Best Credit Card

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Re: Best Credit Card

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Moved discussion of Credit Reports and agencies to Credit Report topic -- Administrator
ockham
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Re: Best Credit Card

Post by ockham »

Spent some time in Europe in March. Because of discussions here, before the trip I got myself an Amazon Visa card. After my return, I checked the conversion rates used on the card against Bank of Canada noon rates. True to its promise, Amazon charged no forex commission. Perfect.

Thank you FWF :thumbsup:
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Re: Best Credit Card

Post by Bylo Selhi »

An issue with amazon.ca Visa: Chase doesn't support the Verified by Visa® (VbV) Service. I tried to purchase €20 of airtime in Austria on https://www.onlineaufladen.at/?lang=eng. Their payment processor insisted that my Visa be VbV. My amazon.ca card isn't so the transaction was declined. (Amazon/Chase have since confirmed that they don't offer this feature.) Instead I used a TD Visa that I'd enrolled in VbV years ago. No problem, but it cost me an extra 75¢ in FX vig ( ;) ). Interestingly enough I bought several rail tickets on OeBB's (Austrian Federal Railways) website with the amazon Visa. They use the same Visa payment processor as onlineaufladen.at but mercifully don't require VbV even though the transaction amounts were higher.

This would likely only be an issue if you want to use the amazon.ca Visa to make online purchases on foreign (including US) sites that require VbV. So if you travel and want to make online purchases (perhaps using your smartphone) make sure you have a card with VbV.
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Re: Best Credit Card

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Bylo Selhi wrote:An issue with amazon.ca Visa: Chase doesn't support the Verified by Visa® (VbV) Service. I tried to purchase €20 of airtime in Austria on https://www.onlineaufladen.at/?lang=eng. Their payment processor insisted that my Visa be VbV. My amazon.ca card isn't so the transaction was declined. (Amazon/Chase have since confirmed that they don't offer this feature.) Instead I used a TD Visa that I'd enrolled in VbV years ago. No problem, but it cost me an extra 75¢ in FX vig ( ;) ). Interestingly enough I bought several rail tickets on OeBB's (Austrian Federal Railways) website with the amazon Visa. They use the same Visa payment processor as onlineaufladen.at but mercifully don't require VbV even though the transaction amounts were higher.

This would likely only be an issue if you want to use the amazon.ca Visa to make online purchases on foreign (including US) sites that require VbV. So if you travel and want to make online purchases (perhaps using your smartphone) make sure you have a card with VbV.
Thanks for this, Bylo. Didn't know. The Amazon card is still very good, though.

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Re: Best Credit Card

Post by kcowan »

2 yen wrote:Thanks for this, Bylo. Didn't know. The Amazon card is still very good, though.

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Likewise thanks Bylo. It is always nice to be forewarned about these limitations. I just got the card, primarily for peso purchases in Mexico, but their government sites like auto licensing all use VbV for renewals. So I will have to pay the vig on those. Still better than lining up to pay in cash.
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Re: Best Credit Card

Post by OsbourneCox »

I have a question about credit cards that isn't going to be easy to google.

We currently use the TD First Class Travel Infinite Card. We use it for everything, never carry a balance, but most importantly, use the rollover date as a way of controlling our expenses. I watch our budget carefully and if we've overspent a bit for the month, we hold off on spending until the credit card rolls over.

The problem is that TD is still partying like it's 1999 and uses a batch process to roll over their accounts that only occurs on business days. Which means there is no FIXED date for the end of a billing cycle. It is affected by weekends and holidays and can vary by up to 4 days. It's driving me nuts, especially during a recent period of tight budgeting. I want a card that has a fixed billing cycle that is unaffected by anything. Our Costco Amex works like this. The new cycle ALWAYS starts on the 3rd of the month. I'm tired of adjusting for weekends, especially because that's when you'd like to spend some money. (Easter this year was a really treat!)

