Hey iSaved5K Savers, I hope that you’re enjoying your summer and the great weather so far. I can’t complain much as we have been enjoying our beautiful summer weather here in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). With such great weather, it’s actually a bit challenging for me to find the motivation to blog. This happened from time to time for the last couple of months.
Ever since I started blogging, I had not missed a post in any week regardless of my schedule or motivation. So the great weather or laziness is not going to be a reasonable excuse for me to miss a post. Of course, I am also too competitive and proud to just draft a crappy post just to not miss posting for a week. The quality of the post still needs to be maintained.
For this week’s post, I thought that I would open up my wallet and let you take a peek to see what’s inside my wallet. If you’re looking for cash, you’ll probably be disappointed. Most of the time, I have less than $100 in my wallet and I hardly use/carry cash anymore. Whenever I make a purchase of any type, I will definitely try to use one of my credit cards if the vendor accepts credit cards.
If you’re still using cash for your purchases or avoid using credit cards like it’s a plague, then you’re definitely missing out on the awesome everyday benefits. I am going to show you the best credit cards combination that’ll allow you to maximize your rewards when you spend. The best part is none of the credit cards in my wallet cost me anything to use.
Key Factors For Maximizing Your Credit Card Benefits
Before we start, there are two key factors to maximizing the benefits of your credit cards. The first is the annual fee on the credit cards. For the majority of the population, you’ll most likely be better off if you use a couple of no annual fee credit cards. Secondly, you have to always pay your credit card bills on time and in full every month. No exceptions. If you can’t do that, then you should just use cash because no reward is worth the 20% interest cost.
How To Choose The Best Credit Cards Combination?
Now that we are clear on what we should do in order to maximize our credit cards’ benefits, the next step is to choose the best credit cards combination to maximize our rewards. When I am choosing my credit cards, my goal is to maximize the rewards for every dollar that I charge on my card. The charges can either be spending or pay bills. Yes, you can earn rewards when you pay your bills using a credit card. I’ll show you a bit later.
In recent years, it has become popular for credit card issuers to provide special rewards for certain types of spending categories. Some of the most popular spending categories with extra perks are groceries, gas and travel just to name a few. So the best credit cards combination will allow me to earn the maximum rewards based on my everyday spending categories listed below:
- Groceries
- Pharmacy/Medication
- Dining
- Home Improvement
- Transit
- Gas
- Bill payments (property tax, utilities, tuition)
- Roadside Assistance
- Travel Insurance
- Rental Vehicle Insurance
- Foreign Currency
- Miscellaneous Expenses
The President’s Choice Financial World Elite MasterCard
For the groceries category, I find that the best credit card to maximize the rewards is the President’s Choice Financial World Elite MasterCard. I get a minimum of 3% worth of PC Optimum Points which I can use to shop at any of the Loblaw family of companies. The best part is that I get to stack different sources of savings which allow me to save an average of 12% on my grocery bills.
Another lesser-known benefit of this card is being able also to earn at least 3% of your purchase when you purchase your medication at Shoppers Drug Mart. You can apply for this card through RateSupermarket.ca and get $100 worth in gift card from the site once you active and use the card.
The Canadian Tire Triangle World Elite MasterCard
With the price of gas skyrocketing in recent months, having a card that allows us to save on gas is definitely important. For this category, the best no fee credit card for the job is the Canadian Tire Triangle World Elite MasterCard. This card will provide you with 5 cents in Canadian Tire Money for every liter of gas purchased at any Canadian Tire Gas station.
Another perk of this card that you’ll definitely love is the free roadside assistance if you have an older car. I have a 2006 Mazda 3 that I plan to drive it to the ground, but I definitely don’t want to pay for towing if it breaks down somewhere. So having free roadside assistance anywhere in North America will definitely give me peace of mind.
Earlier, I mentioned that you can use your credit card to pay bills and earn rewards, well this is the card. If you use the Canadian Tire bill payment site to pay your property tax, hydro, heating bills or even tuition, you’ll receive 1% in Canadian Tire Money reward. On a yearly basis, I pay at least $8,000/year in property tax, hydro and heating bills. This is an easy $80 that I can earn.
The Tangerine Money-Back MasterCard
The next card in my wallet is theTangerine Money-Back MasterCard. The reason that I like this no annual fee card is its flexibility. I am able to choose at least any three spending categories to earn a 2% cash back. Since I already have the groceries, gas and medication categories covered, the other major categories in my everyday spendings are home improvement, dining, and transit.
