7 ways to protect credit in a gig economy + MORE Jun 30th

News, Tips & Tricks Aeroplan Members can now redeem Aeroplan Miles for travel with Star Alliance Connecting Partner, Shanghai-based Juneyao Airlines. Juneyao Airlines provides flights on more than 80 domestic routes between Shanghai and Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming, Tianjin and more. (Source Aeroplan)Also on the Aeroplan news front, COPA Airlines are once again bookable with Aeroplan miles. Aeroplan announced difficulties with several airlines in terms being able to book award tickets and have made great strides in getting those issues fixed. (Source DCTA) You may not find the information on their website or seen an email yet, but we can confirm that our breaking news of WestJet expanding the redemption options on Delta Airlines international flights is valid. To find them you have to go to the flight booking section of the WestJet website and ensure you click the ‘WestJet Dollars’ option otherwise the Delta cities won’t show in your search.Posts since our last update: Drop Rewards – Reward yourself with a new take on a coalition loyalty program In 2016, Drop Rewards (also known as Drop Loyalty or the Drop App or simply Drop) launched here in Canada with…WestJet Rewards further expands redemption opportunities on Delta Airlines – 35 more International destinations added Back in April WestJet Rewards took a big step in the evolution of their frequent flyer program by adding…Club Carlson Summer Promotion: 10,000 Bonus Gold Points or a Friday Night stay certificate after 2 stays With the end in sight for Club Carlson’s Triple Points offer that concludes on Friday, they have released the…Travel DealsSave 10% on Marriott Hotel stays in Europe by using promo code BRW and showing your British Airways Executive Club membership card…

A freelancing lifestyle can create credit nightmares without proper planning

A new report finds Canadians are facing a future where an unprecedented amount of household income will go towards debt servicing.
The Household Indebtedness and Financial Vulnerability report by the Parliamentary Budget Officer is raising concerns on the level of household debt amongst Canadians. The report suggests that debt is increasing at such a sharp pace, many Canadians will be ill prepared for even a slight hike in interest rates.
In just the first quarter of 2017, household debt reached a record level of a 174 per cent of disposable income – meaning, on average, we owe $1.74 of every $1 we make.
Since interest rates have been at record lows for so long, the PBO warns that if rates were to soon rise, “The financial vulnerability of the average household would rise to levels beyond historical experience.”
The Debt Servicing Ratio (DSR) has remained stable at 14 per cent since 2009. This means that Canadians on average use 14 per cent of their after-tax income to make mortgage payments, and pay off credit card and line of credit debt…

A few weeks ago we released a case study which has proved to be extremely popular and inadvertently brought us to this feature! The case study brought about some questions not in the comparison of what was actually presented in it but rather in two of the fixed return travel cards and how they fare against each other. This has lead us to resurrect our Credit Card Showdown feature which has been dormant for several years now! Past credit card showdowns:Credit Card Showdown: American Express Gold Rewards Card vs Scotiabank Gold American Express CardCredit Card Showdown: mbna SmartCash World MasterCard vs. American Express SimplyCash Card The two cards in question are the BMO Rewards World Elite Mastercard and the Capital One® Aspire Travel™ World Elite Mastercard®. Questions arose in the comments of the Case Study and also via email to us. What you’ll see in this showdown is that the cards are evenly matched in many regards but there are several categories where one card comes out ahead of the other that makes it the clear winner in this showdown…

In 2016, Drop Rewards (also known as Drop Loyalty or the Drop App or simply Drop) launched here in Canada with a new take on how they wanted to reward you for your loyalty. Drop approached us to see if we would cover the program and since our mission is to educate and provide details on as many reward programs to Canadians how could we say no? Drop markets itself as a new type of coalition program whereby you collect points on purchases at a variety of merchants and then can redeem points to save on purchases at a variety of merchants. Targeted towards the millennial generation who tend to be less loyal to one merchant or program Drop has grown to over 150,000 users in less than a year. That’s pretty impressive.  So how does Drop work? It works differently than other programs in that you don’t have a set loyalty card. Basically you link your debit and credit cards to the Drop app and they monitor your transactions from the merchants you select and reward you for those purchases…