Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite Credit Card

Scotia’s New Travel Credit Card Miles Ahead of Competitors

Previously, if you were on the lookout for travel credit cards issued by major Canadian banks that do not charge foreign currency transaction fees and offer free lounge access, you were out of luck. You could find cards that offer free lounge access, such as the BMO World Elite MasterCard, but getting one with both free lounge access and zero foreign currency fees was out of the question.

However, it all changed when Scotia Bank launched its Scotia Passport Visa Infinite Credit Card offering both free lounge access and zero foreign currency fees. Better yet, this card even has a lower annual fee ($140) than BMO World Elite MC ($150) and giving more free lounge entrances (6 vs BMO’s 4) via the Priority Pass program.

Scotiabank placed itself as a leader and miles ahead of other major banks by offering a zero foreign currency conversion fee with no conversion mark-up and 6 free lounge visits. Canadians have long been waiting for this type of card. Since Chase Bank pulled out its 2 zero foreign currency credit cards from Canada, the vacuum in this segment of the credit card market grew and Scotia realized faster than other banks that there was a great opportunity there.

Of course, the Scotia Passport Visa Infinite Credit Card is not a perfect travel credit card and it has its flaws. For example, it does not offer accelerated points for travel spending and all the travel insurances this card offers are not usable because the 3rd party provider makes it difficult to fulfill claims based on countless Internet reviews, ratings, and complaints.

But still, Scotia took a step in the right direction by offering the first no foreign currency fees credit card issued by one of the major Canadian banks and by lighting the path for other big Canadian banks.

CIBC Air Canada AC Conversion Card Ends Manufactured Spending

CIBC Air Canada AC Conversion Card Ends 

Manufactured spending is one of the vehicles travel hackers use to generate points. This is simply manufacturing credit card spending, instead of real spending to create transactions that generates points and later on to deposit the money back into the account.

I am not going into the detail of manufactured spending. The CIBC Air Canada AC Conversion Visa Prepaid Card was one of the easiest ways to create manufactured spending in Canada.

The AC Conversion card had a feature that let you load Canadian dollars from other credit cards and unload Canadian dollars from CIBC bank machines at no cost. This would create transactions on the credit cards you are loading from to generate points.

Initially the limit was $3,000 a day, then it was reduced to $2,000 a day. When card management found out what’s going on, they reduced it $100 per day because they were bleeding money paying other credit card fees.

In the interim, many people got points and miles millionaires utilizing the loophole. It was like a dream come true for travel hackers to easily generate points using the AC Conversion card.

However, now CIBC Air Canada AC Conversion Card has decided that they still can’t afford to give away $100 per days as they can’t recoup the expenses and they are closing the loophole beginning April 13, 2018. After this date, Canadian currencies are no longer allowed to load and unload. You can load other supported currencies, however. If you try to load other currencies and unload Canadian dollars, the machines will dispense US$. So it will no longer make sense to use this card to create manufactured spending and the loophole that existed for many years will be sealed.

If you would like to watch my video on this, click on this link.

CIBC AC Air Canada Credit Card Ends

On my YouTube channel, you will find more videos like this.

Rewards Canada Publishes Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards

What You Need to Know About Affiliated Credit Card Rankings

Rewards Canada just published its top travel credit cards listings and like every year, American Express cards shine in most of the categories. I will only give you the top 5 credit cards as per Rewards Canada and will discuss in brief what’s wrong with these ratings.

- Amex Cobalt Card

- Amex Gold Rewards Card

- WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard

- RBC Visa Infinite Avion

The problem with these top-rated cards is that none of them provide (except RBC Avion) full insurance coverage and concierge service. These are the most important features you should look for when shopping for a travel rewards credit card.

Another thing these sites that provide top rankings never disclose is that all these cards are affiliated cards and they are promoting these cards, meaning they make money off you by recommending these cards and it’s in their best interest to only recommend cards that will make them the most money.

American Express even issued a press release making this (being in Rewards Canada’s top cards) a big deal. You can visit this press release Here.

