sorry i cant recall at the moment. does anyone know if C1 is anal about waiting 6 months before re-app for the same card?

Jumped on thd IHG cap ome bandwagon as well, just in case they do cancel it! But I would understand them on focusing on the Costco deal, it must be costing them quite a lot.

What I hope though, is that other cards will appear im the coming years with the partners that cap one has cancelled such as delta or ihg (if rumor) proves true, could be good for a bank like scotia or bmo to beef up their cc portfolio with partners rewards card

Question...what happens to existing IHG cards if they do end up pulling them? I imagine at some point they send you a replacement card.

Hello, i'm looking for some advice on how best to maximize pts/miles on future on going work travel. I just moved into a position that would have me traveling for 4 days once a month to the maritime provinces. I'm currently an aeroplan, spg, marriot, national/enterprise member. I hold the amex gold, amex spg, marriott and td aeroplan card.

My company uses a travel booking service but i'm able to add all my frequent travel #'s and will benefit from pts/miles.

They use strictly air canada for flights, no pref for hotels and enterprise/national for cars.

I currently have my TD aeroplan setup to buy my flights and my marriot card setup to purchase the hotel nights. I will do my best to use marriot hotels when possible.

Any further advice on how to maximize this opportunity? I'm also not opposed to joining more loyalty programs if needed.

Thanks for the help!

Wouldnt you get more with an Amex Gold? 2X for travel vs. 1.5....

If they book FOR you = you don't use your own CC at all?
Does it even matter which card then?

Just provide all the FFP # you can - Aeroplan, SPG, Marriott, etc...

Sorry for not being clear... They use a corporate travel booking service but I use my own credit cards and can add all my frequent traveler numbers.

In regards to the Amex gold vs the TD aeroplan I assumed using the aero card to book AC flights would net me bonuses. I will look into it more but if Amex is the better option I'll switch out the card.

The first trip I booked with my boss and he's a Hilton guy so we're staying at the Hampton inn but future trips I'll stay at the Marriott as my wife and I booked Atlantis for December and were short some MArriott pts.

Sadly it doesn't. The TD Aeroplan really only nets you significant bonuses on aeroplan AWARD flights. It's misleading, yeah. Amex Gold will net you 2x and transfer 1:1 to aeroplan (or 1:1.25 to avios if you want), or even 1:0.5 to SPG, which might be an option as well. More earnings and more flexible. And good travel insurance, too.

I see, then be careful not to drive your agent crazy (say use Card #1 for #1, Card #2 for #2, etc... ), ha


Obviously, use Chase Marriott CC for all Marriott hotels & all Dining
AMEX Gold for everything else on Travel (2X), Gas, Grocery, Pharmacy

Don't think TD Aeroplan has much bonus, and you can't even use its perks (priority check-in, free bag) as it's only for AEROPLAN reward flights on AC metals

Thank you all for the replies above... its a website booking service and they allow you add a card for hotel booking and card for flight booking. Thanks for the tip regarding perks only available on aero reward tix. i'll switch out the card to the amex gold.

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.

Got approved for the IHG immediately with scores in the 700 both tu and eq, with many inquiries in the past 6 months.

Anyone know how churnable C1 cards are? I'm probably going to pick up the IHG card.

i've gone thru 2 iterations of the Aspire in the past, separated by 6 months or a year i think. Not sure what their requirement is in terms of time between cancel and re-app. I saw some references saying you can apply almost immediately, but i dont have any personal experience regarding that.

Their sign up bonus value isnt the greatest (about $300 net value), and it requires a $120 AF payment to get, but there isnt a lot to choose from in terms of hotel points, so i think its still somewhat worth it.

remember C1 pulls BOTH bureaus

Thanks...

so, i see a lot of talk about the IHG card recently due to the thought CaptialOne will not issuing this card soon. I am just wondering if the card that every one is apply be the 15K no annual fee version or the 60K $120K annual fee version? I can never justify $120 for only 60K IHG as I don't value IHG only based on 5K PB stay. your thought on this?

I value IHG points at like 0.8cents (ThePointsGuy has it at 0.7cents, so similar), so the 60000 difference would be like 480.- - 120 = 360, with the 15k offer being worth 120.

If you transfer it to miles, it's still

15k = 3k miles*0.02= 60 dollars
60k = 12k miles*0.02=240.- - 120.- = 120.-

either way, it'll then come down to how much you value a hard pull.

I would look at the 60k version. In this situation, I just ask myself a very simple question: can I get more than $120 in value out of 60k points? And in my situation the answer is yes. Especially since I have plans to do a few weekend trips in the U.S where the value of those points has increased due to CAD depreciation. If I can get 2-3 nights from those points at hotels that cost USD$150 or so a night then I'm in great shape. Not fancy stuff, mind you.

But I'm also a credit card junkie...so take my comments with a grain of salt.

Thanks Smiley90 & grandgourmand for your quick respond. Maybe I should look into getting this card too.

Look it another way
It's cheaper to spend $120 + credit pull to BUY 60K points

IHG points can be bought regularly for 0.07, and even with bonus, Cap1 IHG card is still much cheaper

GCR is offering $250 cashback when applying for C1 Aspire Travel World Elite card until Aug 31/15. It would be a great time to apply if one is considering this card anyway.

Combined, that barely brings it back to the old aspire world at 35k...

15K isn't even worth it, IMO...at least you can make use of the 60K straight away and get 2-3 nights at a hotel that will end up costing $200US a night.

There's a purchase points mystery bonus on right now too, that you can use to top that up at a good value - which I could've used a few months ago:

Your next purchase of IHG® Rewards Club points could be your most rewarding one yet. Get a mystery bonus multiplier of 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90% and even 100% of whatever is in your cart and bridge the gap to your next Reward Night—earn your free bonus when you purchase points from now until August 31, 2015.

I had to purchase 30K back in Feb. to top up my IHG account for a reservation, and while I didn't get the deal above or the 100% bonus deal before this, I only paid $267. US when the dollar was much better, and I am getting a $225 US + tax x 5 night room for free at the end of this month! Not to mention, the hotel manager gave me a room upgrade in advance because of my Platinum Status. I'm pretty happy!

Buying IHG points isn't worth it even with the 100% bonus IMHO, unless you need a specific amount. say, 120k for 690 USD means you're buying them at 0.575cpp, If they're worth 0.7cpp, that's barely below value - not bad, but not great. and that's only with the 100% bonus. I only got the 50% bonus, so I'd have to buy them at 0.76cpp...... definitely above value :(

True - buying points anywhere is typically only good value for a top up to get the reservation, and even better value if you can score a rather expensive hotel at a lower redemption rate.

In my case, at the end of the day I paid my $120CAD annual fee in January, and got over $900CAD of value with those 60,000 points - which means a $780CAD value for applying for that card. That's a decent sign up bonus for taking two HPs, wouldn't you say?

http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/open-an-...sktop-img1.jpg

RBC iPad promotion returns:

http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/open-an-...fer/index.html

The folks at RedFlagDeals differ on this one...
It seems like a great deal, but not if RBC actually decides to enforce their early cancellation provision. Kinda have to assume that they would.
http://forums.redflagdeals.com/rbc-o...-back-1785973/