Canadian Amazon Visa card

Booooooo! I just applied for the Hometrust Visa. We don't have a US$ account and really the only hotels we stay in are the one at Disneyland so the hotel reward ones are not as useful. We have Telus for our cells so it seems as though the Hometrust one is the best for us.
 
Ugh, I'm so annoyed, saw the announcement on their site when I logged in Friday night. Grrrrr.

I've applied for the TD US Visa; it has an annual fee of $39 but no forex conversion fee so we'll see how we like this card. Dang it. No $20 automatic credit once you reach $2,000 like Amazon Visa though :sad2:
Be careful with this one. They don't charge forex on the transactions, but the bank still charges the counter rate (2.5%) when you exchange your C$ to US$ to make the payment. They will get their money one way or another.

Haven't got the letter yet, but what a pain. We are in Orlando on March 15th, so I guess I need to find a viable alternative for the second half of the week. Probably have to swallow the pill and get a Rogers card. Oh how I hate to give them any more business!

Good question about status of Chase in Canada. I used to work for a bigger competitor, and many of my former colleagues made their way over there over the years. Hope their jobs aren't in jeopardy.
 
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Be careful with this one. They don't charge forex on the transactions, but the bank still charges the counter rate (2.5%) when you exchange your C$ to US$ to make the payment. They will get their money one way or another.

Haven't got the letter yet, but what a pain. We are in Orlando on March 15th, so I guess I need to find a viable alternative for the second half of the week. Probably have to swallow the pill and get a Rogers card. Oh how I hate to give them any more business!

Good question about status of Chase in Canada. I used to work for a bigger competitor, and many of my former colleagues made their way over there over the years. Hope their jobs aren't in jeopardy.

I believe that Chase is shuttering it's Canadian credit card business - they sold off the rest of the portfolio to Scotiabank in the last year or so (and outsourced support for the Amazon + Marriott visa to them as well). Chase Paymentech is still operating so I would imagine most of the jobs that were going to be cut have already been cut.
 
I am not sad to see this go - one last card to deal with. I agree with another PP above that most cards have incentives which reduce the 2.5% transaction fee to a wash anyway.
 


I just applied for that one yesterday after I found out Chase shutting down.

As far as I know that is the ONLY card left in Canada that you can get that has no ForEx fees.

Seems like a decent card. No annual fees and 1% cashback on all purchases too.

Guess I will be applying as well. Some decent perks for a no fee card.
 
Ugh, I'm so annoyed, saw the announcement on their site when I logged in Friday night. Grrrrr.

I've applied for the TD US Visa; it has an annual fee of $39 but no forex conversion fee so we'll see how we like this card. Dang it. No $20 automatic credit once you reach $2,000 like Amazon Visa though :sad2:
If you applied for this card: https://www.td.com/ca/en/personal-banking/products/credit-cards/us-dollar/us-dollar-visa-card/ you may want to re-think your decision. You're paying $39 and earning nothing for your spending. If a USD card is really what you want (rather than a forex-fee free CAD card), you'd be better off applying for one of these cards: https://www.tdbank.com/personal/credit-cards.html Those are cards from TD Bank in the U.S. (as opposed to TD Canada Trust in Canada). If you are an existing TD Canada Trust customer, you can open an account with TD Bank online/over-the-phone (it only takes a few minutes), and there are no fees as long as you keep US$100 in the account. The credit cards that they offer at least let you earn something for spending on them, rather than paying a fee for no reason.
 
Wow. I haven't received any letters or online notifications yet about the demise of the Amazon Visa card. This is a bit of a hiccup in our plans. I just called last week to get my credit limit raised so that my trip to Disney World in March wouldn't have any issues while we are away. I explained that we were going to Disney in MARCH and they didn't make mention of it at all. We've got the money saved up in the bank to pay for the trip and always enjoyed the no for-ex fee as well as the 1% cash back on the card. That's a 3.5% difference bonus of the card that I'm going to have to try my best to replace as quickly as possible. We are at Disney from March 10th to March 17th. I wonder if Disney does a pre-auth when we check-in if there would be any issues when it comes time to complete the transaction on the 17th... On roughly a $4k spend, that is $140 benefit of using the Amazon card.
 


I've never heard of Hometrust, so I checked out their webpage. Their web page does show a 0% foreign exchange fee, but one item that immediately stopped me from clicking on the "Apply Now!" button is some info from their "About Us" portion of their web site where it says -> We focus primarily on a unique segment of the Canadian marketplace: consumers who do not have traditional credit backgrounds and whose specific needs are not met by larger financial institutions. We cater to self-employed entrepreneurs, people with past credit issues and borrowers with equity in their property who do not qualify due to lack of provable income or little credit history. They almost sound a bit like a subprime lender. ?
 
