New bill in Ontario could make points & miles expiry illegal + MORE Dec 1st

The Marriott Rewards Premier Visa Card comes with a whole bunch of great sign up bonuses when you get the card but it also has a decent offer for holding on to the card beyond your first year with it. Upon your card’s anniversary you’ll receive a free Marriott Rewards Category 1-5 certificate. This certificate can be redeemed for a free night stay at any Marriott Hotels Worldwide that fall under the Category 1 to 5 levels. For many hotels, especially Category 5 hotels, this means saving more money than the $120 annual fee the card carries when you hit that anniversary date. In Canada you have quite a few choices that you can use the certificate, namely 105 hotels. (21 Category 5, 25 Category 4, 33 Category 3,  and 26 Category 2,  there are no Category 1 hotels in Canada)From those 105 hotels these are our top picks to use your certificate at for travels within Canada: Calgary Airport Marriott In-Terminal Hotel Category 5 One of Marriott’s newest hotels in Canada  the Calgary Airport Marriott In-Terminal Hotel is their flagship Marriott Hotel in terms of design and services…

Bank says its total allowance for credit losses increased almost 10 per cent in the latest quarter

News, Tips & TricksThis is the last day of the Rewards Canada 15th Anniversary Celebration! You have a chance to win 30,000 Starpoints in the final contest! Also remember that you until the end of today you can earn double MileagePlus Miles on all hotel bookings made via Kaligo! Check it all out on the 15th Anniversary site! One of the better cards in Canada just lost its first year free status. the mbna Rewards World Elite MasterCard is no longer waiving the $89 annual fee in the first year. You can read our review of the card here. We added yet another new program that we are now tracking on Rewards Canada. Xiamen Air Egret Club has been added to our bonus offers section. Xiamen Air flies out of Vancouver to Xiamen China so this may be useful to those of utilizing the airline out of YVR. Xiamen Air is a member of the SkyTeam alliance. You can find that bonus offer page here. Posts since our last update: 5 great Marriott Hotels in Canada to use your anniversary free night benefit at from the Marriott Rewards Visa The Marriott Rewards Premier Visa Card comes with a whole bunch of great sign up bonuses when you get…New bill in Ontario could make points & miles expiry illegal The CBC ran another piece on the whole AIR MILES expiry issue today about Bill 47 in Ontario…

Knocking down the balance quickly keeps your credit utilization low

The CBC ran another piece on the whole AIR MILES expiry issue today about Bill 47 in Ontario. The bill wants to make it illegal for programs to expire miles. While it would only be in effect for Ontario residents if it passes chances are it would spread across Canada just like the issue of Gift Card expiry many years ago. We were interviewed by CBC for this article yesterday and some of our comments made it into the article. The fact of the matter is very few programs in Canada actually have Expiry rules when it comes to their loyalty currencies. In our guide to Expiry and Inactivity Rules of Canadian Loyalty Programs, you’ll see that only 4 out 16 programs we examined have expiry rules. AIR MILES, WestJet, MyHusky Rewards and Starbucks. The rest don’t expire your miles if you are active in the program. We are opponents of expiry but are supporters of inactivity rules. Of course, Canada’s largest loyalty program, AIR MILES, just happens to be one that will expire miles and that kicks in on January 1st, hence all the media surrounding it this year…