Everyone likes to get something for free. If you have a travel rewards credit card you could earn free trips, flights and hotel stays.
RewardsCanada.ca is a website that monitors travel credit cards and compares their rewards, ease of redemption, cost of ownership, fees and other benefits to determine which credit cards are the best value if you want to save rewards for travel. Rewards Canada founder Patrick Sojka says his website does the homework so you don't have to.
According to the website, here are the top five travel credit cards for Canadians in five categories. Rewards Canada has two top choices in each category. The top picks for Canada's Choice are the results of a survey of Canadian credit card holders and there are two top choices there as well.
Remember, the only way to truly benefit from these credit cards is to pay off your balance every month. If you don't you could be paying 19 per cent interest charges. If you are doing that then the trips aren't free at all. But if you pay off your balance every month these credit cards can be a great way to get away for free!
Travel Points Credit Card with Annual Fee
Rewards Canada Rankings
- Capital One Aspire World MasterCard
- CUETS Platinum Class MasterCard
Canada's Choice
- American Express Air Miles Platinum MasterCard
- Capital One Aspire World MasterCard
Travel Points Credit Card with No Fee
Rewards Canada Rankings
- American Express Blue Sky Credit Card
- Capital One Aspire MasterCard
Canada's Choice
- American Express Air Miles MasterCard
- American Express Blue Sky Credit Card
Hybrid Card with Annual Fee
Rewards Canada Rankings
- American Express Gold Rewards Card
- RBC Visa Infinite Avion
Canada's Choice
- American Express Gold Rewards Card
- The Platinum Card from American Express
Airline Card
Rewards Canada Rankings
- CIBC Aerogold Infinite Visa
- WestJet RBC World MasterCard
Canada's Choice
- American Express AeroplanPlus Platinum Card
- CIBC Aerogold Infinite Visa
Hotel Card
Rewards Canada Rankings
- Starwood Preferred Guest and Priority Club World MasterCard from Capital One (tied)
Canada's Choice
- Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express
- Chase Marriott Rewards Visa / MBNA Best Western Platinum Plus MasterCard
Key Points:
- There are over 70 travel reward credit cards available to Canadians.
- Some are travel points cards, where the points are redeemed for travel through the credit card company.
- Some are "airline only" cards that put miles directly into your airline frequent flyer accounts.
- Some are hybrid cards where you collect points that can be used to book travel through the credit card or put the points into a frequent flyer/guest account.
- A smaller number are "hotel only" cards that put the points directly into your frequent guest program accounts.
- To determine its own picks, Rewards Canada looked at various factors including cost of ownership, rate of return, ease of redemption, card acceptance, partnerships, issuing bank and benefits
- This year, the website also asked Canadians to vote for their favourite cards in each category and American Express emerged as the big winner.
- Consumers should consider whether they are frequent flyers, how much they spend and what kind of rewards they would use when choosing a card.
