Seeking a relationship (with a Visa Card)

[K-in-Boston]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@AverageJoesCredit wrote:

I understand it likes to be wined and dined

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That's OK. I get 3% cashback on dining with my Savor One.

I guess till I find my "soulmate" Visa I can just use the TD for restuarants and groceries. It'll take about $1100 of spend to get to $25 in cashback.

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Yep. FTF is huge for you. Paying it eliminates rewards and then some. Even earning just 1% with no FTF is better than any card with a FTF.

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Absolutely.  So where does this leave the current options with no new bank account?  PenFed Power Cash Rewards and Capital One Quicksilver are the only two common cards I can think of that have no FTF and no annual fee that would work for general spending at 1.5% back.  There would be a number of other credit union cards in the same boat.  Unless there is a relative who has served in the US armed forces, I'm assuming NFCU Flagship is out of the running? 

Even looking on the other side of the border, the Scotiabank cards that have no FTFs don't seem to offer anything more than 1% except for certain categories.  Do you meet the income requirements to qualify for a Visa Infinite Privilege?  Just wondering if simplifying things to a high-AF but rewards- and feature-rich CA card from CIBC, Desjardins, RBC, etc., might make more sense?

[Ficoproblems247]

Cap1 actually just flip flopped the regular QS from Visa to MC, so now both versions will be MC. 

[Anonymous]

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@Ficoproblems247 wrote:

Cap1 actually just flip flopped the regular QS from Visa to MC, so now both versions will be MC. 

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Lol. 

"Visa, its everywhere you want to be", except when you are trying to get one for Costco.

[Anonymous]

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

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Absolutely.  So where does this leave the current options with no new bank account?  PenFed Power Cash Rewards and Capital One Quicksilver are the only two common cards I can think of that have no FTF and no annual fee that would work for general spending at 1.5% back.  There would be a number of other credit union cards in the same boat.  Unless there is a relative who has served in the US armed forces, I'm assuming NFCU Flagship is out of the running? 

Even looking on the other side of the border, the Scotiabank cards that have no FTFs don't seem to offer anything more than 1% except for certain categories.  Do you meet the income requirements to qualify for a Visa Infinite Privilege?  Just wondering if simplifying things to a high-AF but rewards- and feature-rich CA card from CIBC, Desjardins, RBC, etc., might make more sense?

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Quicksilver (which I have) is a MasterCard - all my MasterCard needs are covered with PayPal and Savor One. It's strictly about me being fussy about having to alter my card choices  in order to get ~$10 of cashback a year. 

Canadian cards don't actually work for me at all. My income is entirely in US dollars - converting them to pay Canadian bills costs me 1.75%. So for me even a Cap One Platinum is a 1.75% cashback card.

Plus, I figure if I ever find out I have six months to live or something, I want a BIG US spending limit to max out

[K-in-Boston]

So, PenFed Power Cash Rewards it is, then?  Without NFCU membership or opening a new checking account, I can't think of anything that ticks all of your boxes (Visa, no AF, no FTF, 2% or better rewards) unless you're open to (and can be approved for) a Chase Bonvoy Bold card, which earns 2x Marriott for all purchases (3x at Marriott), has no FTFs, is a Visa, and has a rather generous 50k bonus for $2k spend.  The PenFed card has a $100 statement credit for $1500 spend, so even if you don't open a checking with them to get 2% that helps cover some of the loss for only getting 1.5%.

[Anonymous]

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

So, PenFed Power Cash Rewards it is, then?  Without NFCU membership or opening a new checking account, I can't think of anything that ticks all of your boxes (Visa, no AF, no FTF, 2% or better rewards) unless you're open to (and can be approved for) a Chase Bonvoy Bold card, which earns 2x Marriott for all purchases (3x at Marriott), has no FTFs, is a Visa, and has a rather generous 50k bonus for $2k spend.  The PenFed card has a $100 statement credit for $1500 spend, so even if you don't open a checking with them to get 2% that helps cover some of the loss for only getting 1.5%.

