THIS CARD IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE
This is the review in full as it appears on the main Rewards Canada site.
The next card to be released in Canada with the World branding from MasterCard is the Capital One Aspire Travel™ World MasterCard®. With a scheduled street date of June 8, 2010, Capital One is once again going to jump ahead of the pack in regards to reward cards just as they did with the Miles Plus Platinum MasterCard in 2008. This newest offering from Capital One is targetted towards the higher end market and is designed to compete with the Visa Infinite cards that have been attracting a lot of attention in the last two years. This card may make other credit card issuers rethink what they are offering due to its large sign up bonus, renewal bonus, high redemption ratio and a first for travel cards in Canada, price protection insurance.
Overview
Looking to storm onto the Canadian market with a new and larger set of bonuses, the Capital One Aspire Travel™ World MasterCard® provides an above average insurance and benefit package that comes at a cost equal to or lower then other high end credit cards in Canada. The card features a good earning ratio and provides the ability to book reward travel when, where and with whomever you like. Add to that, features like no fees for adding authorized users, and this card is ready to set a new standard in the Canadian Travel credit card market. For those who do not need all the features and benefits of this card, Capital One® also offers the Capital One® Aspire Travel™ Platinum MasterCard®, which is a no fee travel card and has the same interest rate as the World MasterCard.
Costs
The Capital One Aspire Travel™ World MasterCard® comes with an industry standard $120 primary card annual fee. The card offers a whopping 35,000 point welcome bonus which is equivalent to up to a $350 travel credit. Adding an authorized user is free which puts this card ahead of almost all of the Infinite/Platinum/Gold travel credit card offerings from other banks. The interest rate on the card is Prime + 16.8% placing it right in the middle of the pack of competitors.
Earning
The Capital One Aspire Travel™ World MasterCard® earns 2 miles for every dollar spent on the card for purchases. This earning ratio puts the card ahead of all other credit cards except Capital One's own Miles Plus MasterCard which also earns 2 miles per dollar. The card features a nice 10,000 mile bonus for each year you renew the card. Effectively, this card gives you up to $450 back in your first year of card membership. Only a few other cards in the Canadian market offer renewal bonuses and they come in at 2,500 to 3,000 miles depending on the card placing this card well ahead of that..
Redeeming
See application for details
Features and Benefits
As stated above the Capital One Aspire Travel™ World MasterCard® comes with an insurance package that competes with all the other high end cards. The card features your standard travel accident, baggage and car rental insurance that are found on almost all fee based rewards cards but it also includes some that are only found on a few select cards. These include, Trip cancellation which is only offered as a standard feature on four other travel rewards cards and Travel Medical insurance which only comes standard on about 50% of the cards in the market.
What is good about this card
This card has many great attributes, the sign up bonus of 35,000 miles, the yearly renewal bonus of 10,000 miles, the earning ratio of 2 Miles per dollar, no fee to add an authorized user and the whole host of insurance including trip cancellation.
What is not so good about this card
I can only think of two potential downfalls to this card, both of which may not even come into play for many people. The first is that this card offers no business class lounge access or at least a free membership into the Priority Pass lounge access program like some of the other high end cards. The second is that the 2% return is eroded on lower bookings based on how redeeming the miles is structured. See application for details.
Conclusion
The Capital One Aspire Travel™ World MasterCard® is ready to set the standard in Canada for travel point credit cards. With its big bonuses, relatively low costs, good earning ratio, benefit package and ability to book travel anywhere, we would have to rate this card as above average in the high end credit card market. In fact this card easily falls into the top 5 of all credit cards in Canada for travel rewards. If Capital One markets this card properly to l Canadians, I think you will see a good amount of them reconsidering what card they carry in their wallet and making a switch to this one.
We would like to hear your thoughts on the new Aspire Travel™ World MasterCard® by commenting below!
Related Links:
Capital One Aspire Travel™ World MasterCard®on Capitalone.ca
“The
interest rates, fees, rewards details, benefits and other details of
the Capital One product(s) described in the article may have changed
since the time of publication. Please consult the product information
pages on the Capital One website for accurate product details. In the
event of any conflict between the product details in this article and
the Capital One website, the details on the Capital One website shall
prevail.”
