Like, don't courier your bank cards to anyone. That should go without saying. If someone is saying something's going on with your account. Maybe log into your account and check first? Hang up and call your bank? Why are people still getting scammed like this? https://youtu.be/ID-rxAA-58Y?si=1rAmc3o3jkdt6vcW

I will be hosting at least one information session with my friends and families before the year runs out.

I have just two credit cards - the WS Infinite Privilege Visa (free, given my WS holdings) and the Amex Cobolt (~$175 a year). I'm finding that points dont really do much for me any more. Most of my travel is with work and so I only take maybe 1 personal vacation a year (something simple like an all inclusive or a city break to one mid range hotel) so playing the points game doesn't seem to do it for me and I think I prefer more tangible rewards like direct cash back where I can see the impact more directly. The cost of Amex has also gone up this year.

I'm thinking of converting the Amex points to Aeroplan and then closing down the card - do you think this is a good idea or is the Amex card still considered the best general spending card? For context I probably spend about $400 a month on groceries, maybe about the same on dining out, I dont drive (for gas points) or spend a ton on other higher point categories like subscriptions. I'm not sure the Amex is really worth it any more?

Hello PFC,

I am in the process of purchasing my first car. I spent the last couple of weeks doing research on what to check when purchasing a used vehicle, and how to get a good financing deal. I thought I was making the right choice - going for a reliable used car (2023 Toyota Corolla hatchback with 22,000km on it) and saving up my money beforehand. I am trying to follow the 20/4/10 rule.

In order to minimize the amount paid in interest, I was trying to put $15,000 down (out of the total of $29,000) and finance the rest. I have a strong credit score (700s to 800s). However, the finance manager at the dealership told me that my interest rate will be high since I am financing a relatively small amount. Also all the salespeople so far have been telling me that since auto loans are open I can pay them off early at any time, but the sales manager said that in the future banks might punish me for that by charging a higher rate on my mortgage etc. She is trying to convince me to go for a 5 year loan instead.

Is there any truth to what they are saying, or is this all just a way for them to push me in a direction that will bring them a greater profit at my detriment? I told them I will give it some more thought and let them know.

Hey everyone!

I'm newish at this so my apologies if there's any stupid questions or comments. I'm looking for advice on optimizing our credit cards to maximize cashback and Aeroplan points

We currently have a CIBC Costco Mastercard (3% cashback on restaurants and Costco gas, 2% on Costco.ca purchases and other gas stations, and 1% on everything else), and a TD Cash Back Visa (1% cashback on groceries, gas, recurring bills etc. and 0.5% on everything else). I have this card mainly because my chequing account is with TD. I'll be switching to a better cashback credit card then potentially switch to another bank once I've figure out what make the most sense.

I also work at Costco, and a large portion of our grocery spending is done there. We spend most of our money on Costco groceries, dining out, and gas since I commute a bit farther for work.

I've done some research and am considering getting the Amex Cobalt and TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite - thinking of switching over from TD visa cash back to the Aeroplan visa to take advantage of the welcome bonus and start accumulating Aeroplan points then cancel a few years later.

I'm thinking of keeping my CIBC Costco Mastercard, applying for the Amex cobalt and the TD Aeroplan Visa infinite and potentially one more card that's good for cashback?

I've heard the Rogers Mastercard, American Express Simply Cash, Wealth Simple credit card (no charge for using your credit card outside Canada), and Tangerine were also good credit cards.

What I'm wondering is - is the Amex cobalt and the td Aeroplan visa the best for Aeroplan points? What card is best for cashback? It looks like it's the Amex Simplycash but not everywhere takes Amex. How many credit cards are ideal?

Our main goals are to maximize cashback and earn Aeroplan points - I want my parents to experience a business class flight and eventually...hopefully my husband and I too :)

Thanks in advance :)

My oldest credit card is a Capital One card that I’ve had since 2020. It has an annual fee of about $100, doesn’t earn any points or offer any meaningful benefits, and I don’t use it anymore. At this point, I’m basically just paying the annual fee to maintain the credit history.

My second-oldest card is an Amex Cobalt, which I’ve had since 2022. I also have a few other credit cards that I’ve opened over the years.

I’m wondering if it’s worth keeping the Capital One card around solely for the credit history, or if I’d be better off cancelling it.

How much of an impact could closing my oldest card realistically have on my credit score, especially given that I have other cards with several years of history?

