Money, investments, and other financial stuff

[RRocket]

Mostly mainstream, every day vehicles like Highlanders and Palisades.

He points out his service isn't to get a lower sale price, but more so to deal with the BS of dealerships.  But he usually gets a significant chunk of money off for his clients.  Or, where dealer markups exist on high demand vehicles, he'll negotiate down to MSRP

I'd prefer he operate exclusively on commission....he gets X percentage of the money saved.

True or not, my mind says he won't be busting his balls knowing he gets $1k no matter what.

[Johnnymac]

Mostly mainstream, every day vehicles like Highlanders and Palisades.

He points out his service isn't to get a lower sale price, but more so to deal with the BS of dealerships.  But he usually gets a significant chunk of money off for his clients.  Or, where dealer markups exist on high demand vehicles, he'll negotiate down to MSRP

I'd prefer he operate exclusively on commission....he gets X percentage of the money saved.

True or not, my mind says he won't be busting his balls knowing he gets $1k no matter what.

While I agree that a portion of his fee should be based on how much he saves you from the list price (or maybe first offer from dealer, if you want to factor in the fees and bs that dealers charge), but I do think there is some value added if he does all the dirty work with regards to dealing with the dealership.  Especially if he has the option of not having to set foot in the dealer until the deal is done.

So many people despise going to the dealer and it's a real chore that they'd pay money to avoid.  It's something I typically do for friends and family when it comes time for them to buy a new vehicle.  Just my presence and guidance is enough to make the person I'm helping more comfortable and confident when at the dealer and negotiating. 

[Blizzard]

Just applied for the Canadian Tire World Elite Mastercard. It's a free card and the main perk is that you can pay utility bills, property taxes, and any other bill payments with it, and get 1% in CT money. It's not enormous but it's better than a normal bill payment which gives you nothing, and should generate enough rewards for some car cleaning supplies It also comes with roadside assistance which means you don't need to pay for CAA or the like.

[Firm]

Just applied for the Canadian Tire World Elite Mastercard. It's a free card and the main perk is that you can pay utility bills, property taxes, and any other bill payments with it, and get 1% in CT money. It's not enormous but it's better than a normal bill payment which gives you nothing, and should generate enough rewards for some car cleaning supplies It also comes with roadside assistance which means you don't need to pay for CAA or the like.

Great card, especially if your regularly shop at CT. They'll email you (weekly?) bonus offers, some of which are pretty good, on stuff a CT, which you can use to generate a lot of points. Wasn't unusual for me to generation a couple grand worth of CT money every year, which I'd use for bigger purchases...Tires, Grills, Mower, whatever. I still have mine actually, just limited usage since moving to the US.

I actually signed up for my first not-free card a couple months ago. Did a bunch of research and ended up with the Amex Gold. I run 95% of our monthly expenses through a CC, for the sake of getting rewards, and the Amex Gold offered the most rewards based on our spending profile; 4X on groceries probably being the biggest factor. I also like that I can transfer point 1:1 to my Delta Airlines Skymiles account if I want to. Annual fee is $325, and I offset that in rewards in about 2-3 months. Introductory offer got me 100K points ($1000) free, which covers my first 3 years of fees anyway. So far, I am pleased with it...Costco here doesn't take Amex, which is annoying, and I filled out of town up at a gas station with like 30 year old pumps that wouldn't read the card (apparently a common issue with metal cards) but otherwise, no complaints.

[Johnnymac]

Just applied for the Canadian Tire World Elite Mastercard. It's a free card and the main perk is that you can pay utility bills, property taxes, and any other bill payments with it, and get 1% in CT money. It's not enormous but it's better than a normal bill payment which gives you nothing, and should generate enough rewards for some car cleaning supplies It also comes with roadside assistance which means you don't need to pay for CAA or the like.

Thank you for sharing this information.  I was thinking about which way to go for roadside assistance for the new Miata.  My wife's CR-V and my Integra have roadside assistance through Honda/Acura extended warranty but the Miata didn't come with anything I I like having the comfort of having some kind of roadside assistance available.  I think I'll apply for the Canadian Tire Elite Mastercard, not sure how much I'll ever end up using it, we pretty much only use our CIBC Costco Mastercard as we get a decent pile of cash back at the end of every year.

[blur911]

Just applied for the Canadian Tire World Elite Mastercard. It's a free card and the main perk is that you can pay utility bills, property taxes, and any other bill payments with it, and get 1% in CT money. It's not enormous but it's better than a normal bill payment which gives you nothing, and should generate enough rewards for some car cleaning supplies It also comes with roadside assistance which means you don't need to pay for CAA or the like.

