We don’t have any Vanilla re-loads in Canada but we have some great tools to meet minimum spending for the great credit card bonuses.
Currently the AMEX Gold Rewards card and the American Express Aeroplus Gold have bonuses of 25,000 Membership reward points and 30,000 Aeroplan Miles with minimum spending of $500 over the first 3 months of the card.
For some people they would pre-pay some expenses like utilities or cable/Internet but another idea is the Vanilla Reload/Petro-Can Pivot VISA. If you don’t have high expenses each month it could be difficult to meet the requirements.
To meet the minimum spending quickly for the bonuses for these cards, this is an idea you could use:
- Buy a Petro-Can Pivot VISA (http://retail.petro-canada.ca/en/creditcards/4661.aspx) for $500.
- Withdraw $500 ($250 per day maximum) at an ATM.
- Deposit in chequing account to pay off credit card bill.
- Close/deactivate the Pivot VISA.
Here are the fees associated with this account:
PIVOT™ Visa® Prepaid Card Cost $10
ATM Domestic Cash Withdrawal Fee $3 x2 (Max. weekly ATM Withdrawal $250)
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Total $16This is almost 3% of the balance in fees! I would rather pre-pay expenses but I wanted to share an alternative for Canadians.
Another nice benefit of the card is the 5 cents off per liter you get at Petro Canada for every $1 you load on the card but at today’s gas prices it is not worth a lot (better to get a Target Red Card and get 5% cash on gift card purchases and buy a Petro Canada or Esso card).
I don’t think it is worth it but here is our Canadian re-load equivalent!
13 Comments
AwardBee
This isn’t remotely close to being a VR equivalent. You’re getting bent over both on the purchase and withdrawal side of the equation. It’s worse value than paying someone w/ Paypal or any one of dozens of payment services and eating 2.9% in fees. It makes me feel incredibly sorry for my friends and relatives who live in Canada.
szussino
We have a small population that enjoys to pay fees! I can’t figure it out.
Hyacinthe
Instead of buying it online, I would buy it in a Petro Canada gas station… with 2 points per $ spent on gas, the $500 pivot load voucher would generate 1000 Membership Rewards points.
szussino
Great idea!
Andrewj
If I buy the card for 10 dollars at petro canada, as well as load 500 dollars from petro canada at the same time, can I put it in a drawer and just spend the 500 dollar value a year later and get the full 500 dollars value?
How will the merchant be displayed — any chance that It would be considered a cash advance or cash equivalent? The card is a us chase card, I do not have the opportunity to go home to the states, but do visit canada more frequently.
szussino
I am not too sure hopefully another reader can help.
Joel
Not too sure what you are asking. Are you asking whether there are any inactivity fees? Then no, there aren’t any.
Withdrawals from this credit card are never considered cash advances as it is just refunding you cash that you loaded in it.
ATM fees apply for withdrawals and a 0.49 cent fee for normal purchases.
Joel
I’ve actually used this before and to be honest found it to be brutal: Some ATMs will withdraw the max amount, others won’t and the max weekly is from the date of the transaction that hits $250, i.e. if you withdraw $250 on Wednesday, you can’t do it until the next wednesday.
You’re also missing the ATM fee that the bank charges at about $2 a transaction.
May want to work on beefing up the amount of content on your site. The article above and a few before it seem to be in this format.
“ZOMG AMEX is great!!”
(insert a few lines of content here)
“If you missed the above ZOMG AMEX is great!!”
Tone down the referrals, eh!
szussino
Joel,
Thanks for your comment. I mentioned in the post that i didn’t think it was a good idea but I do promote AMEX cards as I think the sign up bonuses and no annual fees are worth it – plus my referral link provides a higher sign-up bonus.
Jay
Hey, it’s an option so thanks. Rather than pick apart his plan, why not come up with viable options for us Canadians? Those Americans got some good travel hacks, why not us?
Greg
Hi
Just a comment on this… RED card 5% is not applicable to gift/travel cards… see the fine print on the bottom of their page about it. Unfortunately.
szussino
RED CARD 5% discount is for Target, this refers to Petro Canada.
Boychick
Why istthis different than buying a visa gift card and withdraw from an ATM
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