Small businesses cheer on Walmart in battle with Visa, hoping for lower fees + MORE Jun 17th

News, Tips & Tricks Many of you have been asking us via email, Twitter and Facebook as to when the next RBC Avion to British Airways transfer bonus will happen. Well its here and once again like last fall it is a 30% bonus. I think the days of the 50% bonus are gone as are two month windows for taking advantage of the offer. That being said 30% is still really decent and now is the time to transfer! Find out more about the offer here. It has been a long time coming but our Choosing a Travel Rewards Credit Card Flow Chart has been migrated from our pre-2014 site design to the current website design and updated with all the current credit cards. Looking over it however we’ll probably make a few more changes to it in the future. First we need to throw in the question as to how many people you plan on redeeming for. If it is for 1 or 2 people the $80,000 spend question is valid but if it is 3 or more people that should be more like $120,000. Also probably need to take into account redemption frequency! Stay tuned for that…

As large retailers move to other payment formats, pressure is on credit card companies to reduce rates they charge

SAULT STE MARIE, Ont. – Essar Steel Algoma says it has agreed to a joint bid for its assets by a consortium of bidders formed by New York-based KPS Capital Partners LP and a number of its term lenders.
The value of the bid by KPS and the insolvent steelmaker’s pre-petition term lenders was not disclosed.
Essar Steel Algoma, based in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., filed for creditor protection under the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act in November. Pre-petition liabilities are those that arise prior to a company seeking court protection from creditors.
The company said it was serving a motion Friday with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice asking for the deal to be approved.
The consortium bid includes a cash consideration, a credit bid equivalent to the term loan and the assumption of certain liabilities.
In addition to the court approval process and customary regulatory approvals, closing the transaction is subject to a number of conditions relating to employee and benefit matters, including pension plans and collective agreements, capital projects and environmental matters…

Many of you have been asking to when this offer will return and we are proud to let you know the much loved transfer bonus from RBC Rewards to British Airways Executive Club is back. Well it used to be much loved when it was 50% for years on end. Now, just like last fall, it is only 30%. Still decent considering some of the flights you can via British Airways Executive Club but unfortunate that its 20% less than what everyone was used to. Also just like the previous two transfer bonuses to window to take advantage of the offer is shorter. It used to always be 2 months, now for the third time in a row it is only a month and a half.The offer is for all of you RBC Avion cardholders (Infinite and Platinum) and runs until July 31st which is the same length as the 50% offer earlier this year but roughly two weeks shorter than we normally see. Despite the BA devaluations and this lower bonus, this promotion is still a decent deal as  BA Avios are a great option for flights to Asia (via Cathay Pacific), short to medium haul within North America  (short haul offer is great on Alaska Airlines, TAM or American Airlines see this post here) and even though huge surcharges are added to their UK/Europe redemptions they can still be an alright value because of this bonus based on your spend with the credit card (see my post about Earn & Burn for an explanation)…

Many small businesses are cheering on Walmart for taking on Visa in a public battle over credit card fees. Smaller merchants feel gouged by transaction fees and hope the public dispute will lead to change.