Obviously we are looking for a card with a good rewards plan. To be honest, we don't travel much so our current travel-centric card might not be ideal. Perhaps I should be looking for a cash back card. But with our banking at TD we have it with no annual fee so it's been convenient.

But my main concern is the billing cycle. Any insight is appreciated.
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Re: Best Credit Card

Post by Bylo Selhi »

OsbourneCox wrote:We use it for everything, never carry a balance, but most importantly, use the rollover date as a way of controlling our expenses. I watch our budget carefully and if we've overspent a bit for the month, we hold off on spending until the credit card rolls over.
If I understand correctly you're not controlling expenses as in reducing them, but rather controlling to the day when you incur them.

What happens in an emergency as in your car breaks down and you need it repaired today? ISTM the issue is that you're living on the wire with little or nothing in the bank. If you address that then you won't have to mess with the idiosyncrasies of rollover dates or carry multiple cards with different billing cycle dates, etc.
'
What are you hoping to achieve by playing this game? How much can you really "save" this way?
Obviously we are looking for a card with a good rewards plan. To be honest, we don't travel much so our current travel-centric card might not be ideal. Perhaps I should be looking for a cash back card. But with our banking at TD we have it with no annual fee so it's been convenient.
Assuming you have an Unlimited/Select account you can exchange that card for a Gold Elite Visa and get 1% rebate. But all TD cards work the same way wrt billing cycles so that won't change.
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Re: Best Credit Card

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OsbourneCox wrote:I have a question about credit cards that isn't going to be easy to google.
First hit (non ad) in googling credit card fixed billing cycle:
TD Helps wrote:Q from Ashok: I am holding TD Infinite Visa Credit card. Can we set the billing cycle of our own or is that fixed ?

A from TD Helps: Welcome to TD Helps, Ashok.

Being able to change your billing cycle can definitely help manage finances month to month making it easier to save or meet payments. Most of our cards (including the TD First Class Travel Infinite Visa) allow you to change billing cycles to meet your preference. In order to initiate the change, please give us a ring at 1-800-983-8472 (7am-12am) and we’ll take care of you.

I hope the changes work well. Write us anytime, Ashok!
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Re: Best Credit Card

Post by OsbourneCox »

If I understand correctly you're not controlling expenses as in reducing them, but rather controlling to the day when you incur them.

What happens in an emergency as in your car breaks down and you need it repaired today? ISTM the issue is that you're living on the wire with little or nothing in the bank. If you address that then you won't have to mess with the idiosyncrasies of rollover dates or carry multiple cards with different billing cycle dates, etc.

What are you hoping to achieve by playing this game? How much can you really "save" this way?
You're completely misjudging our situation. We have significant savings. This isn't about living on the wire, this is about matching our expenses to our revenue which has been temporarily reduced while my wife is a stay at home mom. It's about living within one's means without eating into savings.

Not really sure why my question deserved that kind of accusatory response.
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Re: Best Credit Card

Post by OsbourneCox »

adrian2 wrote:
OsbourneCox wrote:I have a question about credit cards that isn't going to be easy to google.
First hit (non ad) in googling credit card fixed billing cycle:
TD Helps wrote:Q from Ashok: I am holding TD Infinite Visa Credit card. Can we set the billing cycle of our own or is that fixed ?

A from TD Helps: Welcome to TD Helps, Ashok.

Being able to change your billing cycle can definitely help manage finances month to month making it easier to save or meet payments. Most of our cards (including the TD First Class Travel Infinite Visa) allow you to change billing cycles to meet your preference. In order to initiate the change, please give us a ring at 1-800-983-8472 (7am-12am) and we’ll take care of you.

I hope the changes work well. Write us anytime, Ashok!
I'm aware that I can request a different billing cycle date. But changing the date of the billing cycle does nothing to avoid how rollover only occurs on a business day. Whatever date I choose can still fall on a weekend.

