Great news today from the Government of Canada that sees the current travel restrictions for returning to Canada being eased. As of July 6th (well 11:59pm ET on July 5) Canadians who are fully vaccinated will no longer have to quarantine upon arrival and this includes the stay at a government authorized hotel. All other re-entry requirements do remain in place which means you'll need to have a negative COVID test prior to returning and you'll have to test upon arrival as well.
We have crowned a new champion for the Top Cash Back Credit Card in Canada! While technically not known as a cash back card the top card's cash back component places it ahead of even the best of the best cash back cards in Canada! That card that now sits atop the throne is none other than the American Express Cobalt Card. This card has been Canada's Top Travel Rewards Credit Card since 2018 and now thanks to American Express adjusting the redemption rate for using points towards any purchases on the card (not just travel) to 1,000 points = $10 the Cobalt Card jumps ahead in the cash back market now as well. The card itself earns 1 to 5 points per dollar spent which translates to a 1% to 5% cash back return when utilzing Use Points for Purchases. Based on our calculations the card earns more cash back per year than any other cards (utilizing our spend breakdown, as listed below) which makes it the number one cash back card in Canada.
Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your daily dose (or near daily dose) of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more. This update is brought to you by the HSBC World Elite Mastercard which is currently offering a welcome bonus of up to 70,000 bonus points and no annual fee in the first year!
One thing we here at the Rewards Canada family have done for quite a few years - well at least until COVID hit was to book multiple hotel rooms for our trips. As our kids got older and we started travelling with more luggage we found a single room often didn't give us enough space and comfort. So we started booking two rooms at a time and then calling the hotel to put notes in the reservation that we would like connecting rooms. The only issue with this is that those connecting rooms weren't ever guaranteed. We were lucky though as we have always received our request for connecting rooms but I know for some other families this hasn't been the case. That all changes now - well at least if you are planning on staying with Hilton as they have introduced confirmed connecting rooms by Hilton.
The latest AIR MILES Bonus Boom event kicked off today with your usual bunch of bonus miles offers for shopping or completing actions with various AIR MILES partners. Most of the bonuses are available between today and June 30 and once again if you use three different Bonus Boom offers you'll get 95 bonus AIR MILES. Just like the past few Bonus Boom events you have the ability to get the 95 bonus miles all from one retailer so long as they have multiple offers. For example Sobeys has three different offers available so if you meet the criteria for those three offers you'll get the 95 bonus miles.
Continuing on with our series on credit cards in Canada that need an overhaul, today we'll look at two cash back cards that need some tweaking. This 'overhaul' series started earlier in the year when we posted an article about how the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card was due for a major overhaul. That post was initially planned as five credit cards that need an overhaul but we ended up writing so much about the Avion card that it ended up being a post just on that card. We then followed up with the second card a few weeks ago - the American Express Gold Rewards Card and the changes we think that card needs and in this post we'll cover cards three and four. The fifth card in the list will have its own post in the near future.
Here are the previous posts in the our 2021 Overhaul/Tweaking series:
Some surprising news in the world of gas station loyalty programs today! Esso announced today they will be ending the Esso Extra program as they move to join the PC Optimum program full time. There are giving members a lot of extra notice which is great as the Esso Extra program won't end until January 17, 2022.
You can use your American Express card this weekend and feel good about doing so! Well, that is, feeling even better than you should thanks to the great rewards you are already receiving. From June 18th to 20th American Express will donate $1 to the United Way for each $1 spent at their Shop Small merchants. They will donate up to $100,000 so I think that number could be easily be reached on the first day alone!