Hi there...
Thanks in advance to all the experts in this forum... I've been able to take advantage of some pretty creative minds in here...
Quick question for you... I've been meaning to upgrade my current RBC Gold Visa card to the Platinum AVION and have been approached a few times by the bank to upgrade, but am concerned that I would lose all my credit history with my older Gold card (12 yr history) if I switch. I understand that it's the length of time that is important for your credit score... I'm sitting around 740 right now and don't want it to drop...
By upgrading the card, will my credit history automatically get transferred over to it, or will it start new? just wondering...
Thanks
if you upgrade your card the accounts will be linked on your report.
for sure you won't lose your history unless you request to close it and then apply for a new card.
Showing posts with label Credit Cards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Credit Cards. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
AMEX cards up for renewal. Don't want to pay annual fee.
My Amex Business Gold card and AMEX SPG card are both up for renewal. I don't want to pay the annual fees. I read somewhere that it wasn't worth transferring the points to Aeroplan. Any suggestions? I have over 20,000 points.
Where in the world did you hear it wasn't worth transferring the points to Aeroplan? 15,000 points gets you a free short-haul flight to a neighbouring province or state. 25,000 points gets you a free flight to anywhere in North America. (still have to play fees and taxes).
If this is mostly about the AMEX fee, AMEX SPG can't be up for renewal for a number of months (April) so you don't need to be in a rush.
If you provide more info on your spending, what type of rewards you'd like, how much you'd like to travel and how you like to purchase travel (with points or find your own deal), we could provide useful recommendations.
Even if you cancel the card, you still keep your SPG points. With the Gold card, transferring the points to Aeroplan is worth it if you need Aeroplan points.
I typically cancel the card if they don't provide a large incentive - assuming you have another credit card. Wait 3 months and reapply and get all of the bonuses again
Where in the world did you hear it wasn't worth transferring the points to Aeroplan? 15,000 points gets you a free short-haul flight to a neighbouring province or state. 25,000 points gets you a free flight to anywhere in North America. (still have to play fees and taxes).
If this is mostly about the AMEX fee, AMEX SPG can't be up for renewal for a number of months (April) so you don't need to be in a rush.
- Transfer your Amex MR points to Aeroplan. (I think you just missed the opportunity to get a 25% bonus)
- Then cancel the Amex Business Gold
- When you get closer to the AMEX SPG renewal, apply for a new Amex Business Gold (and get another 25K bonus points as long as you don't have another small business card) or an Amex small business SPG card (and get 10,000 SPG bonus points). Yes they will give you another new card this soon after cancelling.
- Cancel your Amex SPG
If you provide more info on your spending, what type of rewards you'd like, how much you'd like to travel and how you like to purchase travel (with points or find your own deal), we could provide useful recommendations.
Even if you cancel the card, you still keep your SPG points. With the Gold card, transferring the points to Aeroplan is worth it if you need Aeroplan points.
I typically cancel the card if they don't provide a large incentive - assuming you have another credit card. Wait 3 months and reapply and get all of the bonuses again
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
where to get PREPAID paypass
i really want one of these paypass credit cards, they look pretty cool. havent had one yet. but i have pretty bad credit, no one will give me a new credit card. which means i have to get a prepaid one. is there such a thing as a prepaid paypass? if so where do i get one from?
thanks
dan
ZoomPass (need a cell number to signup, no fee, load by paying as bill via online banking), the prepaid MC they send is PayPass enabled.
thanks
dan
ZoomPass (need a cell number to signup, no fee, load by paying as bill via online banking), the prepaid MC they send is PayPass enabled.
Quick question about credit cards
Applied for one not too long ago, and the bank teller was too pushy (have made a mental note to not deal with her ever again). So say my card has 19.99% interest, it's only applied to money that as yet to be paid back, right? It's not tacked onto the payment automatically like HST is? Yes I know it's a stupid question but the teller wanted me to get the hell out...
if you make a cash advance or make a cash advance like transaction then the interest will be accumulating right away.
for your regular purchases you have a grace period so when u get your statement within that period you can pay everything off by the due due and there won't be any interest on that.
if you just make your minimum payment and there's still a balance then u could get hit with that interest once you bought it, fair enough?
the way interest works is that it's calculated daily it's not really tacked on like tax.
if you make a cash advance or make a cash advance like transaction then the interest will be accumulating right away.
for your regular purchases you have a grace period so when u get your statement within that period you can pay everything off by the due due and there won't be any interest on that.
if you just make your minimum payment and there's still a balance then u could get hit with that interest once you bought it, fair enough?
the way interest works is that it's calculated daily it's not really tacked on like tax.
