Finally in Canada-FREE Credit Score-UPDATED INFO

For years, it's never been an option to get your credit score for free in Canada without some kind of deal-1 month free, Home Depot flipping the bill for a full year free--and while this new option does not provide details other than your credit score, , whether it's excellent, good, fair, etc., and how that fairs against the general population, it's still something.  Unfortunately, it only updates once every 3 months.
The weird thing is that even though it claims to get its information from Equifax (one of two credit reporting agencies in Canada, along with TransUnion), the numbers don't match with my Equifax score directly from the Equifax website.  The discrepancy is 27 points, which is due to Borrowell using a different scoring model based on the information provided by Equifax.  Sort of how FICO and TransUnion use the same info to get a different score.  Equifax claims that banks use Equifax more than the other credit reporting agencies.  Frankly, I didn't even know and I'm suspicious as to whether FICO even does Canadian scores.  That is what the agent at Equifax told me, but when you go to myfico.ca, it redirects you to TransUnion Canada.
It's important to know your credit score, as it should influence you as to whether you should apply for premium credit cards (ones that expect you to have a high score), whether there's a problem that you're unaware of (e.g., your score is being badly impacted by a card you haven't paid off the minimum payment for over 60 days because they email you your bill, and you changed your email address (YIKES!)), or whether you need to buy the whole package with Equifax to find out what is impacting your score, considering you are looking at getting a mortgage and you're unhappy with your credit score (should be at least 660).
Click here to sign up for your free credit score!

The Niagara Falls SCAM Volunteer Tax

Back on April 1st of this year, the CBC did a report on a volunteer tax that shows up on your bill in the Niagara Region that you can ask to have removed.  It goes by different names so on your bill, beside the GST, perhaps below it or above it, it may be called the Tourism Improvement Fee (TIF), Attractions and Promotions Fee (APF), Niagara Falls Destination Fee (NFDF) or Destination Productivity Fee (DPF).  Ridiculous.  An acquantance of mine put me on to this scam this morning, and explained how both at a restaurant and a hotel, he saw this on his bill, and after Googling it, he told the waiter/hotel desk worker that he won't pay it.  Both times, he was told, "no problem sir."  They removed it and gave him a new bill sans tax.
The money apparently goes into the coffers of the local businesses with NO paper trail.
Click here for the story.

YYZ-London Gatwick return from $587 return

UPDATE: DEAD
Westjet has a sale on flights to London Gatwick (not Heathrow) for $246 out of Toronto (a bit more out of Calgary), returning from $341, totalling around $587 return, taxes included.  A similar flight with Air Canada is going for $791.  Of course, it's NOT during the summer and has blackout periods.
Here's the details.  Click here to be redirected to the Westjet website info on the sale and to book.
Book by: July 26, 2016 (11:59 p.m. MT)*
Travel from: September 6 - December 14, 2016

Blackout dates:

October 6-7, 10-11, 2016
November 10-15, 2016
Lowest fares can be found for travel on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Fares on other days may be higher.

Offer limited and subject to availability. Advance purchase required.

Don't Miss Amazon.CA Deals Too!

I'm not too big a fan of the Canadian Amazon.  It has definitely gotten better, both in number of departments, variety of items, and whenever they have a CDN version of a deal day, but they're still FAAAAR behind the US Amazon.  It may be worth giving a look at their Prime Day specials today. Click here to be redirected, but know you need to sign up for an Amazon Prime Canada membership to take advantage of the deals. 1738 Amazon Prime Canada deals today, as opposed to 7753 deals on the US version.

Prime Day---And Amazon's Awesome Devices On Sale

UPDATE: DEAD
Amazon.com's Prime Day is ON with deals in every department.  Nothing that has blown me away, but their devices are on sale.
Click here to sign up for Amazon Prime USA for free for 30 days.  The Echo is $50 off ($129), the Tap is $50 off selling for $99 along with many other device deals!

Why CDNs Should Get Amazon.com Prime NOW!, Part VI

In this last of the 6 part series, I will explain a great reason to get Amazon.com Prime--even just dealing with Amazon.com without Prime--Superb customer service, with prices that easily beat what you'd pay in Canada, even after the exchange rate.
I've been on the phone with Amazon.com dozens of times.  Sometimes it's because the price of an item has gone up in my shopping cart since I added it, a day, two days, a week ago, and I'd like them to honour the original price.  A couple of days ago, I called because I had placed a coupon in my account and the item in my cart, yet when I got home, the coupon had disappeared--I suppose the maximum number of people had used the coupon and checked out with it--they gave me a $5 promotional credit to make up for it.
Tomorrow, on Prime Day, Amazon.com will continue offering a 3 month trial of Audible--an Amazon service that normally costs around $10USD per month, and gives you access to a library of books that you can purchase at a 30% discount with the membership--not such a good deal--but when you sign up, they'll give you a $10 promotional credit on your Amazon.com account just for signing up for the 3 month free trial.  These are the kind of reasons that keep me coming back to Amazon.com.  Or how about, replenishing your gift card balance on your account--place at least $100 in it, get $5 back--not a lot but it's just another one of the many deals Amazon gives you.
They have a chatline as well, and whether you can them or chat with them online, customer service is VERY important to them--their jobs depend on it as you will regularly be asked to fill out a survey as to how helpful the agent was with you.  I find the chatline people are the most generous, but over the phone they are also very generous with their desire to have you walk away satisfied after an issue arises.

Why CDNs Should Get Amazon.com Prime NOW, Part V

Part V will focus on the special savings to Prime Members--for example, tomorrow is Prime Day, a day when thousands of items will be marked down, and the best ones on what they call "Lightning Deals," where you have to jump quickly when an item becomes available for sale--then you have 15 minutes to check out or lose the item from your cart.  Prime members get access to some deals 30 minutes before non-Prime members.  While Black Friday week and Cyber Monday week used to be much more lucrative with Amazon.com, it still has some decent deals that you can take advantage of if you have a US address to ship things to as discussed in an earlier post in this series.

Amazon.com, even without Prime, is awesome.  Their prices change, sometimes daily for items, many times reflected what other places charge.  I've had Amazon.com price match another on-line store before though that's not policy for them--but if the price goes down on Amazon.com, call customer service and they'll match it (if it was a recently placed order). 

Amazon.com offers coupons for many items that are very good. For example, in a grocery box of items I'm having shipped to a US address, the first item of many of the items I'm buying come with a coupon for $1, $2, 35% or other amounts off.

The convenience of free returns on many apparel and the convenience of not shopping in stores, but having everything sent to an address that I can pick it up and take it back over the border makes it worth it.  With Prime, there is NO minimum, so for example, you can purchase one item for $1 and have it shipped free.

Please be sure to read the entire series of Why CDNs Should Get Amazon.com Prime NOW to not miss out on any of the info you'll need to get the most out of your subscription to Prime!  Please sign up HERE to get Amazon.com Prime membership for free for 30 days.