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Tangerine Cash back credit card rewards
September 22, 2017
1:17 am
Rick
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Was fooling around in quicken and decided to do a report on the cashback rewards. I've noticed that since they changed the rules and rates, that my spending/rewards have been cut in half. There are no longer any US dollar or purchases not in my 3 categories. As a result, my monthly charges on the Tang card is reduced by half and reward has gone from $20-25 to $10-12. So I am wondering;
A) do you think they had anticipated the drop in spending
B) Do you think they care
C) Am I the only one p/o'd enough to adjust charging habits

If the rules they have now were in place before I applied for the card, I probably wouldn't have bothered.

September 22, 2017
5:02 am
Saver-Mom
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No, you are not the only one, and yes, their cheapness in lowering the rate has for sure cost them money. I had gotten 4 family members onto Tang, and we have all left. Do they care? Not enough I guess.

As soon as Tang lowered their rate I switched to MBNA for their 2% across the board. Their sign up bonus more than covers the first year fee. Next year I may snoop around and churn to a new one. Learning fast that loyalty does not pay. If you do not spend enough to warrant a card with a fee, Tang may still be one of the better options.

September 22, 2017
1:40 pm
Loonie
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I think they count on people not noticing the change, and not knowing what to do about it if they do notice.
My fee-based primary card, from another FI, also quietly lowered its cashback within the last year by .2

September 22, 2017
3:29 pm
Yatti420
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My Amex Cashback is used for anthing outside of my Tang categories.. Pretty much still the best free free imo.. Anybody else gotta good fee free card?

September 22, 2017
7:45 pm
Norman1
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Saver-Mom said
No, you are not the only one, and yes, their cheapness in lowering the rate has for sure cost them money. I had gotten 4 family members onto Tang, and we have all left. Do they care? Not enough I guess.
… 

I suspect Tangerine Bank wasn't making very much from the credit card with 1% and 2% cash back levels.

The current MasterCard Canada interchange rates paid to the issuers are nowhere near 2% for the non-World and non-World Elite MasterCards.

The interchange is 1.44% for standard electronic in-store transactions. Special rate of 1.22% for supermarkets. Special 1.17% rate for gas stations. A flat 5¢ for Tap & Go transactions $25 and under.

September 23, 2017
5:49 am
jgsbrown
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My wife and I stopped using our cards.

September 23, 2017
7:13 am
Norman1
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Yatti420 said
My Amex Cashback is used for anthing outside of my Tang categories.. Pretty much still the best free free imo.. Anybody else gotta good fee free card?  

No-fee MBNA Smart Cash Visa was mentioned earlier. 2% from gas and groceries. 1% everything else. It is now the MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus MasterCard.

No-fee Rogers Bank Fido MasterCard also mentioned earlier. 1½% on everything.

September 23, 2017
11:11 pm
moneyhelp
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Yatti420 said
My Amex Cashback is used for anthing outside of my Tang categories.. Pretty much still the best free free imo.. Anybody else gotta good fee free card?  

I'd say using the Tangerine card within your chosen categories is worth using for the 2% and then there other good no fee options, like the Simply Preferred Amex no-fee Amex card which gives 1.25% OR the Fido MasterCard which gives 1.5% and is also a no fee card; and to make things even more attractive for the Fido card, its foreign ex. fee is still 2.5% (standard rate) but they give 4% cash back, netting you 1.5% on Fx charges in their respective currencies.

I think I will apply for the Fido card soon. Anyone else using Fido MC?

September 24, 2017
1:20 am
Loonie
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Rogers has another one that pays 1.75
There is a small fee, but no fee if you are a Rogers etc customer.
Even if you aren't, it will pay for itself at about the $12,000 mark.

September 24, 2017
4:58 am
User230
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Loonie said
Rogers has another one that pays 1.75
There is a small fee, but no fee if you are a Rogers etc customer.
Even if you aren't, it will pay for itself at about the $12,000 mark.  

At issue here is this card (Rogers) is new and still undergoing growing pains. It devalued once and is likely to be devalued again. They are also conducting a survey with some customers. Could mean changes in a few months.

A person could say the same thing about Tangerine as well. It's actually newer and might undergo further changes as well. They already devalued it recently as well.

Edit:

Just like how banks only need/want a certain amount of deposits to keep their business stable and lower their rates when they reach past that goal by a bit.

