April 2017 - The Ph.D Guy-Doctor of Points and Travel

The Ph.D Guy-Doctor of Points and Travel

The ultimate guide to Canadian credit cards. We also provide tips for making easy money and maximize your points value.

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Thursday, April 27, 2017

Earn 15 USD Worth of Sign-Up Bonus for TopCashBack: Now It Is the Time!

April 27, 2017 0
If you a fan of online shopping, you definitely should be aware of the concept here: Cashback Website. These websites have their affiliate links for the online merchants and can track your order if you use their links to visit those merchants' websites for your shopping. As a reward, they will pay you part of the commission they earned from those merchants. 

TopCashBack was originally created in the UK,but now it also has the website for the north America (Canada&USA). Now you will get 10 USD plus 5 USD Amazon.com gift card credit if you sign up with our referral link (this sign-up promotion varies from time to time,  be sure to double check on what you will get):
                                        Register Now
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Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Earn 50 dollars and at least 2.4% interest rate with Tangerine!

April 25, 2017 0
If you want to put some money into savings account, you will be shocked by the low rate provided by the five banks: take TD as an example, the best deal you could possibly get is a 2.25% interest rate, and this lasts for a limited time only: 
However, if you take a look at Tangerine, which may not be as competitive in other aspects (such as number of branches, the choice of credit cards, etc), it actually offers you at least 2.4% interest rate:

If you open both savings and chequing accounts with Tangerine, you will get $50 welcome bonus (you can use our referral code: 47651893S1 in order to get $50) with just at least $100 of initial deposit (into either account), and by April 28, you can get a chance to get another $75 if you set your payroll with Tangerine. 

Plus, Tangerine has some awesome benefits that you may like: 

1. Complimentary 50 pages of cheque for each account holder. 
2. Free Email money transfer. 
3. No service charge and daily fees.


Tangerine actually has close relationship with Scotia Bank and aims at offering low fee service. They don't have a lot (actually just a few) branches, so that they don't pay a lot to the employers...
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Monday, April 24, 2017

NEW page initiated with GOOD Credit Cards

April 24, 2017 0
A NEW  page has been added to the website: you can select "Credit Cards" now to browse the best credit cards from each bank in Canada, and get a glimpse of the card benefits, features, and latest offers in a few minutes! 


 Don't hesitate to leave any comments if you feel like: Click here to be redirected. 
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Thursday, April 20, 2017

Unlock the Secrets of Saving Money on Starbucks

April 20, 2017 0
Recently, the limited-time drink Unicorn Frappucino has become a must-have for Starbucks fans. For those who think that Starbucks are too expensive comparing to Tim Horton's, I have something here that want to share with you, and guarantee you can make it even cheaper and affordable.
As a gold member since 2014, I witnessed the changes to the Starbucks loyalty program: in the past, you can redeem free drinks based on how many drinks you have paid for; now, it really depends on how much you paid for. This is definitely a bad news: you can have 12 dark roast to get a free Venti Fracppucino in the past, but probably nothing as of now.

However, there are a few ways that we can boost our rewards:

 1. I found this app half an year ago: Drop. And the nice thing is, once you link your credit cards that you use for daily purchases, you can accumulate extra points, which means an extra 1% cashback on your Starbucks purchases. For a limited time only, once you register and use our promo code 1mqwn, you will get 2000 sign up bonus points (worth of 2CAD). For more information, click here．
2. If you are with Virgin for your cell phone plan, you will have a chance to use 10 CAD for a 15 CAD credit each month. That means you have an extra 30% off towards your purchase. 

 3. From time to time, Paypal has some offers for Starbucks as well, and it is unsurprising to expect some extra bonus if you purchase Starbucks gift cards. Moreover, Imessage now has some awesome deals with Starbucks to make this even more appealing. Just stay tuned for your Paypal email alerts， we will also post those good deals.
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Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Hurry ! Double Sign-up Bonus Points for Drop!