The Scotiabank Momentum Visa Card
The first three cards in my wallet are all MasterCards. To mitigate the risk of having only one type of credit card, I also have the Scotiabank Momentum Visa Card. This no annual fee credit card allows me to earn 2% on gas and groceries purchases. In case I don’t do my groceries at any Loblaw family of stores or buy gas at Canadian Tire Gas stations, I will earn at least 2% on my gas and grocery purchases.
The Rogers World Elite MasterCard
Last, but not least, the most valuable credit card in my wallet is the Rogers World Elite MasterCard. The best feature of this card is the 1.75% reward you get for any purchase. The 1.75% base reward for any purchases is the highest reward that you can get from any credit cards in Canada.
The other great perk is the 4% reward for any foreign currency purchases. This reward more than offset the 2.5% foreign exchange that MasterCard adds to your purchase when the charge is converted back to Canadian dollars.
I don’t travel a lot, but if I do, I know that I will get free travel insurance with this card. In addition, If I rent a vehicle, I can decline the vehicle insurance and this card will also have coverage for that as long as I put my vehicle rental charge on this card. Since I am earning at least a 1.75% in rewards, why not?
Spending Category Coverage
These five cards currently form the best credit cards combination for my everyday spending needs. I earn at least 1.75% for every dollar spent and receives 1% for all my bill payments. On top of that, I get quite a few perks at no cost to me. Below is the table that shows which credit card that I can use to maximize my rewards and benefits.
| Items | President’s Choice MC | Canadian Tire MC | Tagerine MC | Scotiabank Visa | Rogers MC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Groceries | Yes | Yes | – | Yes | – |
| Pharmacy/Medication | Yes | – | – | Yes | – |
| Dining | – | – | Yes | – | – |
| Home Improvement | – | Yes | Yes | – | – |
| Transit | – | – | Yes | – | – |
| Bill payments | – | Yes | – | – | – |
| Roadside Assistance | – | Yes | – | – | – |
| Travel Insurance | Yes | Yes | – | – | Yes |
| Rental Vehicle Insurance | Yes | Yes | – | – | Yes |
| Foreign Currency | – | – | – | – | Yes |
| Miscellaneous Expenses | – | – | – | – | Yes |
Table #1: Maximized Spending Category Coverage
Total Rewards Earned
I’ve never really tally how much rewards and benefit that I received from my credit cards before. However, last year, I started managing all the bills in my household so I am able to easily go through my statements to tally up all the cash back or rewards that I received from my credit. So far, for the first half of 2018, I’ve earned about $900 in free money. So potentially, I can earn about $1,800/year. This is why I love using my credit cards.
| Credit Cards | Rewards Earned |
|---|---|
| President’s Choice Financial World Elite MasterCard | $100.00 |
| Canadian Tire Triangle World Elite MasterCard | $59.32 |
| Tagerine MasterCard | $40.40 |
| Scotiabank Momentum Visa Card | $49.22 |
| Rogers World Elite MasterCard | $665.00 |
| Total Rewards Earned | $913.94 |
Table #2: Total Rewards Earned The First Half Of 2018
My Two Cents
When you spend responsibly and pay your credit card bills in full and on time every month, you can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars every year. Since you are spending your money anyway, why not earn free perks and rewards just for using your credit cards? With a little research, you can find the best credit cards combination that fits your spending needs to keep more money in your wallet even if you are spending.
So readers, what’s in your wallet? How many credit cards do you have? Do you pay any fees to use your credit cards? How much rewards do you earn annually when you use your credit cards? Do you have the best credit cards combination that you can share with this community?
About Leo
Wow that’s great you made a chart. Ours is a bit complicated too. I told my husband “If you get gas at an Esso, use the Mastercard, if it’s anything else, use the Visa or the Amex” LOL.
We just got an Amex so now I have three envelopes where we put receipts to review when we get the bill.
I guess the Canadian Tire Triangle card isn’t as bad as I thought!! Pretty good to have roadside assistance- is it 100% paid for or is there a copay? Have you tried the roadside assistance?
@GYM, my wife gets confused all the time and thinks that it’s too much effort to remember all the perks. I just told her, if you can’t remembers, just use the Rogers Elite card so that we earn at least 1.75%.
The roadside assistance is free when you sign up for the program. I feel fortunate that I don’t have to use it yet. If I feel bore, I may test it out one day.