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Email this3:46 pm
January 25, 2024
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mordko said
MBNA World Elite gives over 5% on groceries, restaurants and utilities but to get this ratio you have to spend your points on vouchers rather than cash (Walmart, Amazon, etc).
Thank you, good to know.
And Forget it... I am not paying $120 for a CC. You have to spend zillion of $$$ to justify $120 AND then to have leftovers for 'cash back'. But then, your spending might be way different than mine so it will work for you.
Plus it is Points not real money. No matter if you spend all points-money at Walmart or such.
4:11 pm
April 27, 2017
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CAD said
Thank you, good to know.
And Forget it... I am not paying $120 for a CC. You have to spend zillion of $$$ to justify $120 AND then to have leftovers for 'cash back'. But then, your spending might be way different than mine so it will work for you.
Plus it is Points not real money. No matter if you spend all points-money at Walmart or such.
You can get money but the rate is not as good. They give an annual “birthday gift” in points which offsets the fee in my case. Agree that best card for you depends on your spending habits.
3:29 am
March 30, 2017
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CAD said
Thank you, good to know.
And Forget it... I am not paying $120 for a CC. You have to spend zillion of $$$ to justify $120 AND then to have leftovers for 'cash back'. But then, your spending might be way different than mine so it will work for you.
Plus it is Points not real money. No matter if you spend all points-money at Walmart or such.
At 5% rebate, only an annual spend of $2400 will offset the fee.
Any cards that gives u a high % rebate will have a annual fee, unless you have a banking relationship with the issuer that gets the fee waived.
For example, the 4% grocery and gas rebate CIbC Visa infinite which gets annual fee reimbursed if u own $100k+ asset with CIBC.
I am on the MBNA for this year with the new application rebate plus the first year annual fee waived. That nets me easily a few hundred dollars tax free profit for this year. Will see if I keep it next year when I do have to pay the annual fee.
Card churning to take advantage of new card promo is the way to play the game. And that ties in to somone does indeed need good credit score that the other thread discussed about 🙂
4:59 am
March 15, 2019
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"Card churning"
I think this might negatively affect one's credit score.
2:59 pm
November 18, 2017
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mordko: that was the second time I had 6-week hassles because of a credit-monitoring file on me. Both times I was just asking for a modest increase in a card limit.
The so-called monitoring never got me any notification when someone in another city tried to get a card in my name! Worth than useless.
And I am guessing that most people use credit cards for convenience but don’t “live in debt all their lives”.
Last I read, about half of Canadians with credit cards keep a debt balance on them.
I have my electricity bill and phone bill on my credit file, as well as credit cards. Not having huge loans does not seem to have hurt my ability to get credit, nor does never having paid a penny of interest.
RetirEd
5:32 pm
April 27, 2017
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RetirEd said
mordko: that was the second time I had 6-week hassles because of a credit-monitoring file on me. Both times I was just asking for a modest increase in a card limit.The so-called monitoring never got me any notification when someone in another city tried to get a card in my name! Worth than useless.
And I am guessing that most people use credit cards for convenience but don’t “live in debt all their lives”.
Last I read, about half of Canadians with credit cards keep a debt balance on them.
I have my electricity bill and phone bill on my credit file, as well as credit cards. Not having huge loans does not seem to have hurt my ability to get credit, nor does never having paid a penny of interest.
I’ve had credit monitoring for a few years now and never had any “hassles” whether asking for a credit card limit increase or applying for a new credit card/bank account. Are you sure it's because of credit monitoring?
Monitoring service is supposed to send an instant alert to you as soon as there is a credit enquiry. It works for me.
So, you never had a mortgage? Have you ever bought a family home? How?
We certainly paid mortgage interest - and are grateful that the facility was there for us. It worked out very well financially but apart from that - it was good to “borrow” from your future self when bringing up a young family. Typically, young families don’t have enough to buy a house outright and by the time one is old and rich it's a bit late.