April 18, 2017 0
In the previous post, I introduced an app that can help you boost daily cash back towards free gift cards. Now, the Drop app has increased its sign-up bonus to 2000 points, which is worth 2 dollars to your gift card redemption. You can use our code: 1mqwn, thanks.


If you remain unsure how this works, just follow the steps on the previous post here: click for more information. 
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Saturday, April 8, 2017

How to Earn Free Gift Cards by Everyday Purchases

April 08, 2017 0
From today on, I will introduce some easy ways to earn points with your everyday purchases. These tips can help you boost your points by just a few clicks. To start with this journey, I want to introduce a daily app that you can make use of: Drop. 

 First, you need to have this app installed on your smartphone: Drop. So far there are 75,000 members using this app to earn points, which is quite a small number considering the population of Canada. 

 Drop has its own reward system: by earning Drop Points you can redeem different kinds of gift cards. Every 1000 Drop Points worth 1 CAD towards your gift card redemption, which means, 10 points per dollar spent equals 1% cash back. I personally think this is a very good add-on to your credit card points accumulation. 


The workflow to make this app work is:

 1. Download the app in the app store onto your smartphone (when you search Drop, the first result). 
                                        
2. Sign up using your personal credentials in the app. Alternatively, you can do this directly on their official website: click here. 


3. This is a critical step: link you most common used credit cards to the program. You can add more cards later on by clicking settings icon on the top right of this app. 

 Note: You will be asked to login into your banking information when linking your cards, but this is for tracking your transaction only. You do not have to worry about account security here. More information about this is explained in great details on the official webpage here: click here.
 
3. By adding a refferal code, you can earn a sign up bonus of 1000 points (sometime, it can be 3000 points). Just go to settings-have a code- and put the code in. You are welcome to use our refferal code : 1mqwn. 

 4. Now you can earn Drop Points by using your card at selected merchants offered in your app. The nice thing about this is that all the above mentioned coffee shops are included. 
                                                

 There are quite a few highlights about this app: 

 1. As you use more of the offers, you will receive even more offers from various merchants. Some of them are really amazing deals. I will write about how amazing they are later on, stay tuned. 

 2. You can refer your friend to join this app by using your own refferal code. Once they sign up, you will both have 1,000 more drop points. 

 3. The nicest thing about this app is that, you can earn your cashback or points with your credit cards at the same time. So it is actually a very good add-on feature. Say, you are using your 2% cash back card on Tims, you can earn another 2% "cash back" if you link this card to Drop. 
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Thursday, April 6, 2017

The Best Cards for Airfare Purchases in Canada

April 06, 2017 0
I have been hesitating for months writing on the selection of credit cards for airfare purchases in Canada, until The Points Guy published a blog article entitled "The Best Cards for Airfare Purchases in 2017". Now here comes the time to share my opinions on the card choice for airfare purchases in Canada. 

The factors that I take into considerations regarding this ranking include:

1. Pay back ratio (points payback will be estimated based on the points value)

2. Insurance coverage.
All cards requires you put all the relevant  purchase on this card if you want to claim insurance. 

3. Annual fee.
From 0 to more than 500 dollars, you have a great range here...

4. Additional privileges. 
Lounge access, priority check-in, free checked baggage


1. American Express Gold Rewards Card


The best card in my mind, without doubt, falls onto this Amex Gold Rewards Card. The unbeatable advantage for this card is that you can have it free for the first year. 


To make it even more appealing, you can earn double membership rewards points (MR) on every dollar you spend travel purchases (including Airfare, of course), to make this even appealing, you will earn 3x points when booking through Amex Travel website. The MR values at 1.8 cents/point, so that means you have at least 3.6% pay back from your spending amount. 

Insurance that comes with this card related to the Airfare purchases is also strong enough: the flight/baggage delay insurance will cover a maximum of $500 towards reasonable expenses if you or your checked baggage are delayed by no less than 4 hours. You will also be covered for if the flight is cancelled due to mechanical issues  by trip cancellation insurance. 