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I really can't forsee a time where I'll ever be down to 5/24. I'm more like 5/6. 

I suppose what I'll end up doing is chasing SUBs like PenFed's and sticking to the TD the rest of the time, since I can always put 2% grocery and 3% restaurant spend on it and average a lot higher than 1.5%,

It seems in both countries it's easier to get no-fee benefits on MasterCard. My Rogers MasterCard in my signature is a World Elite, no annual fee, 1.75% cashback, 4% cashback on foreign purchases to offset the FTF and out of country medical insurance that doesn't require the trip to be charged on the card. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

So, PenFed Power Cash Rewards it is, then?  Without NFCU membership or opening a new checking account, I can't think of anything that ticks all of your boxes (Visa, no AF, no FTF, 2% or better rewards) unless you're open to (and can be approved for) a Chase Bonvoy Bold card, which earns 2x Marriott for all purchases (3x at Marriott), has no FTFs, is a Visa, and has a rather generous 50k bonus for $2k spend.  The PenFed card has a $100 statement credit for $1500 spend, so even if you don't open a checking with them to get 2% that helps cover some of the loss for only getting 1.5%.

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I really can't forsee a time where I'll ever be down to 5/24. I'm more like 5/6. 

I suppose what I'll end up doing is chasing SUBs like PenFed's and sticking to the TD the rest of the time, since I can always put 2% grocery and 3% restaurant spend on it and average a lot higher than 1.5%,

It seems in both countries it's easier to get no-fee benefits on MasterCard. My Rogers MasterCard in my signature is a World Elite, no annual fee, 1.75% cashback, 4% cashback on foreign purchases to offset the FTF and out of country medical insurance that doesn't require the trip to be charged on the card. 

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The TD Cash card is not bad. No FTF saves you around 3%. 1% is something. 

Be careful chasing SUBs. Its frowned upon in the credit card industry. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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The TD Cash card is not bad. No FTF saves you around 3%. 1% is something. 

Be careful chasing SUBs. Its frowned upon in the credit card industry. 

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It's not the 1% that's the issue, it's the difficulty in getting at it with a card I have no reason to use except in one store. I prefer to put my grocery and restaurant spend on the Savor One to grow it. I don't want to have to put an extra couple of thousand dollars in spend on a card just to collect the cashback from a $100 purchase I couldn't make on another card. It's pettty, but annoying.

I was thinking this morning that the Rakuten Visa might be a solution, as I'm already collecting and would make using Visa advantageous at a number of stores. 

Not too worried about being denied SUBs in future. I have a strong base of prime cards in two countries. Anything else I get is a bonus.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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The TD Cash card is not bad. No FTF saves you around 3%. 1% is something. 

Be careful chasing SUBs. Its frowned upon in the credit card industry. 

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It's not the 1% that's the issue, it's the difficulty in getting at it with a card I have no reason to use except in one store. I prefer to put my grocery and restaurant spend on the Savor One to grow it. I don't want to have to put an extra couple of thousand dollars in spend on a card just to collect the cashback from a $100 purchase I couldn't make on another card. It's pettty, but annoying.

I was thinking this morning that the Rakuten Visa might be a solution, as I'm already collecting and would make using Visa advantageous at a number of stores. 

Not too worried about being denied SUBs in future. I have a strong base of prime cards in two countries. Anything else I get is a bonus.

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It's a little harder to get everything you need in a single card, since each benefit is a loss on potential revenue, and offering one item means they have to scale back on another. 

Savor and Savor One is nice in that there's no FTF but generous on dining and entertainment, but no extended warranty, etc.

Maybe someday in the future you can completely customize your card features, including yea or nea with FTF, extended warranty, etc. Add several of those and maybe your chosen 3% category is now a 2.35% category. Take one off and it's a 2.65% cash back category, etc.