Membership Rewards Use Points for Purchases explained + MORE Nov 21st

Before paying your credit card’s annual fee for another year, look at whether you’re getting your money’s worth and consider other card options.

The annual AIR MILES Shop the Block event launched on November 14 and presents a really nice bonus mile earning opportunity. If you meet the requirement of using Shop the Block coupons at 3 or more sponsors you’ll be awarded with up to 2,000 Rewards Miles over and above the base miles and coupon bonus miles awarded.Bonuses are as follows:Use 3 different offers Get 300 Bonus Miles Use 5 different offers Get 1,000 Bonus Miles Use 7 different offers Get 2,000 Bonus Miles Now to earn the bonus won’t come cheap if you don’t have any planned shopping this month at the participating sponsors. On the other hand if you do or can move shopping from one retailer to another that is an AIR MILES Sponsor than you can earn those bonus miles for your everyday regular spending.The cheapest way we found to earn the bonus simply by looking at all the details on the coupons (Alberta region) would be as follows:Spend $25 on almost anything at Rexall (15 Bonus Miles coupon- this was 50 in the spring edition of this offer called Mega Miles)Spend $50 at Top Shop Top Man (100 bonus Miles coupon)Spend $50 at Shell that also includes a minimum 25L gas purchase (10 Bonus Miles coupon)Spend $45 at The Children’s Place (5x Miles Coupon)Spend $50 at Global Pet Foods (15 Bonus Miles Coupon)If you have a BMO or American Express AIR MILES Credit Card achieving the bonus can be easier as it will count as one offer if you make 25 or more in-store purchases on one of the cards…

In 2016 American Express took a major step in providing more flexible reward options for Cardmembers earning Membership Rewards points. They took their very popular TripFlex option, which allowed Cardmembers to redeem points against any travel charge that was paid for with a Membership Rewards earning card from American Express, and expanded it. The expanded program is now called Use Points for Purchases, which is fitting because you can literally use points for almost any purchase on your card.The Use Points for Purchases still incorporates the old TripFlex rate and introduced a new redemption rate for non-travel purchases:Use Points for Purchases (Travel): 1,000 points = $10 creditUse Points for Purchases (Non-travel): 1,000 points = $7 creditEssentially, what the program has become, is a cash back program for any and all purchases, rather than just for travel purchases.The travel option of the Use Points for Purchases is great for those looking for the utmost flexibility in using points for travel…

On November 13 we detailed that negative changes were coming to several BMO credit cards and thanks to all our readers we know most if not all of the details that were happening. This post looks at the very popular BMO Rewards World Elite Mastercard that up until several years ago was our Top Travel Points Credit Card with an annual fee but that changed as they made the card less attractive and now it is becoming even more so. As we see in a lot of cases the company tries to put a positive spin on the changes but when you delve deep and look at all the numbers we typically find the changes to be negative.According to this page on the BMO site here is what is happening to the BMO Rewards World Elite Mastercard:Earn BMO Rewards points 50% faster!Get rewarded even sooner. Earn 3 BMO Rewards points for every $1.00 spent on eligible travel, dining and entertainment purchases, up to $50,000 in purchases per year.1, 2Enjoy more rewards flexibilityWe have reviewed the BMO Rewards program, and are making some changes to give you more choice and better value across our range of rewards:Travel reward changesThe number of BMO Rewards points needed to redeem3 for $1…

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