How to earn over $1,200 in value from the right travel credit card + MORE Nov 26th

Have you ever tried to pay a bill with your credit card online, only to find out that it wasn’t accepted as a form of payment? Not all companies accept credit cards for payment online.
Instead, you had to opt for a less convenient payment method, like online bill payment, or worse yet, a cheque in the mail. Not only is it inconvenient, but you also lose the opportunity of earning credit card rewards, if that’s important to you.
Thankfully, Plastiq is around to solve the problem, for a fee. In this Plastic Review, I’ll cover the basics – how it works, how much it costs, and whether the fees are worth it.
What Is Plastiq?
Plastiq is a fee-based service that lets you pay several bills online with your credit card, typically not accepted directly by the business. Examples include CRA income taxes, business suppliers, property taxes, rent, utility bills, and more.
Plastiq was founded by Eliot Buchanan, who came up with the idea after finding out that he couldn’t pay his college tuition with his credit card…

Travel rewards cards are super-popular with Canadians, and competition in the sector is fierce. Determining the real tactical value of a card can be a challenge—and we warn you: There’s math! The effort is worth it, though. Pick the right card and you can earn big. In this article, we’ll use the CIBC Aventura Visa Infinite card as an example to show you how to assess benefits, perks, add-ons and welcome offers to see just how much value a card can bring.

Like many other rewards cards, the CIBC Aventura Visa Infinite card lets you earn points that you can redeem for travel or merchandise, accelerating the power of your everyday spending. Between this and its perks, benefits and bonuses, you can earn $1,200 in value in your first year of card use. (And more if you take into account the rewards from using the card.) Let’s take a closer look.

Welcome offer

New credit card holders often get access to a valuable welcome promotion that includes both rebates and bonus points. Here’s the generous offer you’ll get with the CIBC Aventura Visa Infinite card:

Annual fee

As a new cardholder, you’ll get a rebate for the first year’s annual fee for yourself ($139) and $50 each for up to three additional users…

 For the Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend and actually a few days past that Shoppers Drug Mart is offering their biggest bonus redemption event of the year. PC Optimum members will receive up to an extra $150 in value for their points when they redeem them for online or in-store Shoppers Drug Mart purchases.The redemption bonuses are as follows:Redeem 70,000 points and get up to $100 off ($30 extra)Redeem 130,000 points and get up to $200 off ($70 extra)Redeem 250,000 points and get up to $400 off ($150 extra) This offer is available in-store until close of business on December 1st and until 4em ET on December 2nd for online purchases. For the cash portion of your purchase (if there is that is) don’t forget to use a card with a drug store accelerator like the American Express® Gold Rewards Card or BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege* Card to earn more points on those purchases.Click here for more details and to shop online with Shoppers Drug MartThere is also a bonus for shopping online with Shoppers Drug where you can earn 40,000 bonus points if you spend $125 or more by November 28…

 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. This update is brought to you by the HSBC World Elite Mastercard which is currently offering a welcome bonus of up to 100,000 bonus points worth $500, has no foreign transaction fees and no annual fee in the first year! A few weeks back we brought you the details of the new Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection joining Marriott Bonvoy (read about that here). At that time it was announced that Marriott co-branded cards will earn accelerated points for the cruise purchases but details weren’t revealed as to whether that was just for U.S. cards or if Canadian Cards were included. Also not revealed at the time was what the accelerated earn rate may be. We posed the question to Amex Canada and received the following good news response:Confirming that Ritz-Carlton Yachts cruise line is a Marriott property, therefore Canadian Cardmembers would be awarded the accelerated points of 5x on Marriott properties…

For many Canadians, managing debt is a year-round challenge. Common tips tend to be simplistic or downright insulting (we’re looking at you, “skip your daily coffee”). Staying on top of your finances gets even more difficult during the holidays, when everywhere we look there are messages urging us to spend. If you really want to avoid more debt this coming season, you’ll need to pay attention to three major areas: saving, shopping and credit card use. It is possible to participate in the most wonderful time of the year without adding financial stress.

Saving to avoid holiday debt

Now is as good a time as any to create a savings habit, where you put a percentage of your earnings away each month. Your first priority is to build an emergency fund, which should be big enough to cover all of your expenses for three to six months. You can use the same strategy to save up funds for your holiday spending. If you’re just starting now, all is not lost—you’ve still got some time to set aside money from each paycheque before your January and February credit card bills…