I Became a Credit Card Junkie!

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As a follow up to my last post regarding the HSBC Premier World Mastercard, a question a reader asked was how i chose the four credit cards that I had….

My first experience with credit cards was back in University (about 20 years ago), where you had so many incentives and offers.  I remember the days of my GM Visa card, where I was just happy to get a credit card that I would pay off every month to start building up my credit rating – I don’t think I was ever planning to purchase a GM vehicle.

I did end my buying a new car after I graduated with a car loan through (at that time) was just still Canada Trust.  Having to want to pay back the loan and some student loans as soon as possible, some of the credit cards at that time had offers of six months no interest for balance transfers etc.  I forgot what made me do that, but I started transfering my borrowed money from one credit card to another credit card to another credit card until i paid off my loans, so i ended up paying not that much interest at all.  I think I had an AMEX, BMO card and perhaps a couple more.  I felt like I became a credit card junkie!

Our CIBC Aeroplan Visa was my first joint credit card with my future wife, as we started to accumulate expenses for the upcoming wedding, but the annual fee was just horrendous.  (you probably ready my post about this – http://yvrdad.com/after-10-years-its-time-for-a-divorce-you-are-costing-too-much/ )  I was just didn’t want a credit card that I had to pay an annual fee!

After being abroad for 3.5 years, when we returned to back to Vancouver, my wife had her personal accounts with CIBC and I had my personal accounts with RBC, ING, Canada Trust; so we decided just to consolidate everything into one.   We chose HSBC Canada as main joint account.  I’ve closed my ING, Canada Trust accounts, and downgraded my RBC account to a basic free account.

After we got rid of of the CIBC Aeroplan Credit Card, we started to use our Costco Cashback Amex Credit Card as our main credit card. – I use this card for work and I had recently received my cash back of over $700 for our AMEX spendings in 2012.  I took my rebate to the counter at Costco and got my $700 in cash!

At that time, realizing that not all restaurants/stores take Amex, I had to find either a Visa or Mastercard.  We were working our way up at HSBC, and had upgraded as an Advanced HSBC customer, so we also signed up for the HSBC Advanced credit card, choosing the Cashback option.  By the way – Cash back earnings on our HSBC creditcard for 2012 was $120!

For the BMO US Dollar Credit card, it was actually Popthoughts that introduced me to the card.  I use this card anytime I go to United States for shopping or buying online on US sites.  Therefore I would save the Foreign exchanges rates and fees (usually about 2.5% of the purchase).  This card has a $35 fee initially, but if you spend over $1000 US on the card throughout the year, they will waive the fee the following year.

Last Spring RBC was offering a low rate mortgage of 2.99% for four years, where you can open a HELOC (Home equity Line of Credit),  So, potentially needing money for a business and thinking that interest rates would be rising very very soon (still waiting for the raise of interest rates), we transferred our mortgage that I had with First National Bank (3.95% with one year remaining) to RBC.  RBC paid all the fees (Lawyer fees, appraisals and other fees), where as I paid the mortgage penalty with First National.  HSBC had a similar offer at that time, however they were not willing to pay the fees (lawyers, appraisal and other fees).

Going back with RBC and to be able to easily access the HELOC, we upgraded from the basic account to the no limit banking account.  So to qualify for the multi product rebate for the account, we had to have a RBC credit card, and  basic investment, so I put in $500 in a TFSA – RBC Fund which as risen 10% over the year – (perhaps I should have put in more money in there).  For the credit card, I chose the RBC Rewards Visa Gold.  This is the card that I probably have used once in the past year.  However I did hear that the new RBC Target credit card offers 5% off Target Canada Purchases and is no annual fee.  Therefore I may switch my RBC card to the RBC Target Card soon, perhaps I may get some more use out of the RBC credit card.

I have a friend who is a manager at RBC who says that the RBC Avion Cards are the best on the market, he may be right, but I just didn’t want to pay the annual fees.  I have a friend who charges about $50,000 per month on his RBC and TD travel cards for business expenses; perhap its definitely worth it for those types of charges?

