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Tuesday 24 May 2016

How to Save $$ on Outstanding Balances on Lines of Credit and Credit Cards

Many people out there pay a lot in interest charges for outstanding balances on their line of credit, credit cards, or are considering putting the debt into the mortgage.  Mistake.  The best deal out there, what I've been doing for YEARS is applying for the MBNA Platinum Plus M/C.  It comes with no annual fee, 0% financing for 12 months, and if you apply through Great Canadian Rebates, you'll get $60 cashback (and through Buytopia.ca you can get a $100 gift card to Amazonca, Starbucks, The Bay, Best Buy or even the evil Walmart (don't get me started about how you'll pay a high price for the low prices--stay away from them, but hat's another post, another day).  Click here to go to sign up with Buytopia.ca if that's the prize you want for a no annual fee card that you can transfer your balance to.  That way I'll get a referral bonus and you'll win too!
You WILL have to pay a 1% balance transfer transaction fee, so basically, you're paying 1% interest up front and nothing for 12 months!
You can even ask MBNA to set up payments of a regular amount coming out every month from your bank account so you won't miss a payment--for if you do--get ready for the deal to end early and start paying 19.99% interest (or something like that).
Warning 1: MBNA will pester  you with snail mail offers for more balance transfers but you'll already be locked into one.  At the end of the year, you need to pay off the balance and then either take an offer that's sitting on your account (your online account with them will show the best offer on the card) or even better, call customer service and see what they can do for you.  For example, they may offer you a 0.99% deal for as many as 15 months, but after they speak to a manager, the manager may have a better offer that cuts the transaction fee for the balance transfer from 2% or 1% in half.
Warning 2: Your credit to debt amortization will suffer, hurting your credit score, but that depends on how much you take out for the balance transfer, how much your credit limit is with them in comparison and how much overall available credit you have "out there" on credit cards.  This time around, I've taken at least a 30 point hit because of my balance that I'm carrying.

Flights from Toronto to Tokyo for $597CDN taxes included!

Flights from late August to April 2017 are available!
Click here to go to Google Flights.  Choose the dates that work for you.
Then, click here to go Momondo.ca with your dates.  Be sure to choose Tokyo Haneda Airport (HND).  Use Monondo to take you to the website with the best price.  Apparently, itravel2000.com is offering these flights too and they will unlikely cancel your flight when its realized how low the price really is!  For late August, prices start from $665CDN.  You'll be flying Air Nippon Airways and United.  More info on YYZdeals.ca

Thursday 19 May 2016

Access Consumer Reports online for FREE

Until May 20th, at 8am, you can access Consumer Reports online for free by clicking on this link without even creating a login!  I have a subscription that costs me around $20USD as I find it tremendously helpful when making purchases from appliances to cars.  Even if the model they have is a US model, it still gives important information about a model's reliability compared to others and a detailed rating system.  They also have detailed info on used cars, including the areas of repair that are prevalent with each year and model car.
Check it out!

Friday 13 May 2016

Best Western Port Huron, Michigan from $17.99 a night!

Looking for a cheap stay at a US hotel near the border?  Want to do some shopping and get your $800 exemption by spending a couple of overnights?  The Best Western Port Huron, just across from Sarnia, ON, is the 2nd highest rated hotel in the area on Trip Advisor.  The rooms have been redone according to one top review that I read and the rooms include microwaves and mini fridges in the rooms
The hotel's amenities include an indoor pool, coffee maker, free breakfast, including waffles and all of this and more for $17.99USD and up!  It includes rooms with King beds and 2 queens.
The deal is good for July 25-28 only and won't last long!
Go to BestWestern.com to get the best rates!  For a couple dollars more, you can get free cancellation! Type in Port Huron, Michigan and you'll see the Best Western Port Huron property and the amazing rates for that period (until they sell out, of course).

Wednesday 11 May 2016

$189CDN A Night @ The Four Seasons Vancouver-Multi-Day Deal!

This deal, while not over the summer, is still a good one for a nice Vancouver hotel.  Try booking it on HappyRooms.com for a "Superior Double Room" with a free cancellation policy.  You'll be able to be charged in CDN$.  It seems to be available from October 1 to April 17th, 2017. Click here to see an example of what I found.

Toronto Auckland return from $730!