This is called cross promotion. Rewards Canada is promoting American Express and American Express is promoting Rewards Canada. There is nothing wrong with promoting affiliated credit cards as the best credit cards. What is wrong is not disclosing properly to the readers that these are not honest and unbiased ratings.

Consider this scenario: based on these recommendations, a reader purchased a trip costing $3,000 and that trip had to be canceled. But then the reader found out that the top credit card he or she picked did not provide Trip Cancellation insurance and now he or she is at loss for $3,000. Will Rewards Canada pay for this loss? I don’t think so.

Watch the video link provided here to find out how to detect these affiliated links and how to protect yourself. I will also show some USA sites where these types of links and recommendations always come with disclosure. But in Canada they never disclose anything to the public to pump up their credit card sign ups. The more good things you will hear about these cards (and hiding the bad things), the more you will sign up and the more money they make.

What's Wrong with Rewards Canada Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards

There are no best credit cards, as each card comes with different perks and features. Choose the one that best matches your needs. Subscribe to my YouTube channel www.youtube.com/adawn to get regular unbiased and honest updates and reviews on credit cards and rewards points. And yes, my channel and this website (AhmedDawn.com) are not affiliated or paid by any credit cards companies.

BMO World Elite MasterCard Devalues Its Rewards Points

BMO World Elite MasterCard

I just received a piece of mail from BMO mentioning some changes that will be made to the BMO World Elite travel credit card. This type of notice translates into negative news 99 percent of the time, so I was expecting bad news.

On the surface, to make it look like a good news, BMO says you will earn 50 percent more points. This card used to give 2 points for each dollar spent on all purchases. That was a flat 2 percent return on everything, as each point was worth 1 cent. However, starting January 15, 2018, each point will be worth 0.714 cents. That’s a drastic devaluation. This only applies to the “everything else” category, as BMO is giving 3 points on 3 specific categories: travel, dining, and entertainment. The rate of return on these categories will be 2.14 percent, which is slightly better than what they had before on all categories.

Once these changes kick in, it would not make sense to use this card to purchase items in the “everything else” category. For the 3 accelerated categories it will provide a good rate of return even better than the 2 percent offered before.

These changes do not affect me personally because I do not use this card to make any purchases. My sole purpose to keep this card is to have lounge access. BMO World Elite provides Priority Pass annual membership ($99 US) and 4 passes ($27 US x 4) every year, which I value at a total Canadian $265. So even after paying the $150 annual fee per year, I am on the plus side for $115 Cad.

Whichever credit card you use, do the math to see if it make sense for you to keep it. I have a video on the above explaining further which can be viewed here:

| BMO World Elite MasterCard Devaluation | Analysis & Insights |

This Visa Prepaid Card Has Zero Foreign Transactions Fees

Mogo Prepaid Card With $3 Foreign ATM Fee

Don’t let the word “prepaid” scare you away from the Mogo Platinum Prepaid Visa card. There are some features I found in this card that make it a perfect travel companion if you are looking to avoid a foreign transactions fee and reduce ATM fees when you need to take out cash.

Most Canadian credit cards charge 2.5 percent foreign fees when you buy something outside Canada or online where merchants are not located in Canada. The Mogo card has zero foreign transactions fees and $3 foreign ATM fees, which seem to be reasonable ATM fees compared to bank or credit cards.

You only load what you need to spend. This feature is a safe way to travel with a card having not too much availability on it, especially if you lose your card a due to pickpocket, theft, or robbery; you are risking very little amount and saving a lot of hassle.

Some other features this card has:

- No minimum balance

-Unlimited transactions

- Zero monthly fees

You can view more details on the Mogo.ca website. You can also watch my video on the Mogo card on YouTube and the link is right here:

New Mogo No Foreign Transactions Fee Platinum Prepaid Visa Card

Keep in mind that there are a few other credit cards on the Canadian market that offer zero foreign transactions fees as well. I also have a video on them and I provided the link in the description box of the above video.

Credit cards can help you save money and travel across the globe. You will find tips and tricks to achieve that on my YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/adawn