And that google result returns nothing that indicates which cards use batch processsing vs fixed dates. I've looking at numerous credit card info/comparison sites and none of them list it, at least as far as I noticed.
Last edited by OsbourneCox on 13 Jul 2014 12:50, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Best Credit Card

Post by Bylo Selhi »

OsbourneCox wrote:Not really sure why my question deserved that kind of accusatory response.
Note that my response began with "If I understand correctly..." Evidently I don't and so I'm done here. Good day and good luck doing whatever it is that you're try to do. Hopefully someone else will be able to help you.
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Re: Best Credit Card

Post by George$ »

On the Amazon VISA credit card - I both like it and dislike it.

Last summer we were in Europe. I got an Amazon card - piled it up with money to avoid paying interest on taking out Euro withdrawals. Worked great.

But months later I discovered they cannot handle automatic payment via our bank - I need to do it. Annoying for me and a "dislike". Our TD VISA credit card is better on this.

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Re: Best Credit Card

Post by AltaRed »

George$ wrote:On the Amazon VISA credit card - I both like it and dislike it.

But months later I discovered they cannot handle automatic payment via our bank - I need to do it. Annoying for me and a "dislike".:
I would consider that a non-starter.
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Re: Best Credit Card

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OsbourneCox wrote:I have a question about credit cards that isn't going to be easy to google.

We currently use the TD First Class Travel Infinite Card. We use it for everything, never carry a balance, but most importantly, use the rollover date as a way of controlling our expenses. I watch our budget carefully and if we've overspent a bit for the month, we hold off on spending until the credit card rolls over.

The problem is that TD is still partying like it's 1999 and uses a batch process to roll over their accounts that only occurs on business days. Which means there is no FIXED date for the end of a billing cycle. It is affected by weekends and holidays and can vary by up to 4 days. It's driving me nuts, especially during a recent period of tight budgeting. I want a card that has a fixed billing cycle that is unaffected by anything. Our Costco Amex works like this. The new cycle ALWAYS starts on the 3rd of the month. I'm tired of adjusting for weekends, especially because that's when you'd like to spend some money. (Easter this year was a really treat!)

Obviously we are looking for a card with a good rewards plan. To be honest, we don't travel much so our current travel-centric card might not be ideal. Perhaps I should be looking for a cash back card. But with our banking at TD we have it with no annual fee so it's been convenient.

But my main concern is the billing cycle. Any insight is appreciated.
You may want to consider the MBNA Rewards World Elite card that offers 2% cash back on all purchases with no cap on spending. It comes with an annual fee of $89/year but when we got it there was a promo where the first year's fee was waived. I have also heard that some people are managing to get the fee waived for life but haven't tried asking for this yet (will be doing so soon when we hit our first anniversary). The cutoff for the billing cycle seems to always be on the same day of the month (i.e. the 14th) each month. You might want to verify this with MBNA if you are interested though just to be sure that the card works the way you need it to.

Good luck.
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Re: Best Credit Card

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AltaRed wrote:
George$ wrote:On the Amazon VISA credit card - I both like it and dislike it.
But months later I discovered they cannot handle automatic payment via our bank - I need to do it. Annoying for me and a "dislike".:
I would consider that a non-starter.
Try searching for "Amazon.ca Rewards Visa Card". That works at TD. I know it is counter intuitive because I tried Chase and Chase Visa without success but kept at it. The only thing they don't have is electronic statements. But their online access gives you all the transactions and amount due on the next payment date.

(George, if your bank does not have it, just ask them to add it as a payee.)

But the nicest thing is the exchange rates for FX! For our six months in Mexico, that is a 3.5% savings on all charges! I applied for it when I was ordering something from amazon.ca and they gave me immediate access with a 2% discount. The card arrived a week later.
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Re: Best Credit Card

Post by Bylo Selhi »

kcowan wrote:Try searching for "Amazon.ca Rewards Visa Card". That works at TD.
Yabbut their concern is that Amazon/Chase "cannot handle automatic payment via our bank." Manual payments as you describe are fine. I do it all the time too. But there's no way to set up a PAC with Chase such that they debit a designated bank account every month on the due date to get the balance due. I realize you can manually set up a payment but you have to do it every month that there's a balance.

