Loan losses in oil and gas sector hit National Bank's profit + MORE May 6th

As we do each month we bring you the latest set Miles & More “Meilenschnaeppchen” discounted mileage awards!  This month we see only a 50% discount on economy class travel on Austrian Airlines between Toronto and Austria. These Austrian offers are good for booking and travel until Jun 30, 16You can redeem Miles & More miles for round trip tickets on Austria from Toronto to Austria for only 30,000 miles. This is a 50% discount off the normal Economy Class award ticket price of 60,000 miles. Granted all these tickets will also have fuel surcharges but this is still a pretty good deal when you look at it as a whole in terms of miles+cash outlay.  The crazy thing is that you can actually get the round trip economy class tickets for only $5,000 in credit card spend (and a $120 annual fee). How so? As we usually mention in this post you can boost your Miles & More account with the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express. Currently the card comes with a 20,000 Starpoint sign up bonus…

Whoa! Canadians between the ages of 19 and 35 now account for a whopping 50% of the more than $10 billion annually defrauded through online scams, according to data complied by Equifax Canada and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
The reason? Whether it’s online banking or tapping into a free Wi-Fi hot spot, “millennials rely heavily on technology for most of their day-to-day activities, which exposes them to more risk,” says John Russo, Equifax Canada’s Chief Privacy Officer. Follow these tips to protect your private data from phishing and other forms of internet account theft.
How to avoid online scams
Be less social
Don’t overshare personal information (like your home or email address) on social networks
Shop cautiously
Only enter your credit card number on secure web pages with “https” in the address bar and a padlock symbol at the bottom of the browser window
Use strong passwords
A complicated mixture of letters, numbers and special characters will keep your personal information safe…

You know how we always tell our readers to carry one card from each major card issuer? Visa, MasterCard and American Express. Well here is one of those offers we always refer to. This one requires that you use a Visa card to pay for your stay Choose Your Moment stay at Fairmont Hotels in North America.  Choose Your Moment offers are exciting hotel packages, for example the package at  The Plaza Hotel in New York includes:Enjoy a private, customized tour of legendary Central Park—focus on wildlife, history, film, architecture, romance, family attractions, and moreSoar over the bustling metropolis on an exhilarating helicopter tour, with a bird’s eye view of NYC’s iconic landmarksHere are the main offer details as taken from Fairmont Hotels:Discover some of North America’s most unique experiences with us! Book our Choose Your Moment with Visa ® offer at participating Americas properties and pay with your Visa card – when you spend a minimum of $850, you’ll receive a $150 credit at check-out*…

National Bank says it will take a $195-million after-tax provision for bad loans in the second quarter, with the bulk of that related to credit losses in the beleagured oil and gas sector.

From the latter part of 2015 we’ve brought you all the details and drama surrounding the sale of Starwood Hotels. Marriott and China’s Anbang were going head to head for Starwood with Marriott eventually coming out on top. This worried a lot of Starwood Preferred Guest members (SPG) as SPG tends to be more rewarding than Marriott especially in how they treat their elite members. To appease SPG members early on and let Marriott elite members start getting used to some SPG benefits Marriott Rewards updated some benefits recently (read about those here). Ultimately it seems though that SPG and Marriott Rewards will be merged into a new program but that won’t happen until sometime in 2018. Which means that gives nearly two years for someone to make use and take advantage of SPG since it is one of the most awarding hotel programs out there and provides tremendous value with their currency, Starpoints. In fact if you look at our Top 5 Travel Rewards Currencies for Canadians you’ll see that SPG ranks 4th overall!That brings us to the topic of this post…