As a Canadian, determining the best credit card for collecting travel points can be a daunting task. You need to look at your spending habits, how points are earned, sign up bonuses, ability to redeem points, annual fees, foreign transaction fees, and other benefits. I have used a credit card for about 2 yrs that has met or exceeded my expectations for collecting travel points. It even allowed my family to buy $3000 dollars worth of plane tickets for free.
This credit card is the American Express Cobalt Card. This is not a no fee card but it is also not a higher paying card. It probably falls in the low to mid range with a monthly fee of $12.99. However, the rewards gained have a much higher monetary value then the associated fees.
Points System
This card is on the higher side for earning points. 5x for every $1 spent for food and drinks at restaurants and grocery stores. 3x for every $1 spent on streaming subscriptions like Netflix. 2x for every $1 spent on transportation including gas, rentals, and travel. 1x for every $1 spent on everything else. So based on your spending habits, if you spend in those categories you could earn a lot of points. I guess the only downside would be that AMEX is not as widely accepted as VISA or MASTERCARD so there are times when you wouldn’t be able to collect points. I have not found this to be a big issue.
Sign Up Bonus
Right now the sign up bonus is 15,000 points if you spend $750 dollars a month for the first year. I believe that AMEX has offered better sign up bonuses at different times in the past.
Redeeming Points for Rewards
What I like most about this card is the flexibility around redeeming points. In my case, I like to use Aeroplan for booking travel and I can transfer points from my AMEX account to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio. This year I transferred about 140,000 points to Aeroplan and used it to pay for 4 return plane tickets from Toronto, ON to Galveston, Texas. I used all points and didn’t have to pay a dime. Also, my family booked a couple hotels using MARRIOT Bonvoy points. I was able to transfer my AMEX points to MARRIOT Bonvoy points at a 5:6 ratio. This is a very favourable points transfer system. I used 10,000 and 20,000 Marriot points to book a hotel room for 2 separate nights in Texas. If I were to pay for the plane tickets it would have cost me about $3,000 dollars and the hotels would of cost about $150 to $200 dollars. Thus, you can see that the savings on my travel far outweigh the cost of the annual fee.
Annual Fee
A fee of $12.99 a month is in the low to midrange compared to other travel rewards cards available. The amount saved on travel is far greater than this fee as mentioned before.
Foreign Transaction Fee
When travelling abroad I don’t use this card to make purchases since you’re charged a 2.5% fee on all transactions. I use another credit card that doesn’t charge this fee when travelling outside of Canada.
Other Benefits
Other benefits associated with the card that are worth looking into would be the different insurances around travel and car rentals.
Conclusion
Admittedly, I have not looked into the AMEX Offers available at different times but this may be another way of saving costs on different experiences. The main purpose of me using this credit card is to collect points that can be transferred to my Aeroplan or Marriot Bonvoy account. I believe Aeroplan or Marriot Bonvoy points offer the most value when buying airplane tickets or booking hotels, respectively. I am looking forward to saving more points in the years ahead to travel the world. In my opinion, the AMEX credit card will help me to achieve my travel goals.
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