PC Financial Master card cancelled my card
Hey, so I called PC mastecard and apparently they cancelled my card because of my credit score, they never notified me about this and I only found out when I called as my Card stopped working. I never missed a payment for all of my credit accounts, I went to transunion and got a copy of my credit profile, and its green across all payents for all credit cards, my score however is not as high as expected (588) possibly because it shows a 31 000 loan from OSAP even though I am still in school. Question I had is, is PC FINANCIAL able to cancel my card just like that, and is OSAP supposed be showing up in there even though I am still in school and haven't even started making payments to it
Thanks
Yes, they can cancel your card whenever they want for whatever reason or no reason. But there is no doubt, your score would be affected by osap. It's likely they saw your credit amount and utilization just skyrocket.
It's obvious there is something there that is killing your score. Did you go on an application spree or something? Even then, a pile of hard inquiries won't drop your score to that level unless your score was pretty low to begin with. A handful of new accounts might make it drop, but once again it must have been quite low to begin with to get into the high-500s territory.
The fact they cancelled it outright tells me that PCF was quite concerned and there must be something on your report that spooked them. If they cut your limit then that's one thing, but to completely cancel your account is another thing entirely.
Thanks
Yes, they can cancel your card whenever they want for whatever reason or no reason. But there is no doubt, your score would be affected by osap. It's likely they saw your credit amount and utilization just skyrocket.
It's obvious there is something there that is killing your score. Did you go on an application spree or something? Even then, a pile of hard inquiries won't drop your score to that level unless your score was pretty low to begin with. A handful of new accounts might make it drop, but once again it must have been quite low to begin with to get into the high-500s territory.
The fact they cancelled it outright tells me that PCF was quite concerned and there must be something on your report that spooked them. If they cut your limit then that's one thing, but to completely cancel your account is another thing entirely.
What's going on with Diners Club Mastercard?
Hi everyone,
I recently visited the DC website and noticed that there's no way to apply for the card right now. Strange.
I did some further digging and found out that while it says on the wesbite that the company is owned by Citibank, recently reports online suggest that BMO MC has purchased the company - so perhaps that's it -
Does anyone know if this card is being cancelled or on hold or something?
(Reason: I'm asking is that this seems to be the only non-Amex card other than CIBC that you can get free lounge access). :P
You have to buy that lounge access with the CIBC cards. so that is not free either. Try BMO elite card, get 3 free lounge visits yearly. Only other non-amex I can think of is MBNA Alaska Airline, gives 2 free passes, but I believe that is only a one time sign-up bonus thing only, so BMO elite is probably your best bet for non-amex lounge access
For at least 6 years now, Diner's Club Canada and Diner's Club USA have been closed to new applications from individuals. This is because Citi decided to focus on their Corporate clients for this card to the exclusion of individuals. If you already had a DC card as an individual you got to keep it, but they refused any new applicants that were not corporate accounts.
Diner's Club USA (which includes Diner's Club Canada, and is different from Diner's Club International) was bought by BMO specifically for the corporate card business. There is no indication whatsoever that BMO intends to offer DC cards to consumers again, and in fact they've made every indication that their goal is to continue to expand their corporate client base.
It is possible that they may open it up to consumers again, but it is more likely that they will keep the status quo, and focus solely on corporate clients.
The cards they want to compete with are these, which are the two players in Canada at the corporate level:
AmEx Canada Corporate Cards & USBank Canada Corporate Cards
I recently visited the DC website and noticed that there's no way to apply for the card right now. Strange.
I did some further digging and found out that while it says on the wesbite that the company is owned by Citibank, recently reports online suggest that BMO MC has purchased the company - so perhaps that's it -
Does anyone know if this card is being cancelled or on hold or something?
(Reason: I'm asking is that this seems to be the only non-Amex card other than CIBC that you can get free lounge access). :P
You have to buy that lounge access with the CIBC cards. so that is not free either. Try BMO elite card, get 3 free lounge visits yearly. Only other non-amex I can think of is MBNA Alaska Airline, gives 2 free passes, but I believe that is only a one time sign-up bonus thing only, so BMO elite is probably your best bet for non-amex lounge access
For at least 6 years now, Diner's Club Canada and Diner's Club USA have been closed to new applications from individuals. This is because Citi decided to focus on their Corporate clients for this card to the exclusion of individuals. If you already had a DC card as an individual you got to keep it, but they refused any new applicants that were not corporate accounts.
Diner's Club USA (which includes Diner's Club Canada, and is different from Diner's Club International) was bought by BMO specifically for the corporate card business. There is no indication whatsoever that BMO intends to offer DC cards to consumers again, and in fact they've made every indication that their goal is to continue to expand their corporate client base.
It is possible that they may open it up to consumers again, but it is more likely that they will keep the status quo, and focus solely on corporate clients.