Thank you for sharing this information.  I was thinking about which way to go for roadside assistance for the new Miata.  My wife's CR-V and my Integra have roadside assistance through Honda/Acura extended warranty but the Miata didn't come with anything I I like having the comfort of having some kind of roadside assistance available.  I think I'll apply for the Canadian Tire Elite Mastercard, not sure how much I'll ever end up using it, we pretty much only use our CIBC Costco Mastercard as we get a decent pile of cash back at the end of every year.

IIRC, the issue with the roadside assistance is that they will only tow you to the nearest Canadian Tire.  At least I think that's how it used to be...

[Johnnymac]

Just applied for the Canadian Tire World Elite Mastercard. It's a free card and the main perk is that you can pay utility bills, property taxes, and any other bill payments with it, and get 1% in CT money. It's not enormous but it's better than a normal bill payment which gives you nothing, and should generate enough rewards for some car cleaning supplies It also comes with roadside assistance which means you don't need to pay for CAA or the like.

Thank you for sharing this information.  I was thinking about which way to go for roadside assistance for the new Miata.  My wife's CR-V and my Integra have roadside assistance through Honda/Acura extended warranty but the Miata didn't come with anything I I like having the comfort of having some kind of roadside assistance available.  I think I'll apply for the Canadian Tire Elite Mastercard, not sure how much I'll ever end up using it, we pretty much only use our CIBC Costco Mastercard as we get a decent pile of cash back at the end of every year.

IIRC, the issue with the roadside assistance is that they will only tow you to the nearest Canadian Tire.  At least I think that's how it used to be...

Here's what it says online:

"With the Triangle World Elite Mastercard Roadside Assistance Gold Plan, you get towing distance of up to 250 km per service call to the destination of your choice (within Canada or the US). Rest assured; we will help you get where you need to go."

So it sounds like they'll tow you a fair distance to whatever location you want them to take you.  No idea if they'd push back that it needs to go to a CT but at least it's a shop of some sort that you'd think would be able to get you back on the road.

[Blizzard]

Just applied for the Canadian Tire World Elite Mastercard. It's a free card and the main perk is that you can pay utility bills, property taxes, and any other bill payments with it, and get 1% in CT money. It's not enormous but it's better than a normal bill payment which gives you nothing, and should generate enough rewards for some car cleaning supplies It also comes with roadside assistance which means you don't need to pay for CAA or the like.

Thank you for sharing this information.  I was thinking about which way to go for roadside assistance for the new Miata.  My wife's CR-V and my Integra have roadside assistance through Honda/Acura extended warranty but the Miata didn't come with anything I I like having the comfort of having some kind of roadside assistance available.  I think I'll apply for the Canadian Tire Elite Mastercard, not sure how much I'll ever end up using it, we pretty much only use our CIBC Costco Mastercard as we get a decent pile of cash back at the end of every year.

IIRC, the issue with the roadside assistance is that they will only tow you to the nearest Canadian Tire.  At least I think that's how it used to be...

I checked online and it seems to be to any destination of your choice within 200 km. If it's only to a CT location, that's not ideal... but I guess it's free.

[Blizzard]

Just applied for the Canadian Tire World Elite Mastercard. It's a free card and the main perk is that you can pay utility bills, property taxes, and any other bill payments with it, and get 1% in CT money. It's not enormous but it's better than a normal bill payment which gives you nothing, and should generate enough rewards for some car cleaning supplies It also comes with roadside assistance which means you don't need to pay for CAA or the like.

Thank you for sharing this information.  I was thinking about which way to go for roadside assistance for the new Miata.  My wife's CR-V and my Integra have roadside assistance through Honda/Acura extended warranty but the Miata didn't come with anything I I like having the comfort of having some kind of roadside assistance available.  I think I'll apply for the Canadian Tire Elite Mastercard, not sure how much I'll ever end up using it, we pretty much only use our CIBC Costco Mastercard as we get a decent pile of cash back at the end of every year.

The big benefit with this card seems to be that you can pay bills with it, which otherwise would be an online banking payment. I haven't tried it yet but let's say you have $10K/year worth of property taxes, utilities, insurance, etc..., that's $100 of CT money you wouldn't otherwise have.

[Johnnymac]

Just applied for the Canadian Tire World Elite Mastercard. It's a free card and the main perk is that you can pay utility bills, property taxes, and any other bill payments with it, and get 1% in CT money. It's not enormous but it's better than a normal bill payment which gives you nothing, and should generate enough rewards for some car cleaning supplies It also comes with roadside assistance which means you don't need to pay for CAA or the like.

