Travel Hacking in Canada is the art of mastering rewards programs and credit cards to travel -almost- for free. However, there are some important rules to know.
Everyone would like to be able to afford a dream trip in 3 months thanks to points & miles, spending as little as possible thanks to credit card sign-up bonuses in particular.
Yet, we tell you daily in the community: the game plan is essential to your reward earning process. Of course, there may be cases where, within a few months, a lot of money can be saved on:
But in the vast majority of cases, for a family, this action plan should be spread out over a year.
Sure, you can apply for several credit cards on the same day in order to reduce the impact of these applications on your credit report, but you have to be smart about it too!
Ask yourself:
Would a credit card issuer consider it normal for you to sign up for one card in January, another in April and another in July? And that afterwards, you only spent the strict minimum to unlock the welcome bonus, without continuing to make some purchases on the card?
Diversify your credit card applications throughout the year: first, you’ll apply for a CIBC credit card, then a BMO credit card, and finally a Scotiabank credit card. And in the meantime, several American Express cards, depending on welcome offers.
Unlike the U.S., where the market has seen a major tightening of the rules on repeat bonuses in recent years, Canada seemed untouched until now.
However, in recent years, issuers seem to be trying to curb this by imposing new restrictions. For example, American Express has gradually relevé or expanded the thresholds for earning welcome bonuses from the :
Even though the “lifetime bonus” rule had been put in place in 2015 by American Express, it was never likely to be implemented until 2020. At that point, American Express’ actions were drastic. It unilaterally closed without notice all the accounts it considered to have abused this rule. All points earned in the accounts of the targeted cards have been cancelled.
Then, Scotiabank recently introduced a new limitation requiring not to have held the same product for the last 24 months in order to obtain the welcome bonus as for the :
Secondly, TD Bank has introduced a rule that you can’t get a welcome bonus if you’ve already opened the same type of card in the last 12 months like for the:
Aside from repeated bonuses, some issuers want to protect themselves from points hoarders.
So take your time and space out your requests to certain issuers!
In this article, we have discussed many ways to achieve the spending required by credit cards issuers to help unlock bonuses:
All these tips are still entirely valid today.
Second, there are ways to apply for for cards that require little or no minimum spending. My colleague Aline has listed various strategies to easily earn points. In addition, there are also ways specifically for credit cards that earn cash back.
On the other hand, American Express has put a stop in 2019 on other means used such as prepaid gift cards that are “cash equivalents.”
Do not confuse the following:
In this case, moderation is much better. Rather than racing to unlock your bonuses through this method, take your time.
Besides, it’s not optimal to sign up for two credit cards simultaneously, each asking you to spend $3,000 in 3 months, and then not be able to reach that level of spending. Therefore, it would be wiser to apply for to only one card in this case.
Take…. your…. time, like in a marathon!
In an effort to eliminate any behaviour that appears abusive to an issuer, avoid:
Indeed, the last thing you want is to receive a call from the card issuer fraud department!
So if you know you’re in the wrong… you don’t call a credit card company: you keep a low profile. And avoid any “abnormal” behaviour.
Let us remind you of the basic rules of smart travel hacking:
Milesopedia is here to help you understand:
And the Milesopedia community is here to help and answer your questions.
Savings are here:
