Canadian High Interest Savings Bank Accounts

I applied it recently and got turned down. called them and I was told i got 1 late payment 5 years ago on my current credit. well. It's not the end of the world. I think they probably just don't want to give this card to me. My credit score is excellent sitting at 824 and annual income is over $55,000. I think they were making an excuse to reject me.:???:

I confirmed with an account services representative with MBNA Canada Bank that the MBNA Platinum Plus Smart Cash MasterCard (its actual name) is available for those earning $35,000 but she didn't specify a hard an fast limit. She said their credit approval department would simply approve the person for a lower credit limit based on their income, credit score and other factors, as we suspected. They simply promote that high income limit to attract people for a $25,000+ credit limit. So, for someone earning about $30,000 (like me), I would think one could possibly qualify for in excess of $10,000. Anyone have any other guesses?

Cheers,
Doug

Jeff said:

I applied it recently and got turned down. called them and I was told i got 1 late payment 5 years ago on my current credit. well. It's not the end of the world. I think they probably just don't want to give this card to me. My credit score is excellent sitting at 824 and annual income is over $55,000. I think they were making an excuse to reject me.:???:

Wow.. I applied with a score of 763 and nothing as for late payments and got the card with a 15k limit… Weird. Now I really dont know how they "figure" credit stuff out.

I just applied and got approved for the MBNA Platinum Plus Smart Cash Card after noticing it on their site, and can't wait to start using it.

Question: Are Wal-Mart purchases 1% cash back? It's too bad because a lot of the Wal-Mart supercentres offer a full-sized grocery store inside, and we began shopping there for all our groceries in the past few months as their prices are superior to Zehrs/Loblaws for many of the items we get. Ah well, at least the higher cash back for fuel purchases is great with this card!

Hi guys, just received my smart cash card today.

Was thinking of buying some gift cards and take advantages of the 5% cash back

where should I buy them at? (what gas station/store) carries the most variety of gift cards?

thanks

When did you apply for the credit line, Bob?

It's probably your age a bit but more than anything it's generally length of credit history (number of outstanding monthly payments and your payment track record), number of facilities opened and whether or not you have any public judgments, garnishments or collection agency records. 680 is still a good score and is generally the minimum threshold for many financial institutions to offer you "cash back" limits on your debit cards so that there are no holds on some or all of your ATM deposits (i.e., HSBC Bank Canada). Basically, a rule of thumb, always aim to be above 680 and never let yourself go below 600 – that's where your ability to get credit from bank lenders will be almost impossible. A beacon score of 600 essentially means someone with no credit history and a credit bureau was just opened for them.

I only have a Scotiabank SCENE Visa which I've had since January 2005. All payments have been R1 and my credit limit is $1000. When I joined HSBC in January 2008, after three years of R1 payment history, my credit score was 284 and my beacon score was over 780 or 790. I'm guessing, given the time elapsed, I would be at or near a 300/800 dual score rating. I'm also young as well (27).

If you've had credit for less than a year, a 680 score is about where you should be. Over time, that can only approve. After you've had your credit line for a couple years, I'd recommend adding a second facility and continue to make regular payments on that. That will only further increase your score. Having multiple facilities and higher credit limits, while not maxing them out, is actually beneficial.

Cheers,
Doug

@Prag I've been reading on other sites that as of October 14th, Wal-Mart Super-centers qualify under grocery purchase. (3%/5%) djino

Thanks for the tip! Is this confirmed for certain at this point? That would be great if Walmart super-centers grocery purchases now qualify for the higher 3%/5% cashback, since I'd really prefer to keep shopping there.

My partner and I both got our cards in the mail yesterday, about 7 business days from the evening we had applied. Now that's fast! When we called to activate, I also found the MBNA customer service people on the phone to be extremely professional and uber-polite. It was also obvious they were Canadians, not overseas staff that you can barely understand. I like that since I don't appreciate seeing middle class jobs outsourced overseas (except in the case of 11pm-7am night shifts when people really should not be working for quality of life reasons).

The card itself is quite pretty, and I like that it has the chip. I notice MBNA puts a much longer 3 year expiry dates on their cards. Any other Mastercard I've had always has a one year expiry date.