people are many months ahead of their income in debt.

So do you need that extra card really? If you have managed your life without one you most likely can move on without a card, do not go for an extra card if at anytime time you have fallen behind in payment with your current one. Depending on what you earn, multiple credit cards may actually mean multiple problems and since the decision is yours to make, remember the responsibility will also be yours to settle the payments.

MoneySense Publishes Its Flawed 2015 Canada's Best Credit Cards Rankings

How Accurate Are MoneySense’s Credit Card Rankings?

First Published Date: September 13, 2015

Canada’s popular personal finance magazine MoneySense recently releases its annual credit card rankings for 2015. The five best credit cards were chosen for these six categories: cash-back cards, low-rate cards, retail rewards cards, travel rewards cards, student cards, and business cards.

However, the factors that MoneySense used to determine the best cards for Canadians are inaccurate and out of touch from reality. I will discuss only a few important points to show you why these rankings are flawed and also will give you links to some other rankings that I believe did a better job ranking Canada’s best credit cards.

Why These Rankings Are Flawed

– The biggest problem is that the assumption was made that you will be spending $2000 per month on credit cards. To spend $24,000 on credit cards annually, you will need to have at least $100,000 annual income, but even it’s hard on a 100K salary to spend that much. So it is safe to say that an average $150,000 salary is required to make sense of these rankings and if MoneySense thinks that is what most Canadians make they are out of touch.

– Even if we say everyone is Canada is spending $2,000 monthly on credit cards, the MoneySense ratings are wrong in terms of getting the best value back on your rewards. If you use this credit card tool to plug in $2,000 monthly spending, you will get very different results.

– The wrong information was provided for some credit cards. For example, if you look at insurance benefits for cards like WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard or American Express Gold Rewards Cards, according to MoneySense these cards have trip cancellation, but in reality these cards do not have trip cancellation; they have trip interruption insurance, which is a totally different thing.

– The 1st and 2nd cards in the travel category are the WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard and the American Express Gold Rewards Card. Neither of these cards should be first and second, as they are missing major elements that you need to have in a travel card, such as trip cancellation insurance and concierge services. Also, the big problem with the WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard is that you are limited to fly only WestJet on limited destinations that WestJet covers.

– The worst picks are in the retail rewards category. Here you will find credit cards that are not even considered to compete by other best credit cards ratings sites. For example, if you use the credit card tools I mentioned in the article below, you will see that these top credit cards stay on the bottom of the list. So that makes you wonder why Rogers credit card is # 1 in this category. Rogers credit card is #1 retail rewards card is Canada – really?

How to Pick Your Best Credit Cards

Research and gather information from various sources, including the credit card providers’ own sites and make decisions based on your own circumstances. There are tools, calculators, and articles you can use to help you and I mentioned some of these in the Credit Cards/Rewards Cards Section on A Dawn Journal to help you with your research.

Also, you can check other sites’ best credit cards ratings. For example, the Greedy Rates ratings below is a good one and more aligned to reality.