Canadian credit cards in Canada with no foreign transaction fees save 3 to 5 percent

[dirtygrandpa]

Personally I use and recommend the following no annual fees, no FX fees credit cards: ... STACK Pre-Paid Mastercard - no FX exchange fees and no credit check/hit when applied (!) as it's not a credit card, but pre-paid card.

Wow, Stack looks great! Right now I use Mogo but they recently they started adding a Foreign Purchase 3% fee and you can no longer top it up with your bank account so I have to use Canada Post and pay the $3 fee per $500 topup How do you top up your stack card? E-mail money transfer/EMT? Do you happen to know if you can use EMT to top it up from a different name that's on the credit card? I send that question to their support, we'll see what they say. If it's a yes I'm switching from Mogo to Stack. Thanks again!

 

[dirtygrandpa]

My little rat ears are perked up. Would that circumvent the bank exchange rate?

If you ask for the "corporate" rate at Continental Currency Exchange (I used the one in the Oshawa Center, not sure if there are more locations) they will beat any of the banks best rates. If they asked who you referred you for the corporate rate tell them Scott Penfound. They can do any sum of money, small, large or very large.

 

[Val_C]

Wow, Stack looks great! Right now I use Mogo but they recently they started adding a Foreign Purchase 3% fee and you can no longer top it up with your bank account so I have to use Canada Post and pay the $3 fee per $500 topup How do you top up your stack card? E-mail money transfer/EMT? Do you happen to know if you can use EMT to top it up from a different name that's on the credit card? I send that question to their support, we'll see what they say. If it's a yes I'm switching from Mogo to Stack. Thanks again!

STACK is the best prepaid card on Canadian market now. Free with a lot of perks.
There are multiple ways to load it I personally use EMT and EMT can be done from any bank account.
There is no requirement about the same names on card and account from where it's funded.

 

[MapleSugar]

If you ask for the "corporate" rate at Continental Currency Exchange (I used the one in the Oshawa Center, not sure if there are more locations) they will beat any of the banks best rates. If they asked who you referred you for the corporate rate tell them Scott Penfound. They can do any sum of money, small, large or very large.

Thank you, Scott!

I'm in BC. It looks like they only have offices in Ontario.

They do deliver to businesses or homes though.

https://continentalcurrency.ca/buy-currency-online/

 

[dirtygrandpa]

STACK is the best prepaid card on Canadian market now. Free with a lot of perks.
There are multiple ways to load it I personally use EMT and EMT can be done from any bank account.
There is no requirement about the same names on card and account from where it's funded.

Flawless. You answered faster than their support e-mail address did. Thanks again. Signing up now. EDIT: Had to go through the signup three times to get it to stick, kept getting "server error". Hopefully I can disable two factor auth.

EDIT EDIT: Wow, loading funds by EMT is instant and painless, works from any account, just like you said! I already topped up my "virtual" card. Goodbye Mogo! lol.

 

[rommelrommel]

I keep a RBC Bank US account and Visa, it costs me $6 a month but I can receive money via my US (FRAUD ALERT) and keep the funds in my US bank account instead of getting hooped on exchange multiple times when I buy and sell knives, gear, computer stuff, etc out of the states. I do pay a not great exchange rate when I need to send cash to the USA but it's hard to work around that. It also is a truly US issued card on a US bank so you don't run into any authentication problems when buying off of US retailers.

I don't think this is the absolute most economical way to do it but it does offer a lot of flexibility.

 

[Suther]

This is a good card if you qualify. You have to make 80k a year, or 150k per household.

The cashback is a bit annoying to use, as you need to gain a minimum of $20 before using it.

For a free credit card, it also comes with a bunch of insurance packages.

Can't beat free.

Even if you don't qualify for the a World Elite, you can get the basic Rogers Credit card and it also has more cash back on foreign purchases than the fee is. If you auto pay your Rogers mobile bill with it the fee is waived too.

As a bonus, With time they'll likely upgrade you even if you don't meet the requirements - after having the basic one for ~two years my wife got upgraded and we don't make $80k as a household let alone $150k.

 

[red_star]

I have both for MC (Brim) & Hometrust (Visa). I find the foreign conversion rate of Visa was lower than MC from my last year's purchase. Also starting this 2020, any foreign purchases from HT will not be available for cashback. But you woud still enjoy the same 0% foreign conversion fee. So I would likely to use Brim at this time though.

 

[tomo333]

Open a US account and get a US funds credit card. Fill your US account when rates are good (hopefully that happens again!) and pay your card with that. No fees.

 

[SteelCap]

Yes. I use my cash back for any eligible purchase, which seems to include almost everything

In total, I’ve redeemed nearly 2k so far and I don’t have any Rogers services

Just a side post...MBNA Mastercard offers 2% cash back on anything.

 

[Onagoth]

Just a side post...MBNA Mastercard offers 2% cash back on anything.