Thank you for sharing this information.  I was thinking about which way to go for roadside assistance for the new Miata.  My wife's CR-V and my Integra have roadside assistance through Honda/Acura extended warranty but the Miata didn't come with anything I I like having the comfort of having some kind of roadside assistance available.  I think I'll apply for the Canadian Tire Elite Mastercard, not sure how much I'll ever end up using it, we pretty much only use our CIBC Costco Mastercard as we get a decent pile of cash back at the end of every year.

The big benefit with this card seems to be that you can pay bills with it, which otherwise would be an online banking payment. I haven't tried it yet but let's say you have $10K/year worth of property taxes, utilities, insurance, etc..., that's $100 of CT money you wouldn't otherwise have.

Definitely nothing wrong with doing that and getting back some money from your everyday expenses.  We use our Costco card for a lot of things, including some monthly bills like cell phone or streaming services, but we don't use it for things like our power bill, property taxes, etc, so that's an opportunity to get a bit of cash back.  Plus I haven't used any CT money in like a decade because I lost my card for it and just never tried to get a new one.

[Blizzard]

Just applied for the Canadian Tire World Elite Mastercard. It's a free card and the main perk is that you can pay utility bills, property taxes, and any other bill payments with it, and get 1% in CT money. It's not enormous but it's better than a normal bill payment which gives you nothing, and should generate enough rewards for some car cleaning supplies It also comes with roadside assistance which means you don't need to pay for CAA or the like.

Great card, especially if your regularly shop at CT. They'll email you (weekly?) bonus offers, some of which are pretty good, on stuff a CT, which you can use to generate a lot of points. Wasn't unusual for me to generation a couple grand worth of CT money every year, which I'd use for bigger purchases...Tires, Grills, Mower, whatever. I still have mine actually, just limited usage since moving to the US.

I actually signed up for my first not-free card a couple months ago. Did a bunch of research and ended up with the Amex Gold. I run 95% of our monthly expenses through a CC, for the sake of getting rewards, and the Amex Gold offered the most rewards based on our spending profile; 4X on groceries probably being the biggest factor. I also like that I can transfer point 1:1 to my Delta Airlines Skymiles account if I want to. Annual fee is $325, and I offset that in rewards in about 2-3 months. Introductory offer got me 100K points ($1000) free, which covers my first 3 years of fees anyway. So far, I am pleased with it...Costco here doesn't take Amex, which is annoying, and I filled out of town up at a gas station with like 30 year old pumps that wouldn't read the card (apparently a common issue with metal cards) but otherwise, no complaints.

I'm jealous of the Amex cards y'all get in the States. The Amex Gold card here is way worse. I have the Cobalt card, and the main benefit is 5X the points on groceries (excluding Costco & Loblaws which don't accept Amex). Occasionally I'll buy a gift card at the grocery store if I have to make a purchase at another store, in order to get 5X the points on it. You can then transfer those points to Aeroplan, Delta, or other airlines, or book travel directly on Amex Travel. I'd consider upgrading to the Gold, but the points generation is actually worse than the cheaper Cobalt so unless you value the dubious additional benefits the Gold gives you, it's totally not worth it.

[Firm]

Just applied for the Canadian Tire World Elite Mastercard. It's a free card and the main perk is that you can pay utility bills, property taxes, and any other bill payments with it, and get 1% in CT money. It's not enormous but it's better than a normal bill payment which gives you nothing, and should generate enough rewards for some car cleaning supplies It also comes with roadside assistance which means you don't need to pay for CAA or the like.

Great card, especially if your regularly shop at CT. They'll email you (weekly?) bonus offers, some of which are pretty good, on stuff a CT, which you can use to generate a lot of points. Wasn't unusual for me to generation a couple grand worth of CT money every year, which I'd use for bigger purchases...Tires, Grills, Mower, whatever. I still have mine actually, just limited usage since moving to the US.

I actually signed up for my first not-free card a couple months ago. Did a bunch of research and ended up with the Amex Gold. I run 95% of our monthly expenses through a CC, for the sake of getting rewards, and the Amex Gold offered the most rewards based on our spending profile; 4X on groceries probably being the biggest factor. I also like that I can transfer point 1:1 to my Delta Airlines Skymiles account if I want to. Annual fee is $325, and I offset that in rewards in about 2-3 months. Introductory offer got me 100K points ($1000) free, which covers my first 3 years of fees anyway. So far, I am pleased with it...Costco here doesn't take Amex, which is annoying, and I filled out of town up at a gas station with like 30 year old pumps that wouldn't read the card (apparently a common issue with metal cards) but otherwise, no complaints.

I'm jealous of the Amex cards y'all get in the States. The Amex Gold card here is way worse. I have the Cobalt card, and the main benefit is 5X the points on groceries (excluding Costco & Loblaws which don't accept Amex). Occasionally I'll buy a gift card at the grocery store if I have to make a purchase at another store, in order to get 5X the points on it. You can then transfer those points to Aeroplan, Delta, or other airlines, or book travel directly on Amex Travel. I'd consider upgrading to the Gold, but the points generation is actually worse than the cheaper Cobalt so unless you value the dubious additional benefits the Gold gives you, it's totally not worth it.

