Maximize Your Earn, Part 2: Non-Amex Credit Card Multipliers

Welcome back to our series on how to leverage credit card multipliers to maximize your earning potential. In Part 1, we focused on cards issued by American Express. 

American Express is a great bank to accumulate points with because of its vast array of transfer partners available through American Express Membership Rewards. It also has co-branded cards with Air Canada, making it easy to accumulate Aeroplan points, a major player in our Canadian landscape.

Unfortunately, not all retailers accept Amex, given that it tends to levy higher merchant processing fees. Undoubtedly there’ll be times you’ll have to pull out a Mastercard or Visa, so in Part 2 of this series, we’ll now look at category earning multipliers on cards issued by other banks.

For simplicity’s sake, we’ll only focus on Canadian cards that earn airline points currencies or their equivalent, as opposed to cash back cards or other fixed-value points currencies.

Canadian Banks with Airline Partners

American Express has the most flexibility when it comes to transfer partners, with a total of six airline partners and two hotel partners. However, there are still some good Visa and Mastercard options.

In Canada, RBC, HSBC, CIBC, and TD all have credit cards with which you can earn airline points. 

RBC

RBC offers a few credit cards that can earn airline currencies directly:

RBC also has its own line of Avion credit cards that earn RBC Avion points, which can be transferred to four airline partners.

The transfer ratios from RBC Avion to the airline currencies are as follows:

Keeping these partners and ratios in mind, let’s look at what the credit card multipliers are, if any:

RBC earning rates are pretty easy to remember. Other than the premium cards and money spent on airlines, you’ll earn 1 point per dollar spent. The exceptions would be the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard which earns 1.5% WestJet Dollars on regular spending, and the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card, which earns 1.25 points per dollar spent on travel.

For a higher base earning rate of 1.25 points per dollar spent, grab a premium card, but be sure you can justify the higher annual fee (perhaps by redeeming for business class flights at 2 cents per point). 

HSBC

HSBC offers their own group of Mastercards that earn HSBC Rewards points, which can transferred to three airline partners at the following ratios. Note that there is a minimum transfer amount of 25,000 HSBC Rewards points.

With these partners and ratios in mind, let’s look at what the credit card multipliers are. 

Sometimes just looking at the multipliers can be misleading. You also have to take into consideration the transfer ratios.

Let’s take an example to illustrate this. Imagine you have to spend $15,000 (CAD) on a two-week Mediterranean cruise.

If you put that spend on a HSBC Travel Rewards Card, you’d earn 3x points on travel, thus netting 45,000 HSBC Rewards points. If transferred to a British Airways Executive Club account, you’d get 18,000 Avios, for an effective earn rate of 1.2 Avios per dollar. Not bad for a card that has no annual fee. 

If you put the spend on a HSBC World Elite Mastercard, you’d earn 6x points on travel, netting you 90,000 HSBC Rewards points. By converting these into 36,000 Avios, you’d have a superior effective earning rate of 2.4 Avios per dollar for a card that has a $149 annual fee, whose annual $100 travel credit brings it down to effectively $49.

Looking into the other benefits of this card, it also charges no foreign transaction fees, making it my top choice when travelling abroad. 

TD and CIBC

I’ve grouped TD and CIBC together because they both only have one airline partner, Aeroplan, although keep in mind that any Aeroplan points earned can be redeemed on any one of Aeroplan’s many airline partners. 

Both banks offer several different tiered Visa cards that will earn Aeroplan points directly:

Now let’s take a look at how their earning rates compare:

Note that for the TD cards with a Starbucks multiplier, you must link your TD credit card to your Starbucks account to earn the multiplier.

The earn rates between different tiers of TD and CIBC cards are rather similar, so when deciding between a TD or CIBC card, it may come down to other factors such as welcome bonuses and other credit card benefits.

If you’re looking for a no-fee entry-level keeper card, then the CIBC Aeroplan Visa Card is a good option compared to the TD Aeroplan Visa Platinum Card, which charges an $89 annual fee.

Keep in mind that TD and CIBC often offer a first year free benefit on their Visa Infinite cards, so with the higher earn rate, you may be better off choosing one of these cards for at least the first year. 

Which Non-Amex Credit Card Should You Use?

To determine which card will best maximize your earn, you’ll have to do a personal analysis to see what your spending and travel patterns are.

Your spending patterns will determine which multipliers pertain the most to you. Your travel patterns will determine which airline program you’ll want to invest in, how many points you may need, and whether you can justify the higher annual fee of a card in exchange for the other benefits that may come with it. 

Below is a chart summarizing the different spend categories and the credit card with the best multiplier based on what airline currency you want to accumulate. 

If collecting Aeroplan points is your goal, the only options are a TD or CIBC Aeroplan Visa card. Which tier of card you choose will depend on what you spend the most on, whether your spend can justify the annual fee, and the welcome bonus at the time.

If you can justify the annual fee of an Infinite Privilege card, you’ll maximize your earn with 1.25x as a base earning rate and 1.5x on most major categories of spending.

If you’re saving up for an aspirational flight experience like Singapore Suites, then your only option is HSBC, and the best card for spend would be the HSBC World Elite Mastercard, which will earn a minimum of 0.72 miles per dollar spent.

If you’re planning to fly on an airline that’s part of the Oneworld alliance, then consider your spending patterns.

For regular spending, it’s a close race between the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Privilege Card or RBC Avion Visa Business Card, which earn 1.25 Avios or Asia Miles per dollar spent. The HSBC World Elite Mastercard is another solid contender, since it earns a minimum of 0.8 Avios per dollar spent, as well as 1.6 or 2.4 points per dollar spent on gas/groceries/drugstores and travel, respectively.

For any travel-related expenses, the HSBC World Elite Mastercard takes the prize, at 2.4 Avios, 2.16 KrisFlyer miles, or 1.96 Asia Miles per dollar spent.

Perhaps consider holding both an RBC Visa and an HSBC Mastercard so that you have one of each in your wallet, as not all merchants will accept both.

I purposely omitted American Airlines AAdvantage program in the chart for simplicity, as the conversion from RBC Avion isn’t the greatest, and both Avios and Asia Miles can be used to redeem for the same flights.

There really isn’t too much use for AAdvantage program in the Canadian landscape ever since Qatar Airways joined the Avios family. However, one exception would be if you’re looking to book Qsuites with the lowest taxes and fees – in that case, the RBC Avion cards would be the preferred choice. 

If you’re looking at a higher base earning rate, then you’ll want to look at the Visa Infinite Privilege cards, which all earn 1.25 points per dollar spent as a base earning rate, and 1.5 points per dollar spent on dining.

The higher earning rates alone, however, may not justify the high annual fee of $599, unless you can take advantage of the other benefits that come with the card.

And finally, if you’re a Starbucks fan, then you’ll probably want to look into a TD card rather than CIBC, as they offer a 50% bonus if you link any TD Aeroplan card to your Starbucks account.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, there are still many merchants that don’t take American Express, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop earning airline points.

RBC, HSBC, TD, and CIBC are all banks that offer Mastercards and Visas that can, in some cases, offer better earning rates on airline currencies than American Express.

Take some time to analyze your own spend and travel patterns and see which card or cards will help you achieve your travel goals sooner.