I'm not sure if this is widely known or not, but there's a relatively easy way to bypass the $150-$200K annual income requirement for the TD VIP card, if one is already holding the lower tier TD VI card. I was happy to discover this, as I'm now retired with a near-zero taxable income despite having decent tax-sheltered investments and other assets.

I simply asked my branch representative what was possible. He said.. "Hey, no problem, I can just do a Product Transfer of the existing TD VI card into a TD VIP card, and it is then also eligible for the various welcome bonuses!"

And true to his word, it worked instantly. My TD VI card then behaved as a VIP card for most purposes over the next 14-days while awaiting the ever-so-slow issuance of the new metal replacement cards.

Now a few months on, and hundreds of thousands of Aeroplan Points later.. nice!