Don’t Get Burned Trusting These Ratings

First Published Date : January 25, 2016

Canada’s travel rewards website Rewards Canada just came up with its annual ranking of best credit cards. This is one of many sites that do annual ranking for travel and other rewards credit cards. The site is pretty upfront about its ratings and telling all sorts of good things about the cards it is recommending. However, it is not telling you a lot of important information you need to know before booking your trip with one of these cards.

For example, if you follow Rewards Canada blindly and book your trip with its number one recommendation travel card (American Express Gold) and you need to cancel your trip due to illness, you will get burned heavily before your sun-filled trip to the Caribbean begins because the number one card does not come with trip cancellation insurance. What may interest you is the fact that many other travel cards that charge a lower annual fee than Amex Gold offer full travel insurance including trip cancellation.

These rating sites are hiding a vital piece of information from consumers that you should have before making any selections. What’s more? They are also not disclosing if there is any financial compensation going on behind the scenes to put certain cards on the top of the list. However, you can rest assured that they are heavily compensated when you apply for any of these cards by clicking on the Rewards Canada website.

These sites are affiliated with all these credit cards they are recommending. If you hover your cursor on the link underneath the card picture, you will see an affiliate ID or tracking code. That’s how credit card companies keep track of their accounts (how many people are signing up) and pay them. The more good things you hear about these cards, the more people will sign up and more compensation is generated for these sites. So for obvious reasons, you are not going to hear anything that prohibits you from signing up for these top cards.

Here are some facts I have here today for you, which you will not find anywhere on any sites that are rating these cards for obvious reasons.

American Express Gold – A travel card that charges a $150 annual fee and does not offer trip cancellation insurance. You may lose all your money if you have to cancel your trip for valid covered medical reasons. Neither American Express nor Rewards Canada will tell you that it’s risky behaviour booking a trip without trip cancellation insurance.

Capital One Aspire Travel World Elite MasterCard – Insurances provided by American Bankers Insurance Company of Florida, an American insurer. There are numerous complaints and bad reviews online about these providers when it actually comes to processing claims. All the insurance benefits this card provides look very good on paper, but would mean nothing if they are unable to properly process your claims.

ScotiaBank Gold American Express Card – Same insurance provider as Capital One card above. Also, does not support contactless payment. What this means is that you have to punch in your PIN every time you make a purchase and no tapping. I doubt there is any other card in Canada that, instead of going forward, is going back in time and offering no contactless option.

(Update: July 1, 16 ScotiaBank Gold Amex now provides contactless payment feature)

When choosing your credit cards, do not rely on any single site, and look for if these sites are affiliated with the credit cards they are recommending. There are independent sites that do not offer affiliated links and the opinions you will find on these sites are likely to be unbiased. Also, go through the credit card company’s own sites and look for all the information they are providing. Spend some time researching your dream cards and make educated decisions based on information from various sources.

A Dawn Journal and my YouTube Channel are not compensated by or affiliated with any credit card companies. All credit card articles are 100% unbiased and honest.

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