I will be upgrading my Capital One Miles Plus Plantinum MasterCard
ReplyDeleteTempting... I may sign up for fun only for the big bonus
ReplyDeleteFREE supplementary card could be nice for one's S.O. to use instead :)
but TD Travel centre gives you 9X points (=4.5%) return if you book through them (vs regular 1.5% return on all purchases), which is more than the 2% given here
I have updated the review to reflect that the credit card is not the first in Canada to offer price protection, that distinction goes to Citibank Canada. However it is the first dedicated travel rewards card to do so.
ReplyDeleteHow do you know you are not paying more with the TD center vs shopping around?
ReplyDeleteAs for Capital One good luck getting a USEFUL credit limit. My wife only got 5K and the WILL NOT increase it. So she pays off bills when they post online. So she's getting around $20K/month. As for me I got declined! Didn't stop AMEX from giving me a SPG card yesterday.
The AMEX SPG gives me 2.2%, I use for Sat. night getaways. 10,000 points for a $212(ish) stay, no blackouts or bs games.
Capital One want's the fee and for you to pay interest. High spenders who pay off in full are NOT welcome. But considering merchant fee's are 1.80%, Capital One doesn't make anything (more like lose $) on this card if you spend too much and pay it off.
Another helpful review! Thanks for the work you put into this site.
ReplyDeleteA few questions about redemptions:
- Can you use redemptions only for air travel, or can you use it for other types of travel too (cruises, car rental, etc.)?
- Can you use miles to pay for travel taxes and fees?
- Can you do a partial redemption? For instance, if my travel charge is $1,000 but I only have 60,000 miles, can I get a $600 redemption?
Thanks!
Actually those who think you can upgrade your existing Capital One cards.... WRONG!
ReplyDeleteCapital One only allows ONE card per person, PERIOD.
You have to cancel your Capital One card and WAIT 65 days to re-apply.
Capital One does not permit product changes.
Capital One is the worst credit card on the planet - high fees and low credit lines. They will never increase your credit line either, they have a standard phrase..."Although you cannot request a credit line increase, Capital One will complete a periodic review and determine whether you qualify for additional credit".
ReplyDeleteThey also grandfather fees, for example if you get this card at $120/year and two years from now they reduce the fee to $99 for the same product...your STUCK at the $120. Once they have you in their clasp, they don't care if the product benefits you; unlike other institutions like MBNA who allow product changes anytime, and will negotiate fees and rates.
Ask anyone who has a Capital One card for any long period of time - they don't use the card, but won't cancel it to avoid a drop in credit score and are stuck paying annual fees.
Stay away...you'll be glad you did - don't get sucked in!!!
The card came out today, and I can now answer my own questions based on the website info and answers from a Capital One CSR:
ReplyDelete- The CSR told me that you can redeem reward miles for travel related to expenses of your choice: airfare, car rentals, hotels, train travel, cruises, etc. I was told that you can apply the rewards to multiple transactions (will be interesting to see how this works).
- The website clearly states that reward miles can be used towards any taxes and fees.
- The CSR told me that you can do a partial redemption (beyond the thresholds).
This card is looking better and better (notwithstanding concerns about Capital One posted by others above)!
Thanks for putting the additional info up, you beat me to the punch! I use three other travel cards where you can redeem towards any travel like this card and have never had any problems redeeming for all sorts of travel with the taxes included (they just look at the total amount posted to the statement)
ReplyDeleteThe card is out and here at the terms:
ReplyDeleteNote the last line. If you already have a CAP1 card, YOU WILL NOT BE APPROVED. This company SUCKS!
Terms of Offer
By submitting the Application Form, the applicant ("I"):
Certify that the information provided is true and correct and understand that Capital One Bank (Canada Branch), ("Capital One"), will
blah, blah, blah... then last paragraph:
Acknowledge that if I am currently a Capital One cardholder or have applied for a Capital One account within the last 65 days, I will not be approved for this offer.
Any reasons why this card is not offered in the province of Quebec ?
