I am a "points whore" myself and not ashamed to use my Aerogold Visa card for anything. I pay my car insurance, Hydro, Water, telephone, long distance, groceries, gas etc etc. I get the shakes when I have to use cash !!!

I only do 4 or five trips generally short haul trips a year for business travel so my Visa card is my main points collector.

I have lots and lots of under $5 purchases my record low being 39 cents for an eraser at Zellers. My high is $24,000 for a car.

Some tips #1 - When I bought my car I had to pay 1.8% above $10,000 to use the card. I wrote to Visa after to see if it was legal to pay "extra" to use the card. They really waffled on the answer being neither yes or no. However two weeks later I received a refund cheque from the dealer out of the blue.

Some tips #2 - I get Visa cheques quite regularly with my statement - both in August and September recently. The August ones were good for 3,000 points and the September ones for 5,000 points. They are treated as cash advance and interest is payable as soon as they hit visa just like a cash advance. At 19.6% (about 1.5%/month) interest the points are no bargain unless you prepay your visa so you do not have to pay interest.

BTW - I am learning a lot from the forum and wish I could contribute more but you guys are the true experts - Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!