Air Canada Aeroplan partners with LCBO – members will be able to earn and redeem points for LCBO purchases + MORE Aug 19th

Here’s your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your daily dose (or near daily dose) of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more. We came across another one of those regional tourism offers! This one comes is from Tourism Victoria and it offers a $75 Visa gift card when you book and stay two or more nights at participating hotels in Victoria.  This offer is good for new bookings until September 30, 2021 Click here to learn more about and book this offer We have also added it to our post that covers all these offers from coast to coast. See all those offers here. Image via Tourism Victoria— Rewards Canada contributor Jeff W. let us know that Red River Co-Op gas bars in Manitoba code as 5x points for the American Express Cobalt Card. This is similar to Safeway and some other grocery store owned gas stations and is a good way to earn the highest amount of points possible for gas purchases. We have added this latest multiplier to our American Express Cobalt™ Card Confirmed Multiplier LocationsImage via Red River Co-Op— Latin American carrier Avianca who is famous for the buy miles deals in their LifeMiles program are adding a new route out of Canada…

 Best Western Hotels are a brand of hotels we here in the Rewards Canada family don’t visit very often. Typically we only stay at one here in Alberta but also ventured to one in San Francisco many years ago and it was that latter expensive stay that helped us build up a decent amount of points in our Best Western Rewards account. The problem with that was that we were sitting a nice amount of points and not many places to really use them since we don’t stay with them often. There was always the option of converting to Aeroplan points or some other airline but seeing that Best Western points don’t expire it was best to leave them be until the time was required to redeem for a stay or convert to an airline. So I did just that, redeemed some points for a couple of free nights several years ago (read about that here) in Stony Plain Alberta as that seems to be the only BW we stay at. Even after that redemption I still had over 26,000 points in my account so when plans had us going up to Stony this August it was ripe for us to use some more points and bring that balance down…

Back in February LCBO made headlines as they announced they were leaving the AIR MILES program after participating in it for 23 years. At the time they mentioned a plan for a future loyalty program. Thoughts were they might start they own program but that doesn’t appear to be the case with today’s news. LCBO will now partner with AIR MILES’ biggest competitor, Air Canada’s Aeroplan! The multi-year partnership will launch later this year and provides one more avenue for Aeroplan members to earn more points for their future travels.Aeroplan members who shop at LCBO stores across Ontario will earn 1 Aeroplan point for every $4 spent and just like other retail partnerships there will be limited time bonus points offers on select products. On the flipside Aeroplan members will also be able to redeem points for LCBO gift cards via the Aeroplan eStore, starting at just 1,000 Aeroplan points for $10.To earn even more Aeroplan points and complete at least a double dip on your LCBO purchases you’ll want to make sure you make the purchases with an Aeroplan co-brand credit card…

Being in debt doesn’t mean you are terrible with money or bad at budgeting. Debt is affecting most Canadians right now, with many regularly paying less than the full balance on their credit card statements, perhaps deferring mortgage payments, or putting off home repairs, and more. If that sounds like you—how can you pay off debt fast? This guide will help you get started.
How much debt is Canada in?
You don’t need to be a finance expert to understand that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed how we use money (have you noticed how much more often you’re tapping your card instead of touching the keypad to enter your PIN?). It’s affected our borrowing, spending, debt repayment and saving habits, too.
Statistics Canada reports the average household’s debt-to-income ratio rose in 2020. This measures the household debt, in relation to disposable income. In the first three months of the year, the ratio stood at 175.4%, which, according to MoneySense contributor Alexandra Macqueen, “means that, across all Canadian households, in the first three months of 2020 we collectively owed $1…