ReplyDeleteTD travel centre is just a travel agent, their price is usually the same or cheaper
ReplyDeletee.g. I have booked flights off Expedia, Air Transat, Air Canada. Prices at TD are exactly the same (or cheaper) and I get 4.5% return = why not?
Looks like the "partial redemption" is gonna be a tricky issue
And too bad, I have Cap1 0% card, no this card for me then
As for no Quebec, it's quite common, retailers don't want to provide French call centre support
Hmmmmm,
ReplyDeleteI see in item #6, you will not be approved if you have TWO Capital One cards - not one card as "anonymous" said. I think "anonymous" has a bee in his/her bonnet.
Taken from the online application form....
"6. Acknowledge that if I am currently a cardholder of two Capital One cards or have applied for a Capital One account within the last 45 days, I will not be approved for this offer."
I was very interested in this card but wanted to make sure that it had the chip and pin technology that other countries prefer (e.g. England and France). I have found occasions when a swipe card is not useful, such as subway and train stations (unless you can find a real person to help you). Capital One confirms that they are "working on it" but that currently their cards do not have chip and pins. So I think I will wait until they do.
ReplyDeleteCapitalOne charges 2.5% to make transactions in a foreign currency. So anything that is purchased outside Canada is subject to this additional cost. To me this makes the card useless. Having said that I am not sure if other cards do the same.
ReplyDeleteEvery Credit Card company charges a Foreign Exchange transaction fee, the average is 2.5%, some cards are lower some are higher.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the Chip & Pin question above, it will eventually come, I believe regulations are set that all cards issued in Canada have to have the Chip & Pin technology by sometime in 2011.
ReplyDeleteI have a question about this card that somehow the call center nor the chat agents can answer, so could any of you who already has the card check out the Certificate of Insurance for the T&Cs.
ReplyDeleteYou see, on their website, under the specific card, under "World MasterCard Travel Benefits" it states specifically for all the benefits that "The full cost of the trip expenses must be charged to your Capital One credit card...", EXCEPT under "Travel Emergency Medical".
Now my question is: since unfortunately I already booked two trips using other credit cards, does this card still cover emergency medical despite the trips not being charged to this card?
It's a dealbreaker for me, so thanks for looking into the T&Cs.
This is Laurel from Capital One - I can confirm that Aspire World MasterCard cardholders will benefit from Travel Emergency Medical even if they purchased their trip using an alternate form of payment.
ReplyDeleteHi Laurel,
ReplyDeleteThanks for confirming this great benefit which by itself is worth about $80! I'm definitely going to apply.
jerry hung
ReplyDeletedon't understand the 4.5% at TD--isn't the Aspire card earning double the points of the TD card plus the 35000 points--looks better to me
I would like to understand the 9X points thru TD Travel Centre please.
ReplyDeleteOne area of concern is that they do not do partial awards. i.e. if you have 65000 pts and want a $700.00 ticket you can't do it. You HAVE to have enough points to pay for it all. Wish they didn't have that restriction.
ReplyDeleteWithout question the benefits of this cards are outstanding. I applied and asked many questions before I did as I thought it was too good to be true. (the online help was extremely useful btw and I spent close to half an hour with the same person asking questions) The one question I did ask was partial point redemptions like Ecnal and others have wrote about. The answer giving to me was "No," partial redemptions would not be permitted.
ReplyDeleteThis wasn't a deal breaker for me but I too wish they didn't have this restriction. But the $350 sign up bonus and the $100 annual bonus more than offset the $120 annual fee alone, not to mention the rest of the benefits that go with this convenience card.
Cheers,
Does anybody know if one could use this Aspire World Mastercard to pay mortgage?
ReplyDeleteCorrect me if I am wrong, once I go over the thresholds indicated, ie, $350 or $600, I am just wasting the miles? If I buy a flight for $400, am I not just wasting 20 000 miles?
ReplyDeleteThat is correct, for the threshold levels the best redemption is to always try to redeem at the highest dollar amount. Over the threshold levels it is better as you redeem the exact amount of points for the exact dollar amount.
ReplyDeleteJust confirming that you can have two Capital One cards.
ReplyDeleteI received my C.O.Aspire World card this week and they also raised my limit on my other Capital One card after asking me if I would approve the increase.