I’m really confused and frustrated with this whole credit limit situation, and I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar.
I’ve been with CIBC since I was 18. I got my first student credit card with a $1,000 limit, no annual fee. I’ve always paid my bills on time, never missed a payment, and I don’t carry a balance. I’m now 21, and despite requesting a credit limit increase several times over the years, my limit has never changed.
About a year and a half ago, I opened an account with BMO and got the cashback credit card with a $1,500 limit. I eventually moved my banking over to BMO, and my paycheques now go directly into my BMO account. I no longer use CIBC for anything other than keeping that original credit card open.
The issue is that I’ve now graduated, have a full-time job, and earn a regular income, but my credit limits are still ridiculously low. I can’t comfortably make larger purchases on my credit cards because the limits are so restrictive. I recently had to buy a plane ticket that cost $2200 with my debit card.
I always pay on time with BMO as well, so I genuinely don’t understand what the issue is.
I recently requested a credit limit increase from BMO, and they wouldn’t approve it either. Their explanation was essentially that I haven’t been at my current job long enough

For context, my credit score is above 788
What makes this even more frustrating is that most of my friends who got credit cards around the same time I did have significantly higher limits now. I understand that everyone’s financial situation is different, but I’m trying to understand what I need to do differently.
Am I missing something? Is this just because I’m young and don’t have enough credit history or income history yet? Or is it because the credit cards have no annual fee is it’s low priority?Should I apply for a different credit card with another bank, or would that potentially hurt my credit score without solving the problem?
I’d appreciate any advice from people who’ve been in a similar situation, especially those who started with student credit cards and eventually got higher limits.
I’m just tired of having to work around such low limits when I’m doing everything I thought I was supposed to do to build good credit.

Thank you

Edit: thank you everyone for your suggestions. I’ll definitely look into them.
And also just a side note, my credit utilization is usually between 30 -35 %. My credit limit is usually a problem when I want to make huge purchases.

Thanks again!!

Hello!

I'm hoping to get some outside perspective advice. I'm not sure what flair to put it under.

I bought a townhouse condominium roughly 11 years ago, right before the housing boom. My condo is currently worth almost 3 times what I paid for it so I am in a pretty good spot where I am. I still owe on it, but if I sold I'd definitely be pocketing a hefty amount.

The problem right now, is I work a dead end automotive factory position. I'm just a general labourer. I saved up for years for the down payment on my place by myself. I take care of everything by myself. I do not have any real tangible emergency funds right now and I am just coasting by. Not in dire straits at all but if I were to get laid off I wouldn't last more than a year maybe. Automotive isn't in the greatest spot currently.

My family recently have been hounding me to "live my life" and "I don't know why you don't just do what you want and travel and get a career". It's been starting to wear me down.

Recently I've been really thinking that I don't need all of the space I have in my townhouse condo. I was looking at apartment buildings in my area and noticed that realistically, if I sold my condo, I could be very close, if not totally, buy an apartment outright. Depending on where I'd go, I could possibly have money in the bank as well.

Is this a good idea? My brain seems to think so but I don't know at the same time. Would it be better to sell, pocket the money, and rent something instead?

My other problem is I would like to start investing but I don't even know if it would be smart with my current income or what would be the best spot to start. I do have some sort of investment through my work but I never seriously looked into it. It's like a profit sharing plan I think? All I know is I can't touch it until I no longer work for them.

I'm sorry if this isn't allowed, just not sure how to go about any of this.

I'll be inheriting a family cottage in Quebec from my mother at some point. There almost certainly won't be any money left in her estate to pay the resulting capital gains, so I'm sure I'll be on the hook for that. I'm trying to plan ahead and save up the money for it, but I have no idea how to calculate the adjusted cost base. The cottage wasn't purchased, my dad built it himself in the 70s out of whatever cheap/free materials he could get his hands on. So how does that work?

Hi, I’ve been reading through some of the posts here about parental leave/maternity leave. I’m confused by the rules on the federal site. Hoping someone can help me out. Husband and I both work full time.

-I am due in Feb, I was planning on taking six weeks of maternity leave only. Then I’ll return back to work.
-My husband was going to do a year of parental leave. So returning back to work in Feb 2028.

Questions - Can we both be off at the same time, or would his leave start after my maternity six weeks is up? And is he allowed to take a full 52 weeks off? I’m seeing cases of 40 weeks only, and it’s confusing.

Thanks very much for your help.

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the kind advice on taking more than six weeks off. Your perspectives are making me think about extending that for sure!

My wife and I are early in the process of shopping for our first home. Online, we found a place we liked, and wrote to the seller's agent to arrange a visit.

We had planned to eventually hire our own buyer's agent to help walk us through the process of purchasing. When we arrived at the condo and explained this to the seller's agent, though, she said that since we'd contacted her directly, and since she was doing the showing by herself, we no longer had the option of involving a buyer's agent. Our only option, if we wanted to purchase the condo, would be to have her operate as both the buyer's agent (i.e. our agent) and the seller's agent.

Two questions: first, is her assertion that we're not able to involve our own agent in this situation legit? Is seems slightly fishy to me. If it matters, we're in Quebec.