Currently on Kayak, you can get flights on Air New Zealand from Toronto to Auckland, stopping in Vancouver there, and L.A. back, from $730!  Whether these tickets will be honoured, time will tell.  When I try on Google Matrix, these prices are NOT showing up so that's a bad sign.
Available dates seem to be in mid-June, returning either after a couple of months or even as short as 3 1/2 weeks.
This link will take you to the Kayak deal for the dates June 19th to July 14th for $730.

Tuesday 10 May 2016

EBates Birthday Special--15% Cashback on 250+ Stores!

EBates Canada and USA are both offering 15% cashback this week when you go through their website to many of your favourites!  They can place the cashback into your PayPal account, among other ways (I like that one personally).  It takes a while before they deposit it, but it's so easy, and if you'll be going to the same online store that is offering the 15% cashback but through the EBates website to get there, it's totally worth doing!
15% cashback this week includes:
Groupon
Living Social
Ralph Lauren
Macy's
Nike
Clearly.ca
Garage
and sooo many others!
Click here to find out more about EBates Canada and USA, including how to sign up through my referral (we both win!)
Click here if you're already with EBates Canada and here for EBates USA, to see how much cashback you'll receive for each store and which stores are included.

Monday 9 May 2016

AMEX USA Platinum 100K Membership Reward Point Offer!-DEAD

Dead.  Died this a.m., May 9th, of natural causes.
If you've never had the US AMEX Platinum offer before, and you have a Social Security Number, this is the time to apply!  After hitting a spending threshold of $3K USD, you'll get 100K AMEX Membership Reward points!  This is NOT a public offer and I do not get anything for you using this link.  It's an incredible card, with lounge access for your family at Pearson's Centurion Lounge as well as all the other Centurion lounges out there.  There are other lounges around the world that you will have access to (Maple Leaf is generally not included).  No foreign exchange fee, a $200 airline reimbursement fee per year that you can use that in a sense, drops the cost of this card down to $50USD--$450 minus the $200 for this year and the $200 for next year!  The CDN version of this card isn't close to as useful.  For example, in Canada, you can convert your points to Aeroplan or Avios, but in the US, there are several other airlines you can convert your points to, including Flying Blue (Air France).
US AMEX cards also give dozens of offers on every card that change regularly.  You can add any or all of the offers to your card.  For example, last week, they gave some card holders a Samsung Pay offer of spend $20 using Samsung Pay (available at many stores in the States), and get back a $10 refund on your statement.  They also offer other interesting offers that won't show up on your AMEX online account.  Back late last year, they offered a free Uber ride from LaGuardia with a promo code up to (I believe it was) $70 if you showed up at the LaGuardia Centurion lounge (during their open hours) and showed your airline ticket to them.
If you convert your points to CDN AMEX points, it's done as if you were exchanging US to CDN dollars!  You can only do one conversion every 365 days, but in today's money, that would be over 125K AMEX points!
Little time to apply as this link may die on the operating table by day's end!  It's the highest offer that is ever offered for the US AMEX Platinum!

Thursday 5 May 2016

Get 350x2 American Airlines Miles for Free + Win 350K!

Get 350 American Airlines miles for free and get a chance at winning 350K AA miles to celebrate their 35th anniversary.  If you tell them what your saving up your miles for, you'll get another 350. Click here to enter the contest.  This will mean you extend the life of your account by 18 months in case you aren't regularly flying AA!

JFK to Hong Kong thru Toronto/Vancouver for $330.84USD return!

Dates for the flight that I've checked are in November, for example,  Nov. 6-14.  I couldn't find flights in the summer that were even close to that price, but if you can get off work in November, go for it!  If you book it through Orbitz, you'll have 'til 11pm the next business day, to cancel.  Go through Ebates and get 8.1% cashback through Orbitz too, making this trip cost $29.61 less--$330.84! With Priceline, you'll have 'til tomorrow night 'til 11:29pm to cancel, BUT because the itinerary is mixed with more than one airline, there will be a non-refundable booking fee of $6.99USD per ticket. Booking through Orbitz or Priceline will give you time to try and find a good hotel deal. 
Though there is a long connection time, whether in Toronto or Vancouver, if you can snag a ticket coming back through Toronto and you don't wish to continue to NY, you can just take your bags and abandon that flight, or have a vacation in NY and fly back on the return at your convenience (one way will take you there or you can fly with AirCanada.com directly from Toronto for $600+).
Major hotel chains are all there, and it's filled with a rich culture.  Those who keep kosher have several options as well as a few synagogues that function there, including Chabad of Hong Kong, that will help set you up for meals.
Get them before they go!