Making sure that you do not carry a balance on the card is the best way to ensure this card is giving more than it is charging you.
Based on their program, I only need to spend $3000 per year to cover the yearly fee and I get all the benefits associated with the card. One of the best benefits is the Concierge service which most people tend to overlook. Check on the Four Hour Workweek blog about posting about Concierge service. That was the #1 reason I took this card.
I figured out how the "trick" you a bit....As you request credit for more tickets i.e family members your percentage goes down. For example redeem $1000.00 tickets for myself is 100,000 points to redeem same cost for four tickets its 140,000. They have the nerve to ask how many tickets in the transaction!!! Shame on you capital one, Does anyone know if the can tell/ audit you for how many tickets in a transaction!
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the cash reward. If you redeem 35,000 point you get $225 cash back. So, if you get the card, make one purchase to get the welcome points you can then get a cheque from them for $225. Seems pretty good to me.
ReplyDeleteSure the sign up bonus is nice......but after that spending $35,000 to get $225.....thats LESS THEN 1%
ReplyDeleteCash back is only 1.5%
ReplyDeleteCapital One will not increase your credit limit, as others have said. It does not seem to matter what your income is, what your credit score is, or if you pay off your balance every month. It is pretty frustrating!
ReplyDeleteOther than that, there are a couple of other things that bug me:
-the fact that you can't redeem points towards travel if you don't have the total number of points required to cover the entire cost (no partial redemptions)
-and like the poster on October 22 said above, the fact that the percentage changes depending on how many tickets are in the transaction
Still like the card, but those issues do bug me.
This card is a premier card that targets high spenders and people who travels frequently. However, the 2.5% foreign exchange fee attached makes it rather unattractive to use as a main card overseas. This is interesting as Capital One in the US have 0% foreign exchange fees. It would be much better to get a US debit/credit from a US bank instead that has 0% foreign exchange fees and fund it from transfermate for a favorable exchange rate. This will give you full control of the fx rate and also have a net gain of 0.5% (2.5% savings from fx fee - 2% rewards) over playing with Cap1 cards.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately it is tough for many Canadians to get a card from a U.S. Bank unless you have a residence down there and also some credit history. Hopefully the Canadian cards will follow suit and start eliminating ForEx fees like their U.S. counterparts.
ReplyDeleteThank you Rewards Canada for the comparison charts, but you may want to consider adding a customer service column.
ReplyDeleteAfter reviewing all the detailed information provided on your web site I decided to apply for the Capital One Aspire World MasterCard. I spent a great deal of time on the phone with the Capital One representative and, after asking how long it would take before I received my card, I was assured the process would take 5 to 7 business days. 5 business days later I received a letter from J. McNain, Vice President, Customer Services (Strategy and Products), Capital One Bank (Canada Branch) "Welcome! You've been approved for a Capital One MasterCard." where it specifically states “We’ll be sending your card by priority mail using Xpresspost. You’ll get a notice to pick up your card at your local post office.” (Canada Post provides this service in my region – I live in a very large populated region). With this letter they attached an “Initial Disclosure Statement” that included my “Initial Credit Limit”. I received this letter over 3 weeks ago and I still haven’t received my card.
After multiple tries to Capital One’s customer service department I gave up last week. My main reason for calling was to report the fact that it had been 4 weeks since the process began and I was concerned that the card itself was lost and was hoping they would track its location with Canada Post’s Xpresspost Tracking & Confirmation service. I was told they didn't have a tracking system and they would send out another card (??). During another try with Capital One’s customer service I was told that I actually wouldn't be receiving my card, but instead would first be receiving a form I would have to fill out and take to my local post office to have them verify, stamp and the post office would then mail it back to Capital One. Then after it was received and reviewed by Capital One they would process the card and have it sent out to me. When you calculate the number of days I was told for this process to take place it looks like I should be able to have my card in hand come mid-June. All-in-all the process is estimated to take 8 weeks from the day I applied for the card, not 5 to 7 business days that I was originally told. Frustrated with the whole experience I told Capital One’s customer service that I wanted to cancel the application and their response was them questioning me “so, you want to close the account?” which would lead one to believe the account was open and active. This prompted me to ask “may I apply charges to this account” and was told “no, the account had to be activated” thus I responded saying “then how can I close an account that hasn’t been activated yet?” and repeated my request that I wanted to cancel the application. They continued to refer to the action as “Closing the Account” and I repeatedly stated that according to them there wasn’t an activated account and the simple act of them “Closing” the account could affect my credit rating. When I asked them what I could do to make sure this didn’t affect my credit rating they responded by saying “speak with your financial advisor”… Not once during the many calls did Capital One’s customer service elevate the call to a supervisor/manager nor did they call me back to see if I was satisfied or to see if they could assist me in anyway with what was happening. The simple act of calling me later in the day or even the next day with a follow up would have been an excellent solution, but they failed to do this.