Wow. I haven't received any letters or online notifications yet about the demise of the Amazon Visa card. This is a bit of a hiccup in our plans. I just called last week to get my credit limit raised so that my trip to Disney World in March wouldn't have any issues while we are away. I explained that we were going to Disney in MARCH and they didn't make mention of it at all. We've got the money saved up in the bank to pay for the trip and always enjoyed the no for-ex fee as well as the 1% cash back on the card. That's a 3.5% difference bonus of the card that I'm going to have to try my best to replace as quickly as possible. We are at Disney from March 10th to March 17th. I wonder if Disney does a pre-auth when we check-in if there would be any issues when it comes time to complete the transaction on the 17th... On roughly a $4k spend, that is $140 benefit of using the Amazon card.
The links to the notification can be found on the amazon website see after this sentence; or go to amazon.ca and near the bottom click on the link to the amazon rewards visa as you will find it there too if you don't want to click on a link.
https://www.amazon.ca/b/ref=CAECMREE?&ie=UTF8&node=17495798011
I haven't received a letter yet either and the postings on the disboards were my first notice.
 
I've never heard of Hometrust, so I checked out their webpage. Their web page does show a 0% foreign exchange fee, but one item that immediately stopped me from clicking on the "Apply Now!" button is some info from their "About Us" portion of their web site where it says -> We focus primarily on a unique segment of the Canadian marketplace: consumers who do not have traditional credit backgrounds and whose specific needs are not met by larger financial institutions. We cater to self-employed entrepreneurs, people with past credit issues and borrowers with equity in their property who do not qualify due to lack of provable income or little credit history. They almost sound a bit like a subprime lender. ?
They are a subprime lender. But we are talking about getting a credit card from them, not a high-rate mortgage or a loan. With the demise of the Amazon and Marriott Visa cards, the Home Trust Visa is the only no-forex fee option.
 
Wow. I haven't received any letters or online notifications yet about the demise of the Amazon Visa card. This is a bit of a hiccup in our plans. I just called last week to get my credit limit raised so that my trip to Disney World in March wouldn't have any issues while we are away. I explained that we were going to Disney in MARCH and they didn't make mention of it at all. We've got the money saved up in the bank to pay for the trip and always enjoyed the no for-ex fee as well as the 1% cash back on the card. That's a 3.5% difference bonus of the card that I'm going to have to try my best to replace as quickly as possible. We are at Disney from March 10th to March 17th. I wonder if Disney does a pre-auth when we check-in if there would be any issues when it comes time to complete the transaction on the 17th... On roughly a $4k spend, that is $140 benefit of using the Amazon card.
Are you staying in a WDW hotel? Has it been paid up already? At least that's a huge part of the bill. If not, ask the hotel to charge you at the beginning of your stay.
 
Wow. I haven't received any letters or online notifications yet about the demise of the Amazon Visa card. This is a bit of a hiccup in our plans. I just called last week to get my credit limit raised so that my trip to Disney World in March wouldn't have any issues while we are away. I explained that we were going to Disney in MARCH and they didn't make mention of it at all. We've got the money saved up in the bank to pay for the trip and always enjoyed the no for-ex fee as well as the 1% cash back on the card. That's a 3.5% difference bonus of the card that I'm going to have to try my best to replace as quickly as possible. We are at Disney from March 10th to March 17th. I wonder if Disney does a pre-auth when we check-in if there would be any issues when it comes time to complete the transaction on the 17th... On roughly a $4k spend, that is $140 benefit of using the Amazon card.
If you look at the info posted by chase it appears transactions after March 14th will not be allowed so definitely look into this and see if you can pay upon check in like another poster suggested.
 
Marriott Rewards @marriottrewards tweeted this Monday to a Canadian who asked about a new Marriott card coming:

"Yes! We have partnered with American Express on an exclusive for the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card. The offer is for existing Marriott Rewards Visa Credit Cardholders who do not already have the SPG Amex credit card. You can apply for the card at a TBD URL. Stay Tuned!"

I'm so so so disappointed the Marriott card is folding. It was the perfect card for us!
 
I've never heard of Hometrust, so I checked out their webpage. Their web page does show a 0% foreign exchange fee, but one item that immediately stopped me from clicking on the "Apply Now!" button is some info from their "About Us" portion of their web site where it says -> We focus primarily on a unique segment of the Canadian marketplace: consumers who do not have traditional credit backgrounds and whose specific needs are not met by larger financial institutions. We cater to self-employed entrepreneurs, people with past credit issues and borrowers with equity in their property who do not qualify due to lack of provable income or little credit history. They almost sound a bit like a subprime lender. ?
I went on the website as well. Didn't look thoroughly, but looks like you have to pay upfront for your credit limit. So if my credit limit is $500, I have to pay them $500 upfront (credit) for my credit card. Now I may have read this wrong, but that was what it appeared during my quick scan. Card seemed kind of weird and with a provision like that plus other disclaimers (like one quoted above) it seemed like not the right card for me. Certainly personally not worth it to me to save 2.5%.