This card neither offers you any free entry to the airport lounges nor chances of priority check-in. If you are looking for a card that does come with those benefits, just for the Amex cards at the platinum level. 

You have very good chance of being approved for this card if you have more than 6 months of good credit history in Canada. And it only requires 20 K annual income for an eligible application, which is the lowest among all the cards in this article. 

You can use our referral link here:click here.  

2. TD/CIBC Aeroplan Visa Infinite

I recommend this card to those who take the flights within Star Alliance (especially Air Canada) frequently and have lots of aeroplan miles to redeem for reward flights. Basically, you will collect 1.5x aeroplan miles on your flight purchases on Air Canada website, and one mile per dollar with other airlines. The value of aeroplan miles is optimistically estimated at 1.6 cents/mile if you only redeem economy class ticket, so that your pay back on this card ranges from 1.6% to 2.4% depending on who you are flying with. 

In terms of insurance, this card has everything Amex Gold card has, but the highlight is that you can also have insurance coverage if you are flying with a reward ticket (remember to pay the tax with this card as well). Also be aware that the amount to be covered differs a bit from Amex Gold Rewards card,and the delay time is defined as at least 6 hours. 

If you are travelling with aeroplan reward ticket, you will have free access to Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge once per year, the priority check-in (zone 2), and the first checked baggage free. Sorry, but you don't have anything special in your plate if you fly with a cash ticket. 

The annual fee of this card is 120 dollars, but you can have it waived if you possess an all-inclusive chequing account with TD bank. 

You can apply for this card using this link: click here. 


3. RBC WestJet World Elite Master Card



If you are sick of Air Canada's slow service, arrogant attitude, and high prices, the only other choice you have for the domestic flights is WestJet. This card is the best card for those who fly with WestJet a lot: you will earn 2% in WestJet dollars on tickets with WestJet only, and 1.5% on everything else. This is probably the only thing that I dob't like about this card: to be a decent credit card in Canada, the average pay back should be at least 2%. 

But this card has quite a few benefits that you can never resist, provided that you taking a flight with WestJet: you can waive the fee for the first checked bag for yourself and a max of 8 companion travelers with you, this is perfect for the people who never travel alone. Additionally, you can have a companion voucher each year at fixed rate ($99, $299, or $399) depending on the destination. Again, those features are really designed for lovers/family/friends trip. 

This card also has necessary insurance coverage, but notice that the compensation is $250 per day, or $500 per occurrence. And RBC does have a strict rule to restrict your cost to hotel and dining. 

The annual fee is just 99 dollars, and considering the application is open for those with annual personal income of 70,000 dollars or more, it is quite a cheap card to keep. 

You can apply for this card using this link: click here. 
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Welcome to the academy of points for Canadians!

April 06, 2017 0

The owner of this blog, the Ph.D guy, Dr.Shepherd, would like to describe himself as more of a doctor of points (points that can be redeemed, not points towards your GPA...) rather than a Ph.D spending 10 hours a day in his research. 

 In real life, Dr. Shepherd realizes that lots of residents living in Canada do not like to be friends with credit cards: many of Dr.Shepherd's friends are scared of having "debts", but what they don't know is that profits almost always come with risks, and once you can take control of those risks, it's not a fairy tale to obtain your annual trip at no cost. 

 Well, that is one of the main reasons for writing this website: the PhD guy would be more than happy to share with the readers his insights into different credit cards across Canada (there are actually many good options), and more importantly, to provide input on how to be an expert at accumulating points. The ultimate goal is: every one can travel for FREE if they are willing to make efforts !

 You can always drop an email at : thephdguycanada@gmail.com to reach the author!
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Author Details

Welcome to my website,and this is mainly targeted on readers in Canada. I am glad to share with you everything about credit cards, points and travel.