Today, Monday May 16th, 2011, I received the form and because of their lack of honesty and customer service in simply obtaining their card I fear what their service will be once I were to start utilizing their card. I won’t be going forward with the account and will be revisiting the Rewards Canada comparison charts.
Unfortunately customer service tends to be hit and miss with all the credit card issuers, so to have a column for that would be tough as it varies person to person and whom you speak to within the card issuer. That being said, I am sorry to hear about the difficulties you encountered Capital One.
ReplyDeletejgjghj
ReplyDeleteHi, this is Laurel from Capital One. For the customer who had trouble getting his/her card, the extra steps are the result of a government requirement. I'm sorry for the confusion and have advised the team of your poor experience. We always strive to do our best and do apologize for any frustrations this process has caused.
ReplyDeleteHi Laurel,
ReplyDeleteYes, during one of my trying calls, I was given this 'government requirement' reason. Then why wasn't the 'extra steps' mentioned in J. McNain's letter I received from Capital One. As described in my earlier posting:
...5 business days later I received a letter from J. McNain, Vice President, Customer Services (Strategy and Products), Capital One Bank (Canada Branch) "Welcome! You've been approved for a Capital One MasterCard." where it specifically states “WE'LL BE SENDING YOUR CARD BY PRIORITY Xpresspost. YOU'LL GET A NOTICE TO PICK UP YOUR CARD AT YOUR LOCAL POST OFFICE." (Canada Post provides this service in my region – I live in a very large populated region).
NO WHERE in that letter does it state that you would be first sending out a form for me to fill out and have verified by the post office. From that point onward it would still be another 3-4 weeks before you would actually send out the card.
There was no confusion on my part only failure on your part to communicate the necessary steps and length of time this would take.
If you're hoping to make both myself and others reading this post to believe that I'm only one of a handful of applicants that this has happened to you should then be able to figure out who I am and my phone should be ringing off the hook... Hasn't happened.
Thank you.
Almost two month passed and I haven't got the credit card.
ReplyDeleteAlthough my online application got approved in early April, the identification confirmation letter sent back to them in mid of April from Canada Post never reach Capital One for some reason.
Now they are going to send me another identification letter, then continue the waiting game.
This is the worst experience I ever had applying a credit card.
Yes, customer service is hit and miss with any company whether credit card or phone provider etc. I had great experience with CapOne when i wrongly paid off different card instead of CapOne and had interest racked up... When I discovered (upon getting the statement) I phoned them, explained what happened, and they were more than accommodating, removing charges right away... so, it depends...
ReplyDeleteNow, I am curious if anyone tried this: you can redeem your points for, let say, flights. You have bill for $1200, but have only 80000 points. On redemption screen it asks how many tickets were bought and how many you want to redeem. So, if I put that 3 tickets were bought (putting them at $400 each), and I want to redeem only 2 out of 3, it will show me that I need 80000 (400x2) points, which kinda makes partial redemption somewhat possible. The only question that remains is whether they can/will check how many tickets were actually bought. Can/will they??? Do they care?? Any ideas???
Sounds great until you dispute an erroneous transaction. On hold for over an hour to then be told I should contact the merchant rather than call them. There's a price to be paid, if you opt for this card, hope you don't have the misfortune of having to dispute a charge.
ReplyDeleteIf you get the aspire world card and only use it for travel rewards over $600 then you are not going to be losing any value. True?
