In the previous post I related my experience with the excellent offering of Chase Canada. The Amazon.ca Rewards Visa met all of our US shopping needs for five consecutive winters in Arizona. NO Foreign Exchange Transaction Fees, NO Annual Fee and Cash Back. The cash back was automatically credited to the account each month. This came to a sudden end last winter when Chase withdrew from the Canadian Credit Card business and closed all accounts on March 15.
So, there we were, in Arizona for the winter needing to source out and apply for a replacement card with no FX Transaction Fees. As usual, we turned to Professor Google. This was in early February. We quickly discovered the Home Trust Preferred Visa card and the Rogers Bank Platinum MasterCard. A bit of research revealed that both of these had been around for a while. Curiously, neither were being aggressively promoted.
When introduced, the basic Rogers MasterCard offered filled the bill with No FX Transaction Fees, No Annual Fee and 1.5% Cash Back. Sometime later, Rogers began charging 2.5% Foreign Exchange Transactions Fees. They offset this fee by upping the cash back on all FX transactions to 4%. So, it was a wash, still the equivalent of 1.5% cash back. A downside for this card is that the cash back accumulates and is applied to the account each January, and then, only is you remember to make the specific request each December. Note: This info relates to the offering last February. There have been changes since then.
Alternatively, the Home Trust Preferred Visa was similar. No FX Transaction Fees, No Annual Fee but with reduced cash back of just 1%. One difference, while the cash back similarly accumulates throughout the year, it is automatically credited to the January account without the cardholder having to do a thing.
In the end, we choose the Home Trust card with the lower cash back. The main motivator for this decision was the fact that it's a Visa which is the only card accepted by Costco in the USA. Yup, the reverse of Costco Canada. In Arizona, Costco is one of our main shopping destinations for all the usual reasons.
Since February, there has been a couple of new cards introduced which do not apply foreign exchange transaction fees. Watch for info about these in coming posts.
So, there we were, in Arizona for the winter needing to source out and apply for a replacement card with no FX Transaction Fees. As usual, we turned to Professor Google. This was in early February. We quickly discovered the Home Trust Preferred Visa card and the Rogers Bank Platinum MasterCard. A bit of research revealed that both of these had been around for a while. Curiously, neither were being aggressively promoted.
When introduced, the basic Rogers MasterCard offered filled the bill with No FX Transaction Fees, No Annual Fee and 1.5% Cash Back. Sometime later, Rogers began charging 2.5% Foreign Exchange Transactions Fees. They offset this fee by upping the cash back on all FX transactions to 4%. So, it was a wash, still the equivalent of 1.5% cash back. A downside for this card is that the cash back accumulates and is applied to the account each January, and then, only is you remember to make the specific request each December. Note: This info relates to the offering last February. There have been changes since then.
Alternatively, the Home Trust Preferred Visa was similar. No FX Transaction Fees, No Annual Fee but with reduced cash back of just 1%. One difference, while the cash back similarly accumulates throughout the year, it is automatically credited to the January account without the cardholder having to do a thing.
In the end, we choose the Home Trust card with the lower cash back. The main motivator for this decision was the fact that it's a Visa which is the only card accepted by Costco in the USA. Yup, the reverse of Costco Canada. In Arizona, Costco is one of our main shopping destinations for all the usual reasons.
Since February, there has been a couple of new cards introduced which do not apply foreign exchange transaction fees. Watch for info about these in coming posts.
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