I also recently upgraded to the HSBC Premier status mainly because they offer their self directed investment via HSBC Investdirect at $6.88 per trade.  So when they offered the HSBC Premier World Mastercard late last year, it just made sense that we upgraded our HSBC Advanced Mastercard to the Premier World Mastercard.  As part of the Premier package, I also opened HSBC Canada US Premier chequing account, so I can write US Dollar cheques (to pay my BMO US Dollar credit card).  But I also use this account for my US funds for my US Investments, as they offer free transactions; as opposed to the US Savings account, where they charge $1 per transaction.

My application is still pending for my US Based HSBC Premier Account.  Its probably been about 2 months since my initial application, because the US side says i don’t have a good enough reason to open the US Based account.  My HSBC relationship manager is working on this for me, I hope he comes through.  However, i also found that TD offers the Cross border banking at TD Bank USA and RBC offers their RBC Access USA.  From what i read on other forums, it seems quite simple to get.

What does sleepymom think of this?  She’s sick of all the different credit cards, accounts, applications etc.  But i think we have finally settled until the next deals come.

New HSBC Premier World MasterCard Canada

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Seems that HSBC Bank Canada is offering a new creditcard, called the HSBC Premier World MasterCard.  My initial review shows that this World MasterCard offers a better rewards/cashback then the regular HSBC Premier CreditCard.

HSBC Premier World Rewards Program

  • earn 2 reward points when you make purchases in foreign currency; 1.5 reward points for gas, grocery and drugstores purchases

HSBC Premier World Cash Back

  • earn 2% rebate on purchases in foreign currency; 1.5% rebate on gas, grocery and drugstore purchases.

The Regular HSBC Premier Rewards/Cashback only provides 1 reward point or 1% cashback for purchases

To qualify for the HSBC Premier World MasterCard, there seems to be an extra requirement to have a minimal gross personal income of $60,000 or a min annual gross household income of $100,000, in addition to be a HSBC Premier Client (maintain $100,000 in combined personal deposit and investment balances with HSBC Bank Canada).

There is no annual fee associated with the Card; and there is one additional bonus that sets the HSBC Premier MasterCard (World and No World) apart, which is the Travel Protection of up to $1 million for cardholder, spouse and dependent children travelling with you; coverage for unlimited trips of up to 17 days per trip.

When they talk about special discounts for HSBC Premier Privileges, its really not even worth looking at.   I tried to click on the link on their site for the Premier Privileges Canada and got a dead link!  Don’t worry  about it, there are no ‘discounts’ in Canada as we are not a “Popular Destination”.  Perhaps if you do alot of travelling, it may be worth looking into.

Learn about how I got rid of my CIBC Aeroplan Visa card and switched to a cashback program. 

Compared to my Amex Costco Cashback card:  You can get 3% rebate on eligible restaurant purchases (try finding a restaurant that accepts Amex); 2% rebate on gas purchases; 1% rebate on everyday purchases (Levels start at 0.25% up to $1000; 0.50% on next $2000; 1% on any amount over $3000).

Note that when you use a Canadian credit card for a foreign transaction, it adds 2.5% in addition to the exchange rate at the time of the transaction.  The HSBC Premier World MasterCard gives you back 2% in rebate for these foreign transactions.  Therefore instead of paying 2.5%, you would be actually paying 0.5 %.  I got myself a BMO US Dollar MasterCard to use when purchasing in US dollars.  There is no currency conversion fees or exchange fees at the time of purchase.