CC companies only has so much they can loan out to CC customers. Once they approach that limit (where they have to get high rate loans from others to loan to new clients) they become more strict with accepting CC applications or lower/devalue their card. Once devalued, more people will switch but likely they account for this.

Matching the amount of leavers they predict to how much money they can loan out safely. The other way (although this happens in the other scenario to) is accepting less applications by making the process more strict and hoping for attrition of customers or a greater loan capacity increase.

September 25, 2017
6:54 am
SavingIsGood
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Loonie said
Rogers has another one that pays 1.75
There is a small fee, but no fee if you are a Rogers etc customer.
Even if you aren't, it will pay for itself at about the $12,000 mark.  

I wonder, where money goes if you spend 12K a year on credit cards??? The only jump over 1K/month I have if I visit dentist.

- CIBC Dividend Platinum (free for former Petro-Points holders) 4% for gas/groceries, 1% everything else
- Tangerine MC 2% groceries/bills/home improvement
- Walmart cash back 1.25% in store, 1% everywhere else - will cancel, as I see no benefit of it anymore
- RBC dividend card 2% groceries - will keep it as it has big credit limit and since some grocery stores do not take Visa

All cards are with no annual fee. Never paid nor will ever pay any fee to have credit card. Card 'does not pay for itself'; it is just a myth. It ENCOURAGES you to spend, spend, spend so you think you are getting ahead of game. Same as costco membership; 90% people coming out of store pushing overloaded carts are fat, fat, obese whales.

September 25, 2017
7:46 am
Brimleychen
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SavingIsGood said

I wonder, where money goes if you spend 12K a year on credit cards??? The only jump over 1K/month I have if I visit dentist.

- CIBC Dividend Platinum (free for former Petro-Points holders) 4% for gas/groceries, 1% everything else
- Tangerine MC 2% groceries/bills/home improvement
- Walmart cash back 1.25% in store, 1% everywhere else - will cancel, as I see no benefit of it anymore
- RBC dividend card 2% groceries - will keep it as it has big credit limit and since some grocery stores do not take Visa

All cards are with no annual fee. Never paid nor will ever pay any fee to have credit card. Card 'does not pay for itself'; it is just a myth. It ENCOURAGES you to spend, spend, spend so you think you are getting ahead of game. Same as costco membership; 90% people coming out of store pushing overloaded carts are fat, fat, obese whales.  

Well said! I cancelled COSTCO membership a few months ago after 18 years. They gave me a very hard time when cancelling it. Most biz no longer value customer loyalty.

After Costco, I got a PC World Elite MasterCard, and even get $100 gift card, and tons of PC Plus Points weekly.

The best part is I no longer need to wait for the long line of checkout and fighting for car park space weekly at COSTCO.

September 25, 2017
9:17 am
Rick
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SavingIsGood said
I wonder, where money goes if you spend 12K a year on credit cards??? The only jump over 1K/month I have if I visit dentist.
 

I wonder how you keep it so low? I average 3,000 per month between all cards. EVERYTHING that CAN be put on one of our 3 cards, (Tang for the 3 categories, Amazon Visa for US, and RBC for everything else), is. Tang pays me 2% a month for my cable/internet, 2 mobile phones and charitable donations. I'll take the 5 bux a month for running the payments I have to make anyway through them. Used to use Tang for US purchases and an occasional non-category purchase until they upped the ForEx rate and dropped the non category cash back rate. I wish I could put everything on the cards.

SavingIsGood said
All cards are with no annual fee. Never paid nor will ever pay any fee to have credit card. Card 'does not pay for itself'; it is just a myth. It ENCOURAGES you to spend, spend, spend so you think you are getting ahead of game. Same as costco membership; 90% people coming out of store pushing overloaded carts are fat, fat, obese whales.

Used to agree with your no fee philosophy, but recently signed up for the Westjet card as we will be doing more traveling in the near future, and I prefer using Westjet whenever possible. Got in before the fee increase later this year, so not sure if it will last, but willing to give them a try as we received 250 Westjet bux for signing up, they gave us our first companion voucher right after first use, as well as other benefits (free checked bag each, travel insurance) that come with the card, so I consider it paying in advance for something we will be spending on anyway. Only had it for a month, so will give it a try for a year anyway. May drop it or switch to the regular instead of the Elite version after that. See how it goes. I don't, nor ever have I, "spend, spend, spend" just because I have a credit card, fee or no fee. I'm sure the credit card companies are not a fan of mine. I take their rewards but pay all the balances off every month, so yes, I do think it paid for itself AND anything I charge will add 1.5% over and above the fee. I'm already up over $100 just for signing up.

