Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for July + MORE Jul 3rd

Shrinking home affordability has topped Canadian housing headlines for weeks running – and it’s no surprise, as prices in urban centres push past the $1-million mark. In fact, according to our recent poll, 83% of millennial home buyers feel that it’s less affordable to buy in today’s market than in generations past – yet only 37% you would make the trek to a new region in order to afford a bigger home.
Read on for the full story.
Would You Move to Afford a Bigger Home?
For many city dwellers, a detached house with a yard is out of reach financially – and the need to move to afford a bigger home is a reality. Is swapping the city for suburban square footage worth it? One homeowner shares her story – and her commute time.
Read Jaclyn’s Blog | Would You Move to Afford a Bigger Home?
Canada’s Banks Go Big on Prepaid Credit Cards
Prepaid credit cards are the next big thing among Canada’s big banks, who are touting them as a risk-free way to shop online, teach kids about credit use, and securely replace cash…

Once a debt has passed the statute of limitations, that doesn’t mean it gets wiped off your credit report

(Creative Commons/401(K) 2012)
As spring turns into summer the land becomes festooned with farmers’ markets. The one in my neighbourhood offers a wide variety of tummy-pleasing goods from fresh berries and pies to peameal bacon sandwiches. It’s an old-fashioned food fair where credit cards are scarce and cash is king.
Like farmers, investors love cash. They’re particularly appreciative of profitable businesses that pay dividends. That’s why I recently scoured the Canadian market for big cash generators and spotted eight of them.
I started my search with 324 dividend-paying stocks that trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange. While their yields vary dramatically, all of them send at least some money to shareholders.
I narrowed the list down using a combination of three classic value investing ratios. Bargain stocks trading at low multiples of earnings from continuing operations (P/E), cash flow (P/CF), and free cash flow (P/FCF) were favoured.
For those who aren’t familiar with the measure, free cash flow is equal to a firm’s cash flow minus its capital expenditures…

We end the week off with some bad news for some of our readers. News, Tips & Tricks News started trickling out yesterday that American Express Canada is following in the footsteps of their U.S. counterparts in that they will be limiting sign up bonuses on their cards to only once per lifetime per card. In other words no more churning American Express cards. We reached out to American Express and they have confirmed that as of this month they “are beginning to enforce gaming controls” I know for some of our readers this is going to put a big dent in the ability to travel cheaply as they were swapping out cards every 6 to 8 months to earn the sign up bonuses over and over again.  Currently the terms and conditions have only been updated on cards that earn Membership Rewards points (Gold Rewards, Platinum etc.) Aeroplan and AIR MILES. At this time the SPG card has not had these terms changed.We’d love to hear your thoughts on this change! I know a lot of readers do not churn but I’m guessing there will be a small percentage of you who who will be very upset with it! Posts since our last update: Cathay Pacific Asia Miles: 20% Bonus Miles when converting RBC Rewards Points (RBC Avion cardholders only) Yesterday saw the launch of a 20% bonus for transferring RBC Rewards Points to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles for Avion…

Here are the Rewards Canada’s Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of July! This is not a ‘best’ credit card list like our Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings but instead a look at cards that have very good acquisition offers. As always when choosing a card you should always take other factors into account other than the sign up bonus, but when most of these cards are first year free, they can and do pay off even when not taking into account insurance packages and other non-reward benefits. In fact 4 of 5 cards on this list for July are first year free so you can try them out at no cost and decide later on if the card is right for you. All the while earning the sign up bonus which can be used to subsidize your travels! The only card that isn’t first year free is the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express. It has an annual of $120 but the new sign up bonus of 20,000 Starpoints is worth no less than $400 depending on what you value Starpoints at…