The cards they want to compete with are these, which are the two players in Canada at the corporate level:
AmEx Canada Corporate Cards & USBank Canada Corporate Cards
PC MC Disputed transactions
Today when checking my online credit card statements I noticed 2 suspicious activities on my card (amount is less than <$200) and happened within this month. The card seemed to be used to purchase gasoline in GTA.
I reported this and they said that they are going to investigate and will send me a new card right away.
My question is: I've not used this particular card for any retail transaction for at least months (since I've used by CapOne Aspire One as my primary card) in any retail, how could this happen? My next question is, are people that *stupid* in a sense that they use it on a gas station which has surveillance camera all over the place?
Is this kind of random occurrence happens to everyone once in a while? is it common?
Finally, how long investigations will take place normally?
Thanks!
Your card probably got skimmed some months ago.
Maybe they are using the card to fill up gas for stolen cars, or they are just going in and buying gift cards, cigs, etc, without driving up to a pump?
This kind of thing thrives because
A. "Zero liability" provisions in credit card contracts insulate individuals from risks of having their credit card info stolen or misused. There is not much incentive for people to put much effort into protecting their CC information. Older people seem to have less trust in this system, while younger people tend to be much looser with their credit cards, trusting that they are protected from fraud.
B. Credit card companies largely just write off fraudulent charges that are small enough. For less than $200 bucks, its not really worth it for them to pay someone to investigate it for even a few hours. They might file a police report, but unless they can connect it to a larger group of fraudulent charges, they wont be putting much time into it.
I reported this and they said that they are going to investigate and will send me a new card right away.
My question is: I've not used this particular card for any retail transaction for at least months (since I've used by CapOne Aspire One as my primary card) in any retail, how could this happen? My next question is, are people that *stupid* in a sense that they use it on a gas station which has surveillance camera all over the place?
Is this kind of random occurrence happens to everyone once in a while? is it common?
Finally, how long investigations will take place normally?
Thanks!
Your card probably got skimmed some months ago.
Maybe they are using the card to fill up gas for stolen cars, or they are just going in and buying gift cards, cigs, etc, without driving up to a pump?
This kind of thing thrives because
A. "Zero liability" provisions in credit card contracts insulate individuals from risks of having their credit card info stolen or misused. There is not much incentive for people to put much effort into protecting their CC information. Older people seem to have less trust in this system, while younger people tend to be much looser with their credit cards, trusting that they are protected from fraud.
B. Credit card companies largely just write off fraudulent charges that are small enough. For less than $200 bucks, its not really worth it for them to pay someone to investigate it for even a few hours. They might file a police report, but unless they can connect it to a larger group of fraudulent charges, they wont be putting much time into it.
Monday, January 10, 2011
4 Month Late Payment - Help!
I made a incredibly stupid mistake and forgot to pay a balance of $60 on my BMO USD mastercard for 4 months! They didn't mail me any documents but have tired calling my house (not my work or cell phone) and since I've spent a lot of the last 3 months from home travelling so I haven't received any messages. I did clear out the balance and talked to BMO's lending department but they said they couldn't do anything about reversing it from my credit rating. My question is how will this affect my rating? They said it was a major. I have other cards (a RBC platinum Visa, a AMEX, A BMO Mastercard and a BMO LOC) and have never missed a payment with any of them. I'm 28 so I have about 10 years worth of credit history.
Is this a huge mark on my credit rating? Is there anything I can do? I'm freaking out a bit and any help would be appreciated.
Such a stupid thing to do over $60!
The higher your credit score the more damage any late payment will do. It looks like you'll have a 90-day late. So yeah, that's gonna hurt. There was an article released recently of an interview with some executive who works for Fair Issac (the company that owns the FICO scoring system). They're tight lipped about how it works exactly, but he gave some hints and examples. And one example was the difference 1 single late payment makes for 1 person with good credit and 1 person with bad credit. And yeah, it hurts the good credit person worse.
Like, it might knock a 780 down to 720..or a 750 down to 710...or a 650 down to 630...or a 600 down to 590.
Did BMO cancel the account on you?
I'm really surprised they didn't try your cell and/or work number. My girlfriend didn't get her TD Visa statement a couple months ago, so she stupidly forgot to pay it (I just rolled my eyes). The day AFTER the payment was due they called the house. They left a message and then called her cell phone.
The score is just a number and often meaningless.
From my experience, a late payment such as OP's will not look that great on the CBR. I have seen applications get declined based on the fact that the individual had 90+ day late pymnt on one of the accounts and rest of it was perfect.
Is this a huge mark on my credit rating? Is there anything I can do? I'm freaking out a bit and any help would be appreciated.
Such a stupid thing to do over $60!
The higher your credit score the more damage any late payment will do. It looks like you'll have a 90-day late. So yeah, that's gonna hurt. There was an article released recently of an interview with some executive who works for Fair Issac (the company that owns the FICO scoring system). They're tight lipped about how it works exactly, but he gave some hints and examples. And one example was the difference 1 single late payment makes for 1 person with good credit and 1 person with bad credit. And yeah, it hurts the good credit person worse.