September 25, 2017
10:57 am
Bill
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Best thing is to get the card that suits you. For example, if you find you need to trick yourself to have spending discipline then, sure, get rid of them. If you have discipline, then cards can work for you. My wife just got a cheque in the mail for over $120 from Costco, she tells me it's because she spends enough to get her Executive membership (I think she called it) fee back. Plus she's racked up some money on her fee free Costco MC. Since she's started using Costco a few years ago I've noticed no real increase in our expenses, just more at Costco and less at grocery stores. So it seems to be working for her. And as far as I can see she's not overweight. I would never call her a fat, fat, obese whale.

For other spending we use the CIBC Dividend VISA, I think it's $60/year but gets us 4% for gas and groceries so I'm ok with it for now, first time I've ever paid a fee (one reason too is on its predecessor card I had about $1000 credits built up for when I buy my next vehicle and I have to keep this successor VISA active in order to cash those credits in when I next buy a vehicle).

In over 4 decades of credit we've never paid a nickel interest, though I do suspect we've spent more than if we had to haul out cash every time. Oh well, my heirs' loss.

September 25, 2017
11:05 am
moneyhelp
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Brimleychen said

Well said! I cancelled COSTCO membership a few months ago after 18 years. They gave me a very hard time when cancelling it.
  

How did they give you a hard time? I imagine anyone can cancel their membership at any time or is there some fine print loop hole we don't know about?

September 25, 2017
4:41 pm
Loonie
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I don't quite understand why SavingIsGood would assume that spending over 12K/yr on credit cards means you are being led by your CC to spend more than you should or otherwise would. Perhaps you are a single person?

If we in our 2-person household could only afford to spend 1K/month, then I am certain that we would do so. But we can afford to spend more, and choose to do so. The CC is a matter of convenience and financial return. It has nothing to do with encouraging us to spend.

Hence, it's not at all mythical to think you can save money on a fee-based credit card. It's simply math. If you spend 30K/yr, and if the card costs $100/yr and you get a return on average including value of insurance policies and other perqs that are of value to you which are in excess of $100, then you're ahead. You may do OK with no-fee cards but it wont have the "extras" such as the insurance, money off on companion items or partner products etc. I've been happy with fee-based cards ever since we realized we can sensibly spend enough on them to make them worth our while. I revisit this question annually to ensure it is still true and to see if another card would be better. It takes about 25K minimum to justify our card. Strictly dollars and sense!

September 25, 2017
5:30 pm
User230
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Brimleychen said

Well said! I cancelled COSTCO membership a few months ago after 18 years. They gave me a very hard time when cancelling it. Most biz no longer value customer loyalty.

After Costco, I got a PC World Elite MasterCard, and even get $100 gift card, and tons of PC Plus Points weekly.

The best part is I no longer need to wait for the long line of checkout and fighting for car park space weekly at COSTCO.  

One issue. If I want Costco gas and quickly, I need the Costco MasterCard. It's worth it based on the almost free hot dogs and always lower gas price.

I never really see products in store that are that good though..... Really only got for the gas...

September 27, 2017
6:41 am
tcharger67
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Loonie. Have you read "the wealthy barber returns?". David Chilton has a great chapter on cash spending vs. Credit spending. Afterward I began to read alot about credit purchasing vs. Cash. I used to see between 400-600$ annually from my cc cash back cards.

After reading the book in 2014 we went cold turkey on credit anything. I bet I save 2000-3000$ a year now. I'd highly recommend the 13$ on Amazon for the book.

September 27, 2017
4:09 pm
Loonie
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Yes, I have read the book. I didn't see anything there about credit cards that applied to my situation but no longer remember the details. got it from the library for free. I think it's a good book though.
Can you explain why it is a better deal for you to go without the cards? I can only see it as a problem if you are not paying it off every month or if your purchases don't justify the expense of a fee-based card. Other than that, things cost the same whether you pay cash or CC usually. There are a few places where you can get a discount for cash but not many. And then you have the necessity and risk of carrying around significant amounts of cash.

September 28, 2017
10:02 am
tcharger67
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of course I don't have availability to the book at the moment. But a quick trip to psychology today was able to reference the natural pain inflicted by cash vs. credit, which is listed in Mr. Chiltons book.
Please have a look, and tell me what you think.
Thanks, Ken

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/retail-therapy/201306/why-we-overspend-credit

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