That gift card thing is a good idea - would need to be a fairly big purchase to warrant the effort, but still, I like it.

I never really had Amex on my radar in Canada, I guess the benefits are different, and the cards are a lot more popular here than they were in Canada. On the flip side, MasterCards are pretty scarce down here...My Corporate expense card is as MasterCard, but rarely do I ever see personal MasterCards.

I rent cars regularly when travelling for work, probably once a month. Visa Infinite (which I've had for age through my bank) gets you Exec status with National/Enterprise & the Amex Gold gets you w/e the top tier status is called with Hertz. A nice perk as I can typically have my pick of available cars on the lot without any upgrade charges.

[blur911]

Just applied for the Canadian Tire World Elite Mastercard. It's a free card and the main perk is that you can pay utility bills, property taxes, and any other bill payments with it, and get 1% in CT money. It's not enormous but it's better than a normal bill payment which gives you nothing, and should generate enough rewards for some car cleaning supplies It also comes with roadside assistance which means you don't need to pay for CAA or the like.

Thank you for sharing this information.  I was thinking about which way to go for roadside assistance for the new Miata.  My wife's CR-V and my Integra have roadside assistance through Honda/Acura extended warranty but the Miata didn't come with anything I I like having the comfort of having some kind of roadside assistance available.  I think I'll apply for the Canadian Tire Elite Mastercard, not sure how much I'll ever end up using it, we pretty much only use our CIBC Costco Mastercard as we get a decent pile of cash back at the end of every year.

IIRC, the issue with the roadside assistance is that they will only tow you to the nearest Canadian Tire.  At least I think that's how it used to be...

I checked online and it seems to be to any destination of your choice within 200 km. If it's only to a CT location, that's not ideal... but I guess it's free.

Sounds good.  I have a  lower tier CT card, maybe it's just mine, or old information

[Fobroader]

I have the Costco Mastercard and the wife has a Westjet Visa. We use them both as debit cards for everything and they are worth it in every way. I get about $800-1000 a year in cashback from the Mastercard, plus a few hundred from Costco, and the wife is now Gold with Westjet and walking right by the huge line at security and to the front of the line is awesome sauce, plus free upgrades, free lounge access and pre-boarding is great. From all the credit cards we've had, these are by far the best ROIs we've had.

[Oliver]

Just applied for the Canadian Tire World Elite Mastercard. It's a free card and the main perk is that you can pay utility bills, property taxes, and any other bill payments with it, and get 1% in CT money. It's not enormous but it's better than a normal bill payment which gives you nothing, and should generate enough rewards for some car cleaning supplies It also comes with roadside assistance which means you don't need to pay for CAA or the like.

Great card, especially if your regularly shop at CT. They'll email you (weekly?) bonus offers, some of which are pretty good, on stuff a CT, which you can use to generate a lot of points. Wasn't unusual for me to generation a couple grand worth of CT money every year, which I'd use for bigger purchases...Tires, Grills, Mower, whatever. I still have mine actually, just limited usage since moving to the US.

I actually signed up for my first not-free card a couple months ago. Did a bunch of research and ended up with the Amex Gold. I run 95% of our monthly expenses through a CC, for the sake of getting rewards, and the Amex Gold offered the most rewards based on our spending profile; 4X on groceries probably being the biggest factor. I also like that I can transfer point 1:1 to my Delta Airlines Skymiles account if I want to. Annual fee is $325, and I offset that in rewards in about 2-3 months. Introductory offer got me 100K points ($1000) free, which covers my first 3 years of fees anyway. So far, I am pleased with it...Costco here doesn't take Amex, which is annoying, and I filled out of town up at a gas station with like 30 year old pumps that wouldn't read the card (apparently a common issue with metal cards) but otherwise, no complaints.

I'm jealous of the Amex cards y'all get in the States. The Amex Gold card here is way worse. I have the Cobalt card, and the main benefit is 5X the points on groceries (excluding Costco & Loblaws which don't accept Amex). Occasionally I'll buy a gift card at the grocery store if I have to make a purchase at another store, in order to get 5X the points on it. You can then transfer those points to Aeroplan, Delta, or other airlines, or book travel directly on Amex Travel. I'd consider upgrading to the Gold, but the points generation is actually worse than the cheaper Cobalt so unless you value the dubious additional benefits the Gold gives you, it's totally not worth it.

The Cobalt 5x points also applies to restaurants, breweries, and bars which is nice.