My Credit Card strategy:

Four cards:

  • HSBC Premier World MasterCard
  • American Express Costco Cashback
  • BMO U.S. Dollar MasterCard
  • RBC Rewards Visa Gold
  1. If restaurant accepts Amex, then use AMEX Costco Cashback to get my 3% rebate; if restaurant does not accept AMEX, then use HSBC Premier World MasterCard for 1% rebate.
  2. Gas – use Amex Costco Cashback for 2% rebate
  3. Grocery/Drugstore – Use HSBC Premier World MasterCard for 1.5% rebate
  4. US Dollar transactions – BMO U.S. Dollar MasterCard
  5. Foreign transactions (other than US dollars) – Use HSBC Premier World MasterCard for 2%
  6. Costco Purchase – continue to use Amex Costco Cashback as they don’t accept any other creditcards.
  7. Other purchases – HSBC Premier World MasterCard for 1% rebate (no levels).  If I use Costco Amex, I would only lose out on $17 because they give less than 1% on the first $3000, 1% after your first $3000.  However you may also want to take advantage of purchase and extended warranty insurance for 90 days from purchase date.  The HSBC Premier World MasteCard purchase also doubles the original manufacturers warranty up to one additional year.
  8. My RBC Rewards Visa Gold seldom gets used; I would only use it if vendor only accepts Visa (ie, Olympics)  :)

What are you your credit card strategies?  Do you always search for the best reward/cashback programs?

Next post – I became a credit card junkie!

Neglected Yvrdad.com

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Finally…. some time to sit to do an update.  As I opened WordPress for the first time in 4-5 months, I had to update my WordPress software and all the associated plugins.  Just because sleepydad and popthoughts have been too busy, the blog word continues to improve and update, and our yvrdad.com lags behind.

Well, we are back – ready for new posts and new content.  There seems to be so much to write about, however, never enough time to write.  Ready for a new committment again, we are not ready to yvrdad.com die off – ( I want to keep paying godaddy.com hosting fees).

Oregon Coast – A view from the beach house. Peaceful: Yes! However you don’t hear or see the 7 kids running around causing mayhem! All in good fun!

It certainly has been a long time, here are some highlights of the spring/summer:

  • finally deciding on San Diego as the destination of a short trip.  We spent four nights, and visited Sea World and lots of good eats!
  • Root canal – Ouch!  Actually didn’t hurt that much, just annoying and uncomfortable
  • a hot weekend in Osoyoos for a beautiful wedding.  A great weekend spent with University friends and now all their children.
  • Selling our rental property and family home – received a call from my agent indicated that someone wanted to take a look at the place.  They evenutally bought it!
  • Week in Portland/Lincoln Cit, in a house full of kids and cousins, siblings and grandparents
  • Watching our 10 month old daughter grow, laugh, sit, eat, and turnover
  • Enjoy silly conversations with our now big boy three year old son
  • signing a lease to move and upgrade office – exciting times ahead!

What were your summer highlights?   Did you miss our posts?  Is anyone reading this? :)   Anyways, we are back, and we are ready to write!

 

Find My iPhone works!

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I should probably provide a little background about my history of cell phones first. To date I have put two in the washer, lost one on my birthday in a drunken stupor at a bar, and had one stolen while I was eating lunch at a cafe. Needless to say I am no stranger to having to replace my cell. Nowadays there is so much personal information on your cell, apps that allow you to remotely locate, wipe, and/or lock your phone are more important than ever. But do they really work?

So a few weeks ago I was at the playground with the family, and while I was sitting on the ground my iPhone must have slipped out of my pocket. I went home, gone through the usual night-time routine (dinner, bath, bedtime), and wanted to check my phone for messages. I couldn’t find it anywhere. Then I figured I’d see if it’s even in the house using the Find My iPhone app. Lo and behold, it says it’s still by the playground! I run back, retrace my steps, calling it with my wife’s phone … nothing. Now the playground is part of an apartment complex, so I figure a good samaritan at the playground must have picked it up. Sure enough, I send a message to the phone saying if found please call my wife’s number, and minutes later a get a call from a father who I remember seeing at the playground. Disaster averted. Whew!

While in this instance I was able to retrieve my phone, would I have been so lucky if it wasn’t lost at a playground? I doubt it. If someone had popped out my SIM card before I realized it was lost, I wouldn’t be able to communicate with the phone at all. So yes, Find My iPhone and similar apps are great, but it also relies on a kind-hearted person finding it.