CIBC OR SCOTIA BANK

[selvakk]

To add to that, it’s lucrative but it’s not a a lot! 2% on 6k$ on net annual grocery purchases. I don’t think an international student with a gic of 10k$ would spend more than half of their gic on groceries lol Even if you spend 300 a month of groceries you would only get 70$ as cash back which in the grand scheme of things isn’t a lot haha. Unless they count rent as groceries then YAY!!

It depends on how much you use your card. I pay my bills in full and on time. I got upgraded from$500 credit limit to now I think $5000 and got upgraded to the next level of the card which gives 3% on grocery & gas , 2% on transportation, dining and recurring payments and for everything else 1%, and all of this was pre-approved. It's not much but better than 0%. I personally do not watch movies, so the scene card didn't appeal to me. The only major expense I don't put on the card is rent, while there are services that do that, they charge 1.75-2% which doesn't make sense, at least for my card.

In my first year I got $120 ish total, I think the basic cashback card is 0.5% on other purchases and at the time they were offering 4% cashback as a promo for groceries and I never spent more than the $500 a month on average. At the end of the day, I will take the $70-100 that I get for doing nothing extra.

Only disadvantage is that they give a $500 limit compared to $1000 that scotia gives, but I ended up with a higher limit.

 

[Karan64braaap]

It depends on how much you use your card. I pay my bills in full and on time. I got upgraded from$500 credit limit to now I think $5000 and got upgraded to the next level of the card which gives 3% on grocery & gas , 2% on transportation, dining and recurring payments and for everything else 1%, and all of this was pre-approved. It's not much but better than 0%. I personally do not watch movies, so the scene card didn't appeal to me. The only major expense I don't put on the card is rent, while there are services that do that, they charge 1.75-2% which doesn't make sense, at least for my card.

In my first year I got $120 ish total, I think the basic cashback card is 0.5% on other purchases and at the time they were offering 4% cashback as a promo for groceries and I never spent more than the $500 a month on average. At the end of the day, I will take the $70-100 that I get for doing nothing extra.

Only disadvantage is that they give a $500 limit compared to $1000 that scotia gives, but I ended up with a higher limit.

Why don’t you pay rent by card? Is it not feasible or your landlord wants cheque as payment?

 

[selvakk]

Why don’t you pay rent by card? Is it not feasible or your landlord wants cheque as payment?

my landlord takes interact transfer, unless you rent from a big corporation or association, where they might accept credit card most landlord will take cheque, cash or bank transfer(interact). There is a company called plastiq, which will charge your card and do a interact transfer to your landlord but they charge a 1.5-2% additional charge extra and my cashback is 1% so I am losing money.

I think even in places where they accept credit card, especially if they use a service called moneris, they will charge you 1.5% if you want to pay by credit card.

 

[Karan64braaap]

my landlord takes interact transfer, unless you rent from a big corporation or association, where they might accept credit card most landlord will take cheque, cash or bank transfer(interact). There is a company called plastiq, which will charge your card and do a interact transfer to your landlord but they charge a 1.5-2% additional charge extra and my cashback is 1% so I am losing money.

I think even in places where they accept credit card, especially if they use a service called moneris, they will charge you 1.5% if you want to pay by credit card.

Isn’t interac transfer free? Can you tell me about all the charges I would have to face even if I have CIBC student account?

 

[selvakk]

Isn’t interac transfer free? Can you tell me about all the charges I would have to face even if I have CIBC student account?

So, the deal is that you don't pay any fees for anything for the first year. If you got a GIC with CIBC once you land in Canada you will get a GIC account with your 10,000 CAD, a savings account and a chequing account.

Once the 1 year/12 months time is up, you will have to pay a fee ranging from 4.95 to 14.95 max depending on the number of transactions you do. If you do a interact transfer, then you have to pay $5 per transaction. The savings account doesn't require any fee, but interact transfer charges apply.

All banks have the same student offer with the same rules but the charges are different. Although I graduated in August of 2020, CIBC is not charging me the 4.95 fees, but I have to pay the $5 interact fee. I don't know if this is because of COVID or not, but this is my case.

You can always open a no-fee account with a smaller/online only bank once they start charging you., so nothing to worry about. With the student account there are no charges

 

[Karan64braaap]

So, the deal is that you don't pay any fees for anything for the first year. If you got a GIC with CIBC once you land in Canada you will get a GIC account with your 10,000 CAD, a savings account and a chequing account.

Once the 1 year/12 months time is up, you will have to pay a fee ranging from 4.95 to 14.95 max depending on the number of transactions you do. If you do a interact transfer, then you have to pay $5 per transaction. The savings account doesn't require any fee, but interact transfer charges apply.

All banks have the same student offer with the same rules but the charges are different. Although I graduated in August of 2020, CIBC is not charging me the 4.95 fees, but I have to pay the $5 interact fee. I don't know if this is because of COVID or not, but this is my case.

You can always open a no-fee account with a smaller/online only bank once they start charging you., so nothing to worry about. With the student account there are no charges

Ah gotchu! Thank you for your valuable feedback