All those jumping on the IHG card before it's gone, do you mind posting what range your credit score is? I don't wanna waste a pull :P

Rejected for IHG at 700 EQ score.

Recently approved for Amex Business Gold and CIBC Aeroplan Business Gold in the last 3 months.

Fairly sure they do double pulls

Capital One in Canada is ridiculous. I haven't even bothered applying given how they required like 6-12 months of no credit application or check at all

I applied with 711 score and got approved instantly

Pretty sure I have 5+ apps in the last few months, latest one being July 1st AMEX Gold, and I own Cap1 Aspire Travel already (the discontinued one)

Didn't know Cap1 was this picky

Got approved for the IHG immediatly with scores in the 740 both tu and eq, with last inquiry just below the 3 months threshold.

I was instantly approved and have also had at least 5 apps in the past three months. My transunion score only says 640, but I really don't get why its so always so low. Maybe because I have so much open credit? I also wonder how accurate the score is compared to what the bank sees. I never miss or have late payments, don't carry balances, high income. Oh well, I always get approved:)

SPG Card: USA vs Canada
 

This is an interesting aspect that I hadn't given much thought to.

As someone with both the US and Canadian SPG Amex, I'm trying to calculate if it's worth it to pay for something in the US with the Canadian card?

Example: Widget costs $100 US (~130 CAD). Assume USD/CAD=1.3
Pay with US SPG Amex: 100 *points
Pay with Cdn SPG Amex: 133 *points

But these 33 additional *points cost something.
1) Assume Amex Canada adds a 2.5% fee to the exchange rate.
2) Assume that converting from CAD to USD would cost at least 1.6% over the rate you find on xe.com.
3) Therefore, those 33 *points cost [($2.5-$1.6)/(133-100)] = 0.027

Therefore, it wouldn't be worth it. Correct?

just got declined for IHG card, 705 on EQ, 4 apps in last 4 months

Any worth calling in? Anyone ever have any luck?

Credit scores don't seem to mean much in Canada. My wife's score is 40 points higher than mine and hasn't had much luck with pretty much anyone, whereas I'm batting 1.000.

I don't think reason 2 applies. Typically (not sure about Amex for foreign currency) you get charged at interbank rate and then the %2.5 fee is tacked on. That's how MasterCard has always charged me. So you are paying essentially %2.5 for the points.

So yes, not worth it in my opinion unless you have no USD and would need to buy USD - so therefore it essentially cuts down the cost to about 1% (you can easily exchange USD/CAD at 1.5 from interbank)

It is worth it if, e.g., you are paying for a flight - where you can price it out using an OTA or the airline's website in either USD or CAD (e.g., you can use the expedia .ca or .com version to quote you a fare in the currency of your choosing).

I should have clarified: the 1.6% assumption was the approximate fee you would have to pay if you were converting CAD to USD yourself and transferring funds to a US bank account.

Thanks for the suggestions. Gf has 120k...guess I'll be going to Costco a lot :D And time for her to change reward plan.

When did she get the card? 120k is a lot

Cardholders who signed up before Oct/Nov 2013 should still be able to transfer to Aeroplan.

Well, if credit score doesn't seem to matter much, what do we think does?? :confused:

If you guys plan to travel, Aventura gives 1% on hotels and prices are often similar to booking.com and others, so 14k points would be worth $140 instead of a $100 GC. It's a bit of a PITA to search/book on the CIBC rewards website however.