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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Sunday, May 7, 2017

Maximize Your Amex Platinum Card: Fairmont Benefits

May 07, 2017 0
Fairmont Hotels and Resorts has been merged with Le Club Accor Hotels and provides status match since late last year. But no public link pages were found for the status match: members can only match their accounts by registering through invitation emails. 


Now the good news is that these invitation emails are back: check you inbox to find out the email and follow the steps, your status with another program is within reach. 
                             

Once you match your status, you can see this: 

In Canada, if you have the Platinum card with American Express, you can make use of their Fairmont benefits: if you charge five nights in a calendar year using your Platinum card, you will be upgraded to platinum status with Fairmont. Be aware that you have to contact Amex for the enrollment of this offer and reaffirm with Fairmont customer service once you have five nights.

Although the annual fee for the Platinum card is 699 CAD per year, the accompanying benefits and privileges are well worth it. Take Fairmont as an example: if you get upgraded into platinum status, you will have a free night certificate (at least 300 CAD value, I used it at Fairmont Peace Hotel this year), two suite upgrade certificates, four room upgrade certificates and 100 USD dining and SPA credit. And you will get welcome gifts upon check-in. 
Fairmont Peach Hotel in Shanghai, China

You can apply for this card using our referral link here, and have the chance to get 60,000 membership points (instead of 40,000 points with non-referral links)if you spend 3000 dollars in the first three months: apply now. You can also apply for the Business version of this card, which has a lower annual fee of 399 CAD: apply now

                                
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Friday, May 5, 2017

Ebay.ca: Sephora Gift Card 50 for 45, and Some Additional Tips

May 05, 2017 0
Mother's day is around the corner, and have you figured out what to put into your gift cart? Good news is that on Ebay.ca Sephora gift card is now on sale:
Here are a few tips for the purchase:

1. If you have never hear of Great Canadian Rebates (GCR), we strongly recommend you register an account with them:

You may use our referral link and fill in our email to get a 2.5 CAD bonus when signing up:

(‘I was referred by’ qingyangliurick@gmail.com)

2. On GCR, you can find their Ebay.ca portal here:
https://www.greatcanadianrebates.ca/register.php?r=203630&p=eBay.ca-Bid

3. By clicking on the link in step two from GCR, you will be redirected to ebay.ca, and every purchase you make will earn you extra cash back (and that's GCR's job).

4. Unfortunately, the gift card you purchased can only be redeemed in store. 

Terms and conditions:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/50-Sephora-Gift-Card-for-45-/192176793716


If you are a regular customer to Sephora and do a lot of online shopping, we recommend you sign up with Topcashback:Sign Up Here, Topcashback usually has a 5% cashback with Sephora, and at least 10 USD for signing up with our link. 

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Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Make 3 Purchases Using Your TD Aeroplan Visa Card with Apple Pay to Win 1000 Aeroplan Miles

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Use Offers at 5 Partners to Get 1250 Bonus Miles

May 02, 2017 0
This offer is valid between May 1 and May 31, 2017. 
Click here for Details. The detailed available offers may vary across different provinces. 


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Exclusive News: Apple Watch Offer Starts Tomorrow for Banking with RBC

May 02, 2017 0
We have the exclusive news that form tomorrow, if you open a new account with Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and meet the certain requirements, you will be able to get a free Apple Watch (Series1). 

The official terms&conditions regarding this offer:



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Monday, May 1, 2017

Beginner's Guide to Canadian Credit Cards: Basics You Should Know

May 01, 2017 0
As beginners to the world of credit cards, we must grasp the basic principle of using credit cards: to maximize our spending and privileges in the most secure way. We must realize that, using credit cards wherever and whenever you need to make payments should be a routine for you. 
Credit cards payments are gradually taking over debit card and cash payments (https://www.payments.ca/sites/default/files/cpmt_report_english_0.pdf)

There are lots of benefits if you use your credit cards, and here are some of the major ones: 

1. Easy way to build up your credit rating. 

Every Canadian resident has his or her own credit profile kept by the credit bureaus (i.e., Trans Union and Equifax). Using credit cards and paying off the bills on time can help you build up a solid credit-rating, which will benefit you a lot if you are leasing a car or having some bank loans. 

2. Sign-up bonuses = free money.  

Many of the issuing credit cards in Canada have the so called "sign-up bonus": a welcome incentive for the approval (and usually achieving the spending requirements)  of a certain credit cards. Those welcome bonuses usually come in the form of points or frequent flyer miles. If you know well about how to maximize the points value, you will find it easy to use the sign-up bonus to cover lots of your travel-related fees.  

3. Great package of insurance and protection. 

Credit cards have "zero liability" which means all of your transactions must be authorized by you to be validated. You don't have to worry about fraud purchase using your credit card information because you can always claim it by just making a phone call. 



There are also different types of insurance coverage depending on which card you get, including the awesome travel insurance benefits and retail coverage.  

4. Easy access to lots of privileges 

You may be envy of those upscale people who walk in and out of the guest lounges in the airports and always have the priority check-in and reserve the business class seats. These may not be so difficult if you can make the most of your credit cards: some the high-end credit cards can offer you free access to those lounges, faster way to redeem your business class flight with ease, and instant upgrade to high tier membership tiers with lots of hotel loyalty programs. If you travel a lot each year, those FREE privileges can win you a huge deal! 

5. Universal acceptance and much greater spending power. 

Lots of debit cards are not accepted if you are travelling abroad: does it mean you have to carry lots of cash with you? No, you just need your credit cards to deal with this.  

The spending power of credit cards is much higher than that of debit cards: you can boost your credit limit if you keep good records paying off your statement balance. You don't have to worry about transferring money from your savings account to your chequing account before large purchases. 

6. Much better rewards. 

Whether it is a cash back card or a points card, credit card can help you accumulate your rewards: you can usually have at least 2% return on your purchases if you know how to choose which card to pay. 



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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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