Earn rewards for using your credit card without paying an annual fee

First published on October 29, 2006

Derek was surprised to hear that there are no-fee credit cards that give you points / rewards. He thought that the greatest reward you could get when using a credit card was to have servers say “hey, nice Canucks card!” Unfortunately, sports-themed credit cards usually don’t give you anything aside from the odd free gift upon sign-up.

Here are a few no-fee, reward credit cards (note: these are all for Canadians):

President’s Choice Financial MasterCard: Earn the equivalent of 1% of all purchases made with this credit card to spend at Superstore. I figure, you’re going to have to spend money on groceries, so this is better than getting points towards things you don’t actually need.

RBC Starbucks Duetto Visa: If you’re a coffee drinker, this might be the card for you. Earn the equivalent of 1% of all purchases made with this credit card to spend at Starbucks. If you set up auto-reload on this card, earn a bonus 3% of the reload amount for use at Starbucks. Every once in a while I also get a coupon for a free Starbucks drink or food item (and I rarely use this card!). There are sign-up promotions sometimes as well — at the time of this posting, they’re giving out a $10 Starbucks bonus.

Cash rebate credit cards: I had an eBay credit card that got discontinued, but they automatically switched it to a 1% MBNA cash-back card (no fees either). However, when I look for this cash-back card online, it says there’s an annual fee of $29, so it looks like I lucked out. Not to worry — there’s a Capital One No Hassle Rewards Cash Back Platinum Mastercard (what a mouthful) that offers pretty much the same thing: 1% of all your purchases back to you in cash.

This entry is filed under Canadian Banking, Consumerism and written by Peter Keung. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

7 Responses to “Earn rewards for using your credit card without paying an annual fee”

October 30th, 2006 at 8:41 am
Leah says:

I have the Starbucks credit card and it rocks! I use mine quite a bit, unlike Peter…I actually get duetto dollars added to my account about once every two months in addition to the free coupons and 1% back. For me I don’t spend enough to use it for airmiles and all those other flying ones; the coffee is a nice little reward.
August 12th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
NICHOLAS says:

I AM 47 YEARS OLD.I USE MY RBC STARBUCKS VISA ON A DAILY BASIS.PURCHASES OVER $10.00 ARE CHARGED TO THE CARD.THE DUETTO DOLLARS DO ADD UP OVER THE MONTHS.I HAVE NOTICED THE CANADIAN VERSON OF THE CARD DOES NOT INCLUED CAR RENTAL INSURANCE PRIVILLEDGES.ALSO,THE CANDADIAN CARD IS NOT CONSIDERED A “PLATINUM CARD.”WHY IS THIS?
November 6th, 2007 at 9:43 am
Insurance says:

I spend a lot of time on the road and spend a small fortune of fuel, is there a card that gives cash back on the amount of fuel you buy?
November 6th, 2007 at 10:58 am
Peter says:

From my limited knowledge there’s the Petro Canada card, which means that you get discounts at that station only. If you’re a CAA member, you also get discounts at Husky and Mohawk stations.
March 29th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Francis Etuk says:

TD Bank just recently came out with their own Rebate Rewards Card. It gives you $1 for every $100 you spend on the card. Refundable into the card at the end of every year. IF you have a 0 balance. You will receive a "pre-paid"balance to use. Very fun. Plus the card is pretty.
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:33 am
MMMomma says:

I just got offered a sweet deal on a new TD Canada Trust Infinite credit card. You get travel points which are far better then any other card my company has had. You are not limited with the airlines that you have to travel on, you can use their travel facility and get bonus points. 3 Points for every $1.00, no black out periods, no bonus points travelling at prime time. They have a feature to upgrade a room, the usual travel, medical, lost bagge and the annual fee is only $120.00 which I think is awesome.

What do you think?
May 31st, 2008 at 5:23 pm
CreditCredible says:

The Discover Open Road Card is a very good card during these times of high gas prices. No annual fee, unlimited rewards that don’t expire, 5% cash back on gas and auto maintenance. This credit card might be helpful to most of us feeling the gas prices in the wallet.