Second, if it is true that we can't have our own agent, is there some other person we could hire to guide us through the buying process, and look over documents to make sure we're not getting screwed? If so, who would this be? A real estate lawyer?

The condo looks great, tbh, but I'm a little uneasy only interacting with the one agent who only has the seller's interests in mind, not ours. I want someone "in our corner", looking out for us. But if this can't be our own agent, who it could be... any ideas?

We really like the place...! How can we move forward intelligently?

I’ve been dealing with unemployment for about a year and a half now. Because of that my already bad financial situation turned worse and all my various debt went to collections.

I was recently approved for the DTC and 10 years of back payments. (Ive already opened an rdsp too) I’m currently waiting for the back payments to be processed (hopefully before the end of the year) I’m am expecting $15,000-$20,000 in back pay.

I want to use this money to help get a chunk of my debt out of collections to not only to clear it but improve my basically 0 credit score.

I know I owe the debts but I also know that most of the collectors may accept a settlement vs never getting anything.

So my question is how do I prioritize what debts to pay and how do I go about negotiating a settlement to pay a smaller amount than the owing debt but have it marked as paid? Like how do I approach the conversation/what do I ask? Is there a difference between paid in full and a settlement?

Do we reach a verbal agreement and then have them email or mail written agreement before I make the payment? To ensure they cant change the terms?

How long after clearing the debts will it take for my credit score to start improving? Its low 400s right now.

My approx debts owing, not including government student loans. Everything except TD is with a collections agency

TD Visa
$8000 - account is marked as “open” (still held at TD, but they didnt renew the card/cancelled it due to my poor external score even though payments were being made monthly)

Captial One
$1400

Pc mastercard
$3700

Rogers
$2000

Canadian tire
$1000

Easy financial
$12000

Teppermans
$11000
Not sure why this one is $11000. The items and original loans were only for no more than $3500. Maybe its interest? Idk

Hi there, I have a 4 month internship starting in January and plan on opening an RBC cross border account since I’m already with them with no plans of returning to the US. I’m currently fully allocated into XEQT and was wondering whether I should be converting my usd to cad to reinvest in Wealthsimple, or if there’s a better way to invest it to avoid fees and utilize the US currency.

Any experience/help would be appreciated.

Hi, I used my RBC WestJet credit card to pay for a flight on Expedia 6 months ago but since then I have switched my credit card to a no fee one since I didn’t find value with the card. Due to plan changes, I had to cancel part of my trip. The refund is going to back onto the original form of payment. With the card switch, my card number has also changed. Will the refund still show up on this card or will it be stuck in limbo with RBC?

​

Basically I just paid off my condo. Let's say it's 500k. I basically exhausted all of my savings. Since it's all paid off, can I do a smith maneuver on it? Borrow against the fully paid off property with the equity of it then use it to invest?

Where should I invest it? Clearly more than what the rate is but what else should I consider?

If I need to state my net income on a gov form…is that before or after I claim RRSP’s? I don’t want my income to be over a certain amount.

Thank you!

Any one lock in a good rate recently for 3 year fixed?

I've recently gone through the trouble of setting up auto-pay for all my credit cards from my Wealthsimple checking account. I don't need to remember paying each of them every month, and if I don't have the funds, the overdraft protection will give me until end of day to fund my account without paying interest.

I wanted to share the steps for the lenders I use, in case it can help others:

• Amex : Easiest of all, just fill the form on their website (Payments > Manage Pre-Authorized Payment). However, they will charge the chosen amount (minimum amount of full balance) regardless of any manual payment before the due date. Consider this if you want to pay early to get some credit back.
• CIBC : Mostly easy. It can be done online (Manage my card > Manage Auto Pay), but Wealthsimple isn't in the list of institutions. You have to either modify the request before it's sent to the server and manually set the institution number to 703, or call them to do it for you.
• Desjardins : It has to be done on the phone, but they were very helpful. They did ask multiple times if the institution number was really 703 because it wasn't on their list, but eventually they were able to set it up anyway.
• RBC : Using the in-app chat, they said it's impossible and I have to setup a bill payment from Wealthsimple. When I called them, the agent initially said it was impossible, but when I insisted twice and asked for a written proof that they don't offer it, he changed his mind and was able to set it up.
• Scotia : On their website, it says you must visit a Scotiabank branch to set it up (link). Using the in-app chat, they confirmed it cannot be done using the chat or on the phone, and I really have to visit a branch to "sign some documents". When I went in-person, the employee initially told me to use bill payments from Wealthsimple. When I insisted, he said he doesn't know how to do it, and the counselors don't know either, so I should come back the day after when his supervisor is available. I went the next day, and the supervisor told me the same thing : I have to use bill payments, they only support auto-pay from Scotia checking accounts. But when I showed the website, she said "Oh, now I understand what you want", and they were able to set it up. They did ask me to sign a form authorizing the direct debit from my Wealthsimple account.