The Roger's card has 1.75%....I switched to Rogers from MBNA because MBNA changed their cash back rewards formula last year....I think the MBNA (world elite) is actually 1.75% now.....MBNA has an annual fee, which Rogers does not

I also ran the numbers on the 4% cards in select categories (grocery, gas, etc). A vast majority of our purchases are from Costco and Walmart, which do not qualify for 4%. So, 1.75% on everything is better than 4% on some things and 1% on everything else.

Some people use multiple credit cards to capture the best of it all...that's too much effort for me.

 

[MikeyScuba]

I got the Brim card then recently upgraded to the WE version. It was $200 but it's 2% cash back up to $25,000 (it's then back to 1%) plus a whole host of extra insurance's.

Some people use multiple credit cards to capture the best of it all...that's too much effort for me.

You are so missing out. Using the Amex Cobalt at grocery stores for the 5X with the prepaid mastercards has netted me oooodles of Marriott points. Had over 50 nights stayed last year which cost very little. There is a cost to loading the prepaid cards and account fees. But....I've worked out my hotel stays are being essentially discounted by 80%

Combined with Aeroplan hacking we get to shoot all over the US without breaking the bank.

 

[bush1]

The best deal for me and what I’ve been using for quite some time now is a CIBC, US Dollar credit card. There is no transaction fees or conversion fees as it’s a US dollar card and it’s paid off automatically by the bank towards the end of the month from funds from my CIBC US dollar account.

The only thing I have to do is make sure I have enough US funds in my account to cover the payment near the end of the month. The yearly charge is $30 US. I worked in the US for many years and used it for all my purchases but now only use it for stuff I purchase from the US. Works great for me.

 

[techiedude]

Bank of Nova Scotia Passport is no FX
Rogers Bank, you net 1.5% Cash Back FX
HSBC is another but the above two are not as difficult as HSBC with rules

 

[Low Velocity]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...e-after-five-years-on-probation-idUSKBN1E50YA

HSBC needs the profits to cover their fines

 

[VinnyQC]

It involves buying an interlisted stock in CAD, having the broker journal it over to a US exchange, and then selling the stock for US$. Only fees paid are on the purchase and sale of the security, which Questrade charges $4.95....but in your case, the fees might come out closer to $20 (since you'll be buying a large amount of shares)

The technique is called Norbert's Gambit. I've used DLR.TO for this in the past, since that is a very liquid ETF that trades on both the TSX and NYSE

However, if you do this for very large sums of money, there are caveats

1) You'll be subject to price fluctuations in the US dollar if you use DLR.TO...this can change your proceeds and result in taxable gains if you do it in a taxable account.
2) It takes time to execute (minimum 4 days for trade settlement, plus around 2 days for Questrade to do the journal)
3) The price difference between DLR.TO and DLR may not be exactly the prevailing exchange rate.
4) There are specialty houses for converting currency that use way better rates....this is worth looking into as well

Also, I've never actually withdrawn the USD. Questrade may apply additional fees for this. Usually when I do this technique, it's to invest in US listed securities. However, I can't see any fees being even remotely close to the expected $7,500 you'd paid to a bank to convert CAD/USD.

You can do a Norbert's gambit using any brokerage account, not just Questrade.

My brokerage (National Bank of Canada) offers free transaction on any trade of 100+ units of any US or Canadian ETF (DLR.to is techically an ETF, it applies). I can exchange between USD and CAD for exactly 0$, as long as it's 100 units or more at a time (so about 1000$ US).

So far I haven't found any way to get paid to exchange currency

 

[jeepguy1]

They are talking about “above the board” service charges, not “included in” fees

 

[st1264]

Scotiabank has the Gold AMEX with no Foreign Transaction Fees and if you have their highest level checking account (with a minimum balance) you get all banking fees waived along with your Yearly Fee on your credit card. When I signed up for the card, I got some upfront Scotia Points and a $100 gift card from Amazon.ca (check current promotions).

I have equivalent of $360 worth of travel points I haven't used yet.

Canadian banks are fighting for your business.

 

[visiguru]

Hi! I am increasingly faced with the fact that people perceive loans as something terrible. But this is a stereotype of the last century, because now, in our time, absolutely everything in the world of finance revolves around loans, leasing and other procedures for borrowing money. As for me, when faced with the desire to take a car on credit, I studied a lot of information and consulted with many friends who have already made a car purchase. Oddly enough, many people advised me to take a closer look at Mortgage Broker Leicester . I hope you can solve your problem based on my experience!

 

[legi0n]

It's so hard for me to make the right choice. I have already studied a lot of proposals from the bank.

I use the Hometrust Preferred Visa https://www.hometrust.ca/credit-cards/preferred-visa-card/

no fees, no foreign exchange fees, zero liability policy

pretty much a trouble free card