Read like basically a pre-paid VISA card.
 
I went on the website as well. Didn't look thoroughly, but looks like you have to pay upfront for your credit limit. So if my credit limit is $500, I have to pay them $500 upfront (credit) for my credit card. Now I may have read this wrong, but that was what it appeared during my quick scan. Card seemed kind of weird and with a provision like that plus other disclaimers (like one quoted above) it seemed like not the right card for me. Certainly personally not worth it to me to save 2.5%.

Read like basically a pre-paid VISA card.
You were looking at the wrong card -- what you were looking at is the Secured Visa. You want the Preferred Visa.
 
Hello,

I used to use the traditional BMO US$ credit card, use it on my trip, go to the bank, convert Cdn$ to US at the bank, pay off the credit card, rinse, repeat. I then did a lot of research on Greedyrates.ca and discovered a few things. The big discovery was that VISA and MasterCard charge the lowest exchange rate (not including the FX service charge) when they convert from USD$ to CDN$ - better than you get at the bank. This means that if you can find the right credit card, you are better off having VISA or MasterCard do the FX conversion - again, without taking the 2.5% charge into account.

This led me to look for cards that do not charge the 2.5% fee, but as everyone is commenting, these are being shuttered pretty fast. I did settle on the Rogers Platinum MasterCard. It does charge the 2.5% fee, but they give you 4% back on foreign dollar purchases. Therefore, with this card I am getting the best exchange rate (better than the bank) AND I am getting a net of 1.5% (4% - 2.5%) back on foreign purchases. It also removes the hassle of going to the bank and doing the exchange. Although I feel this is the best solution, there are some shortcomings:
  • There is an annual fee of $29, but this is waived if you setup a Rogers or Fido automatic bill payment. We use Rogers cell phones, so this is not a problem for us.
  • They do start you off with a low credit limit, $5,000 in my case. I had to push pretty hard right when I got the card to get this bumped up to $7,000 and then after 6 months I was able to get it bumped up to $10,000.
  • They make it a little difficult to get your points back in cash. However, you may redeem your rewards as an annual statement credit to your account. You have to call Rogers prior to December 1 and they credit your account in January. You have to do this each year. It's a little bit of a hassle, but I don't mind.
  • It does not work with Apple Pay
  • They do not allow for automatic payments from your bank account. You have to manually transfer the money every month.
  • This method makes it a little harder to hedge on exchange rate fluctuations (i.e. purchase US$ when the rate is low and save for paying off a US$ credit card later). However, you can still do this if you purchase the US$ when the rate is low and then convert back to CDN$ when the rate is higher, then use that to pay off the Rogers MasterCard - if you are so inclined.
The list of shortcomings seems a little long, but it is worth it to me knowing that I am getting the best exchange rate and I am getting cash back on foreign purchases.

As an aside, I did apply for the HomeTrust visa and I was declined. It's interesting as I have a great credit rating, I own a business, make decent salary, etc. - so it left me a little stumped. I obviously do not fit their ideal customer profile.
 
As an aside, I did apply for the HomeTrust visa and I was declined. It's interesting as I have a great credit rating, I own a business, make decent salary, etc. - so it left me a little stumped. I obviously do not fit their ideal customer profile.
I wonder what their ideal customer is then?? Someone who won't make their bill payments on time? - seems backwards to me! I am sure I would be declined too then.
 
As an aside, I did apply for the HomeTrust visa and I was declined. It's interesting as I have a great credit rating, I own a business, make decent salary, etc. - so it left me a little stumped. I obviously do not fit their ideal customer profile.

Thanks for the very informative post. This last bit is very interesting. I applied for it last night so we'll see what happens.
 
[snip]

The big discovery was that VISA and MasterCard charge the lowest exchange rate (not including the FX service charge) when they convert from USD$ to CDN$ - better than you get at the bank. This means that if you can find the right credit card, you are better off having VISA or MasterCard do the FX conversion - again, without taking the 2.5% charge into account.
Not that it really matters for the purposes of this thread, but just to add a little clarification to your wording: it may look like the exchange rate you get from the credit card is better than the bank, but that is only because the bank embeds their 2.5% f/x fee in the exchange rate (compared to credit cards, which separate if from the exchange rate).

So, for example, say you look at the current CAD spot rate of ~1.248. Visa will offer you a rate of about 1.248, + 2.5% on cards that charge the fee, while the bank will offer you a rate of about 1.280 (which is in fact, about 1.248 + 2.5%)...

Hence the advantage of using a f/x-fee free CAD credit cards for USD purchases, rather than using USD credit cards and paying it off by converting CAD into USD.
 
We settled for the Fido MasterCard since we don't have cell phones accounts to wave the Rogers annual fees. We plan to get the reward apply once a year to our account. This seems like the best cost-saving option at this point.
 

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