Like, it might knock a 780 down to 720..or a 750 down to 710...or a 650 down to 630...or a 600 down to 590.
Did BMO cancel the account on you?
I'm really surprised they didn't try your cell and/or work number. My girlfriend didn't get her TD Visa statement a couple months ago, so she stupidly forgot to pay it (I just rolled my eyes). The day AFTER the payment was due they called the house. They left a message and then called her cell phone.
The score is just a number and often meaningless.
From my experience, a late payment such as OP's will not look that great on the CBR. I have seen applications get declined based on the fact that the individual had 90+ day late pymnt on one of the accounts and rest of it was perfect.
Pro-rated credit card fees?
Hi All,
I currently have an amex aeroplan card, I am not using it and want to cancel. will Amex give me a prorated refund on my annual dues?
If so is there a law in canada that they have to?
I recently called Amex about this very issue and the CSR indicated that they will refund the pro-rated (unused) fee.
the policy, in the card agreement, is they will not refund any annual fee if pts are awarded.
if they aren't awarded, i am unsure. i'm trying to get that done right now with MC so we'll see.
I currently have an amex aeroplan card, I am not using it and want to cancel. will Amex give me a prorated refund on my annual dues?
If so is there a law in canada that they have to?
I recently called Amex about this very issue and the CSR indicated that they will refund the pro-rated (unused) fee.
the policy, in the card agreement, is they will not refund any annual fee if pts are awarded.
if they aren't awarded, i am unsure. i'm trying to get that done right now with MC so we'll see.
Question about Paying of CC Balance w/ Credits
I have a quick question, don't know if anyone has the answer to it.
I currently have TDCT Credit card if it matters.
Let's say my January Bill is $1,000.00 and I want to pay it all off without incurring interest.
If I receive a $500 Credit (for a return, or something else) I only have to $500 to reduce my balance.
However, lets say my January Bill is $1,000.00.
I then purchase an item for $500.00 in February, but return it the following day. My account shows a $500 credit on my account.
Can I pay only $500 in January (because I have the $500 Credit and the system shows that I technically received a $500 Credit, and then I pay the other $500 in March) or do I still need to pay the full $1,000 in cash (not using the Credit).
Just curious, my December Bill got completed screwed up with so many credits, that it's tough to keep track.
Yes it should work. Credit cards can give you an infinite free loan of at least half your credit limit. With RBC, after my statement has been issued, I've booked a refundable hotel room or airline ticket for the amount owing on the statement then canceled it the next day. The credit would count as a payment, and the original amount would be payable again next month. If you do this over and over each month, you can put off having to pay off your card without incurring interest charges. The bank reports you as having paid on time, and I never received a complaint from them about it. It's only a hassle of booking and canceling each month.
I currently have TDCT Credit card if it matters.
Let's say my January Bill is $1,000.00 and I want to pay it all off without incurring interest.
If I receive a $500 Credit (for a return, or something else) I only have to $500 to reduce my balance.
However, lets say my January Bill is $1,000.00.
I then purchase an item for $500.00 in February, but return it the following day. My account shows a $500 credit on my account.
Can I pay only $500 in January (because I have the $500 Credit and the system shows that I technically received a $500 Credit, and then I pay the other $500 in March) or do I still need to pay the full $1,000 in cash (not using the Credit).
Just curious, my December Bill got completed screwed up with so many credits, that it's tough to keep track.
Yes it should work. Credit cards can give you an infinite free loan of at least half your credit limit. With RBC, after my statement has been issued, I've booked a refundable hotel room or airline ticket for the amount owing on the statement then canceled it the next day. The credit would count as a payment, and the original amount would be payable again next month. If you do this over and over each month, you can put off having to pay off your card without incurring interest charges. The bank reports you as having paid on time, and I never received a complaint from them about it. It's only a hassle of booking and canceling each month.
AMEX Student Cards in Canada
Hey,
Does anyone know if American Express offers any student cards in Canada? In other words, card where you would normally require say $15,000 annual income, but that would be waived for students.
I know I've read here MBNAA does that, where it's not advertised but they waive the annual income requirement so long as you're a student. I know TD does that as well with their higher end cards.
An AMEX card might be nice to have, but I can't find anything online that would indicate it's possible for me.
Thanks.
Does anyone know if American Express offers any student cards in Canada? In other words, card where you would normally require say $15,000 annual income, but that would be waived for students.
I know I've read here MBNAA does that, where it's not advertised but they waive the annual income requirement so long as you're a student. I know TD does that as well with their higher end cards.
An AMEX card might be nice to have, but I can't find anything online that would indicate it's possible for me.
Thanks.
no amex does not waive any requirements for students.
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