It's very frustrating how difficult some financial institutions make it very difficult to setup something that they offer and are completely able to do. It feels like they even train their employees to say that it's impossible unless a customer really insists. It's like they're all competing to offer the worst customer experience thinking we don't have a choice and will stay with them. I might be dreaming, but I hope that with Wealthsimple bringing some serious competition, some of them will think about how good customer service can be a long-term strategy to keep clients.

Anyway, this was my half guide, half rant about the state of our banking sector, I hope you enjoy!

Hi there, I have received an inheritance and need advice choosing between 2 financial planners. I'm located in Quebec, Canada. Both have an FPI certification, both have roughly the same management fees. One is an advisor through my bank, the other works at an independent firm. I've had some smaller investments through the bank person in the past but a couple people have suggested I'd make more money with a non-bank advisor.

Option 1)

• Advisor with my bank
• Previous investments with her did very well
• Bank is a reliable institution
• She is nice
• There have been 2 instances that give me pause: In the first case I tried to reach her during a market crisis and didn't hear back from her for several days, which may be normal for all I know. The second was when I met with her more recently to discuss investing my inheritance she mentioned a document she needed and said she would follow up with me a week later, which she did not (I have not otherwise provided the document.) Not a huge deal, but not great.

Option 2)

• He is an advisor with an independent firm called CRW (dealer is Canada Life, an insurance company.) He's also a founding partner, if that matters.
• He had a very slick powerpoint presentation, but ultimately he offers the same thing as the bank lady.
• He seems nice
• My hesitation is that he isn't affiliated with a bank or another large investment company (Industrial Alliance and Fidelity are a couple of big ones here.) He explained that the dealer relationship makes it impossible for the firm to shutter and make off with my money, but I worry that it's somehow less secure than the bank.
• He was recommended by an acquaintance in real estate and I kind of wonder if she gets a referral fee of some kind, not sure how that works.

I'd be grateful for any advice, thank you.

Was starting to look at places at the beginning of the year, but then unfortunately dealt with some pretty heavy personal loss and now am just feeling like getting back into it. But of course fixed rates went up a month ago, and now it looks like BoC is raising rates on Wednesday.

At this point what's the best option here? My rent is too high and I want to stop feeling like I'm wasting my money, but I don't want to lock into too high of a rate and regret it.

Any advice is appreciated.

Hey all,

My insurance bundle is up for renewal for my 2 autos and home in a little over a month and I'm tired of the price slowly creeping up. I used to switch between companies based on what was cheaper but never used a broker before.

When people say to look into brokers, are they referring to actual agents like mortgage brokers or online brokers like rate aggregators like rates.ca? If so, any recommendations for one that is easy to deal with and genuinely gives good rates? Or should I stick to just those online tools that look at every provider?

Currently i have 20000$ sitting in a RBC savings account for 4.6% interest which will end next month. What could be my better options? Don’t want to invest in stocks or gold as the prices are not predictable. Want to keep increasing the money and save up to 100k so i can buy a house next year. Suggestions?

I got laid off in my factory job because of the latest tariff hits and have no clear timeframe of how long it will last. I haven’t been working for 9 days now and might have lost around $1k in wages.

The thing is, because of the layoff, I took more shifts in the fast-food place and did around 30hours for 5 days which amounts to around $550.

Will EI give me something worth applying for? Thank you in advance!

Just closing on a house soon. I have 25k in my FHSA already and still have 8k for this year to deposit. Just trying to time things correctly so my money is transferred in time.
If I transfer in the 8k then I can still withdraw the 25k without waiting the 5 business day settlement period? Or does transferring in 8k somehow lock up the rest of the funds till it is all cleared?

Hey there!

I’m catching up on a whopping 6 years of taxes. I fell really far behind due to complex and intensive mental health problems and lack of support due to my disability.

As part of trying to survive and keep my head above water, I somehow managed in that fog to pull in self employment income. I never went over 30k, was really just enough to sustain myself.

Now, I absolutely owe in taxes due to the self employment and having not paid CPP in all those years. Would anyone advise it would be good to do the application just for the sake of avoiding penalties and interest charges? The figure I currently owe is going to probably ruin me if I’m demanded to pay a good chunk of it.

I am also applying for a disability tax credit, which if I’m approved should help balance things out. I couldn’t afford to pay anyone to help me file my taxes, so have been spending ages learning and asking a lot of people for advice and guidance to learn how to do it all by hand. It’s been a long and mentally exhausting process.

I think the Voluntary disclosure is the last thing I’m curious about how to navigate, and how much information (re: extreme mental illness for a lengthy period of time) to include.

Thanks in advance!!