ReplyDeleteHave you found that they care about the number of tickets used within the transaction?
That is true, over $600 you do not lose any value, you will get the full 2%.
ReplyDeletei have had a capital one aspire card for a year now and have paid off the bill in its entirety every month. I have a low 7500 limit and phoned for an increase and they would not give me one. I have impeccable credit and as far as i can gather its because i pay my bill on time they don't want to increase the limit. They don't get their usary 19% interest from me. They as much admitted that when i spoke with the credit mgr.
ReplyDeleteSame with us ... two month passed still haven't got the credit card.
ReplyDeleteAlthough my online application got approved the identification confirmation letter sent back to them in July and we called asking for te card and she said " oh sorry will send again" we got another indentification letter in stead. We went to Canada Post and they said Capital One are sending the wrong forms as they have no bar code and we need to tell them to send a correct form...THE FORM HOWEVER IS A CANADA POST FORM TO CONFIRM INDENTITY so we asked Canada Post if they had updaed form and they said they couldnt provide...this is insane....so now tracking says the last one we just filled out has been received in Ottawa????? I see n Ottawa address for Cap1 so not sure what will happen now. This is the worst experience I ever had applying a credit card.
I just received this card. I called about the collision insurance and they said that it only applies to car rentals in Canada. Does this sound correct???
ReplyDelete@the travel tot
ReplyDeleteThat is not correct, I just read the policy from Capital One and it states coverage is 24 hours per day anywhere in the world except where prohibited by law (Ireland for example)
http://www.capitalone.ca/documents/ca/World_MasterCard_Benefits_2011.pdf
Perhaps things have changed over the past year since some of the earlier postings (I assume this is the case). I applied for a card early November, and it arrived directly to our home, as did our PINS in a separate mailing. In my application I told them I spend about $5K/month and pay it off every month. I did not ask for any particular credit limit, but the cards came with a $20K limit (not as high as my other cards, but reasonable in my opinion).
ReplyDeleteSo far the two places I've tried to use the Chip and PIN technology have printed sales slips I've been asked to sign, so I'm not sure if this is a problem with the cards, or possibly the use of newer Chip technology that the readers are not compatible with. Time will tell.
Appeciate all the input from this thread.
I have received and canceled this card all within about a week. While i was excited about the travel point benefits this card carries along with the free additional card for spouse, the customer support and lack of pin technology absolutely suck! I made numerous attempts to set up an online account that simply would not work. hours of talk with agents got me no where and in the end i was told i would just have to live with it. Having to sign my transactions (no that i am used to using my pin on others) is just not acceptable any longer. Customer service was very poor.
ReplyDeleteIt is my humbly opinion that Capital One broke out on scene with 80% of what is needed in place but forgot some very critical details.
Has anyone else had problems with PIN use or setting up an online account?
If anyone is still checking this discussion, may I ask what kind of online tools Capital One offers to monitor your purchases? If you have 2 cards, are purchases clearly marked by the card that was used? How long does it take new purchases to show up online?
ReplyDeleteI ask because I use this feature heavily on my current card, but my wife's card takes a week before purchases show up and that would not work well for my budgeting system.
Capital One's online banking site shows very cleary which card was used for each transaction. You can even set it to show only transactions made with one card or the other. The transactions seem to appear very quickly in a "Pending transactions" section, and then a few days later they are moved to the "Posted transactions" section.
DeleteHi Mike,
ReplyDeleteI will forward this on to my contact at Cap One to see if they can answer this.
Hi, this is Laurel at Capital One. I can confirm what the anonymous poster has already mentioned about viewing pending and posted transactions through our online banking tool.
DeleteI've had this card for a year+. Generally I like it. As with most people here regarding the credit limit, I too have asked for an increase over my $7K. I use it only for business and I easily out spend that per month. So I often have to make a trip to the bank twice a month. That's a PIA. There's no reason not to increase spending limits on any credit worthy client except perhaps because we don't carry balances, they don't make any extra money off of us.
ReplyDeleteAs far as cashing in points, I find it very easy to do and I like the fact that you can spend it on any travel related expenses.
if i say i used it for 2 + flight tickets when they ask during redemption, will I get a lower redemption percentage??