11:52 pm
November 18, 2017
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mordko: No, I've never been interested in real estate. The interest costs are insane. It would probably make more sense to become an income-property owner, but too much hassle and risk for me.
I have no wife or kids to worry about.
RetirEd
4:09 am
April 27, 2017
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RetirEd said
mordko: No, I've never been interested in real estate. The interest costs are insane.
I find these costs to be very low. If your mortgage interest is 4% and inflation is 2% then your cost of servicing the mortgage in real terms is just 2%. Your mortgage is being paid off even if you don’t pay off any principle. After 20 years your loan is only half of what it was in real terms and is easy to pay off.
The other side of the coin is HISA interest. 3% sounds great, but it's actually zero after 2% inflation and tax. We are getting sweet nothing in return for lending to the bank.
5:30 am
March 15, 2019
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RetirEd said
mordko: No, I've never been interested in real estate. The interest costs are insane. It would probably make more sense to become an income-property owner, but too much hassle and risk for me.I have no wife or kids to worry about.
"It would probably make more sense to become an income-property owner, but too much hassle and risk for me".
No truer words have been spoken.
Care and maintenance is costly and time consuming. Plus, dealing with tenants is another challenge. Don't you just hate it when you go to collect the rent and the tenant says "can you come back next month?" You just know they'll never catch up. Then there is the landlord unfriendly/hostile Rental Board.
BTW: The real estate market in Toronto has morphed into two markets. The condo market has crashed and burned. Meanwhile the price of a decent residential house is now in the $1.5mm and up range.
10:28 pm
November 18, 2017
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I'm going to have to call "off topic!" here.
RetirEd
6:14 am
March 30, 2017
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COIN said
"Card churning"
I think this might negatively affect one's credit score.
any hard credit check will lower it by a few pts etc, but if one has excellent score to begin with, no issues at all.
6:50 am
January 25, 2024
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savemoresaveoften said
any hard credit check will lower it by a few pts etc, but if one has excellent score to begin with, no issues at all.
No hard or any other credit checks but my score is 802 and the 'reason' is 'not much mortgage experience'. Really funny 'reason'.
Basically if you want nice score you have to be in debt all life and pay interest to somebody all the time. No thanks...
7:46 am
April 6, 2013
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The given reason is for score improvement. Improvement is not relevant to lenders if the score is already considered excellent.
An excellent score of 783 is not better than an excellent score of 846 for lenders. See previous discussion.
Also, those free scores given out by Equifax Canada and TransUnion Canada are not used by lenders. Most lenders use a FICO score.
12:45 pm
February 16, 2023
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savemoresaveoften said
I was told Not using credit at all is a negative, not having a mortgage or loans is negative in the eye of credit rating agency.
My rating is 890 and comes with a suggestion I could improve it by having a mortgage. At >75yo I am comfortable with no long-term debt [monthly credit card only] and can live with the humiliation of a less than perfect score.
2:36 pm
January 25, 2024
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countysaver said
savemoresaveoften said
My rating is 890 and comes with a suggestion I could improve it by having a mortgage. At >75yo I am comfortable with no long-term debt [monthly credit card only] and can live with the humiliation of a less than perfect score.I do NOT care if my store is 1 or even 0. Score is sort of important if you need to BORROW money from somebody. If you have enough dough for a living who cares...
4:36 pm
March 15, 2019
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CAD said
I do NOT care if my store is 1 or even 0. Score is sort of important if you need to BORROW money from somebody. If you have enough dough for a living who cares...
I heard that some propective employers ask for your credit score. Apparently, they think a high score means you are of good character. Remember, character is important to some employers. Of course, they might also ask for a police reference report and a reference from your landlord.
I once ask a propective employee why there was a gap in his resume. He said he was travelling in Europe.
4:43 pm
April 27, 2017
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According to Google, FICO is rarely used in Canada, it's mostly a US thing. Many major lenders here prefer:
• Equifax Risk Score (ERS),
• TransUnion CreditVision,
• or a proprietary score built on top of bureau data.
Please write your comments in the forum.