Earn extra credit with low-fee cards
Travelling the world on a student’s budget is possible thanks to rewards point programs
At 26, Andrew Greenwald is already a seasoned traveler.
“Just drop me off in the capital city or a big city, and I’ll make my way back to the airport on my own two weeks later,” the Toronto student says.
In the past year, Greenwald, who attends the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, visited Halifax, New York, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom. The year before that, he taught English in South Korea, which led him to Japan, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand.
Greenwald is saving up to take another trip, although he doesn’t plan to spend a cent to get there. Instead, he’s collecting Aeroplan Miles on his CIBC Visa Classic.
Once reserved for frequent flyers with sizable incomes, travel rewards cards have grown to accommodate a wider range of consumer. Now, there are even rewards programs designed for cash-strapped students.
In the last five years, Greenwald collected enough points to trade for airfare to anywhere in North America. But, ever the intrepid explorer, he’s saving for a longer journey.
“I’m hoping to go somewhere a little more out-of-reach,” he says, referring to his dream destinations, such as South America or back to Europe.
Armed with credit cards with low to no annual fees and interest rates equal to non-rewards credit cards, some students are amassing rewards points.
“I put pretty much all my purchases on my credit card,” says Edmund Lavado, an18-year-old Carlton University student. Groceries, gas, even his traffic tickets go on his BMO SPC Mastercard. He’s eligible for the same discounts he would get if he were carrying a conventional Student Price Card, but with the rewards card, he simultaneously collects one Air Mile for each $20 he spends.
He’s collecting at a slower pace that he would with a premium card, but Lavado has learned a few strategies to maximize his reward-earning potential.
For one, he always gases up at Shell gas stations. Shell is an Air
“Just drop me off in the capital city or a big city, and I’ll make my way back to the airport on my own two weeks later.”
ANDREW GREENWALD
TORONTO STUDENT
Miles sponsor, so he can double-dip at the pump by earning both regular Air Miles and, in addition, converting the dollars he spends on his credit card to Air Miles. Both Air Miles and Aeroplan offer online shops where members can earn bonus points for shopping online. But Lavado’s most effective strategy is to use his credit card to buy items he would normally buy with cash, and to settle his credit card bill every month. This way, Lavado’s dream all-inclusive vacation will not come at the expense of interest payments. According to Jennifer Weisman, the director of credit card marketing at BMO, most students are more responsible with credit cards than they’re reputed to be. A recent BMO study found that 73 per cent of post-secondary students they surveyed pay off their balance in full every month.
If that’s the case, a student like Lavado could use the good credit established with a student-friendly card to graduate to a card with better reward-earning deals, such as Capital One’s Aspire Travel Platinum Mastercard or the American Express Blue Sky card. Neither card requires an annual fee, but both do require good credit in order to qualify. For each dollar spent, they offer one mile or 1.25 Blue Sky points, respectively. And those rewards can go toward any kind of travel, from car rentals to a TTC Metropass.
“We all know that student life is expensive, with books, groceries, gas, social events and more,” says Amanda Betti, the communications co-ordinator at American Express Canada. “So why not earn rewards for those purchases that would be made anyway?”