ReplyDeleteIt depends on the cost of tickets, chances are two tickets or more will be above their $600 threshold for the straight 2% rate of return so no you should not get a lower redemption percentage. However, some airlines will charge each ticket separately to your credit card and they will show up on your statement as separate line items at which time you could possibly get a lower redemption percentage if the amount of each ticket is significantly lower than the maximum value for each redemption level under $600
DeleteI getcha. Thanks
DeleteApplied for the card online and was approved in August 2012. Went into the local Canada Post office to verify my identification in late August. Received no card in the mail and then phoned Captial One. Went into the same local Canada Post office to verify my identification the second time in early October. Phoned Capital One today (October 4) and found out that Capital One still had not received the confirmation of my ID verfication from Canada Post. The worst credit card application experience ever.
ReplyDeleteThe 7.5K limit is a pain to be sure. However I just keep making payments and rack up the points. Between our 2 cards will have paid our entire Christmas/Newyrs Carribean villa rentals and Aeroplan for the airfare. Just as well too as our scuba and food bill for the 3 of us is going to hurt.
ReplyDeletei am wondering what cards on the market provide medical insurance to holder who are holder than 65 yrs of age.
ReplyDeleteI wrote about this somewhere before (or as an email response to someone) I will find it and post it here. In general quite a few of them do but offer less days or charge a small fee.
DeleteHere you go:
Deletehttp://blog.rewardscanada.ca/2013/02/travel-reward-credit-card-medical.html
Just spent an hour applying for this Capital One World Rewards card after researching for the last week or so. After
ReplyDeleteNO WAY TO CAPITAL ONE
30 minutes of answering questions (to get a primary and spousal card) they indicated they had to ask me some security questions so if they needed to identify us we could answer correctly...sounded very reasonable but here is where it got bizarre! They asked me who my primary telecommunications provider was and then listed off bell, sasktel, rogers, and clearnet (an old carrier that doesn't exist anymore) - well i have been with Telus forever and was stumped..and so were they! So after hearing this call center person explain how it is a transunion security question and not his fault (and not a Capital One problem) he suggested/hinted that i should call transunion because it was my issue that Transunion is not listing off all of the Canadian telecom carriers! He was even frustrated that he wasted 30 minutes without getting a commission because after scratching our heads for 10 minutes we concluded that he couldn't finish my application. After repeatedly suggesting that He should talk to his managers about the fact that the security service from Transunion was flawed and hence a Capital One problem preventing customers from signing up he admitted that it had happened before and that nothing happens when he mentions it..
I confirmed this by calling Capital One Customer service back and explaining that i wanted to apply for a card but couldn't and after running through the bizarre "we don't have telus on our list" situation she said she would definately "look into it" and then didn't ask who i was or take my number!! Bizarre company...
Finally, i was so PO'd about it i called Transunion ( in the middle of the afternoon ) and got an overseas East Indian call center person that couldn't understand english well enough to comprehend this issue - all i managed to get from her is " our system is down,call back in 15 minutes" and " if you have a credit problem you can submit a ???? I didn't hear the rest"
UNBELIEVABLY FRUSTRATING EXPERIENCE and while the rewards look good i would recommend staying far away from this company in case something goes wrong and you have to actually resolve an issue! None of this is an exaggeration so decide for yourself i guess...i am taking another look at the other alternatives now....maybe i'll stay with RBC avion because i tend to max out the benefit and get the full 2+% but i am looking at TD Too....
That's really weird, because I applied last November and had to go through the same questions... I have only ever used Telus, and remember answering the question with "Telus". I had to do some digging on some of the mortgage questions etc. but other than a little leg work through my files, my application went smoothly and I received my card about a month later. *shrug*
ReplyDeleteI applied twice for Capital one, I am earning over 60K and holding already RBC infinite for over $20000 in credit limit, both times that I applied for Aspire World Master cad, I get mail that "I approved $500 guaranteed master card", which is a shame. What they hell they even send me that $500 guaranteed card, unable to understand. Capital One may be work for some of you, but most of time they are bunch of jokers who don't know what they are dealing with. Weird, gonna look into an alternative reward card, any advise?
ReplyDelete