Also awkward is that Chase doesn't send e-mails to notify you that a new statement is available. All they do is snail mail a statement. So if you're travelling you have to remember to check monthly. That's a pain for most of us and a non-starter for AltaRed.
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Re: Best Credit Card

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Bylo Selhi wrote: Also awkward is that Chase doesn't send e-mails to notify you that a new statement is available. All they do is snail mail a statement. So if you're travelling you have to remember to check monthly. That's a pain for most of us and a non-starter for AltaRed.
Is the "Current Statement Cycle Ends" alert not working? I just set it up so I cannot confirm if it's working (not until this cycle ends).
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Re: Best Credit Card

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Insomniac wrote:Is the "Current Statement Cycle Ends" alert not working? I just set it up so I cannot confirm if it's working (not until this cycle ends).
Where/how did you set this? I have my e-mail address set to receive alerts but I can't find where to specify which alerts, and this one in particular, to enable.
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Re: Best Credit Card

Post by Insomniac »

After logging on to online.chasecanada.ca:
Click on Profile/Alerts
Click on Manage Alerts
Click on Add/Edit Alerts
Tick the box next to the alert(s) you want

Not the easiest thing to find, for sure...
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Re: Best Credit Card

Post by Bylo Selhi »

Insomniac wrote:Click on Add/Edit Alerts
Thanks. I missed that. It is located in a rather obscure position.

P.S. You can get to Manage Alerts directly from any page by clicking Manage Alerts on the bottom left in My Alerts.
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Re: Best Credit Card

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Insomniac wrote:I just set it up so I cannot confirm if it's working (not until this cycle ends).
My account cycles on the 27th. I just got an alert e-mail.

Only quibble is with, "If you want to view your balance, please sign in to Chase Canada Online..." Since my balance is actually $0.00, why not say so in the e-mail and spare me the need to login just to confirm that I didn't have to?

Anyway thanks for the info about this feature.
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Re: Best Credit Card

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Bylo Selhi wrote:
Insomniac wrote:I just set it up so I cannot confirm if it's working (not until this cycle ends).
My account cycles on the 27th. I just got an alert e-mail.

Only quibble is with, "If you want to view your balance, please sign in to Chase Canada Online..." Since my balance is actually $0.00, why not say so in the e-mail and spare me the need to login just to confirm that I didn't have to?

Anyway thanks for the info about this feature.
I have specified an alert 10 days before a payment is due. Will see if they alert me to a $0 payment like Amex does.
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Re: Best Credit Card

Post by brucecohen »

I got back Sunday night from a weekend trip to Washington where I used my Amazon card. Yesterday I was surprised to see that charges had already been posted to the account...and very surprised that two of them looked quite wrong. My hotel bill translated to an exchange rate of $1.1586 :shock: and the screen showed I had put only $1 of gas into the rental car I returned. So I phoned and was told the amounts shown were only preliminary. The agent advised me to wait 2-3 business days for the real posting.
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Re: Best Credit Card

Post by Bylo Selhi »

I've noticed the same thing in the past. From what I can tell they first apply an estimate, then update it with correct FX a few days later.

I bought some rail tickets online on Sunday. These were denominated in €. So far the only clue online is that my "available credit" is now lower by approximately that amount in CA$ even though my account balance remains $0.00. I expect that balance will change in the next day or two.
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Re: Best Credit Card

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Bylo Selhi wrote:I bought some rail tickets online on Sunday. These were denominated in €. So far the only clue online is that my "available credit" is now lower by approximately that amount in CA$ even though my account balance remains $0.00. I expect that balance will change in the next day or two.
A more precise clue (at least in terms of where the upcoming charges were incurred) would show in the Review Authorizations section (still with preliminary figures for forex).
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