r/amexcanada

The machine takes them anyway when you try 😂 anyone else deal with this at restaurants? I'm in the GTA and had this happen over lunch today, but it's a common occurrence here in many mom&pop shops. Sounds like an owner who accepted the merchant rate (which included in their terms that they must accept Amex), but didn't want to deal with the cost of dealing with Amex customers, who usually spend more anyway.

Does anyone else try their Amex first (shout out Cobalt) before switching cards?

Business owners want the benefits of credit cards (consumers who are less sensitive to prices, tend to spend more) without paying the fees that get them to rack up a big balance. I say this as someone who benefits from credit card sales (family business), the % given to the payment networks is what we would otherwise spend in sorting change, bills, and depositing in banks, not to mention the consumption effect.

I’m coming up on 1 year with my AMEX Gold and went for it over the Cobalt because the SUP of 75K (unlikely I would have achieved those points with Cobalt). In total I accumulated roughly 120K pts which I plan to spread amongst Aeroplan and Mariott Bonvoy points. To avoid another year of fees, I want to cancel and change cards so I’m seeking recommendations.

My situation: I travel for a living with airline perks which don’t tie me to die hard Aeroplan pts collection (though I have some). My regular multiplier expenses are gas, food/groceries, airline tickets and few rental cars a year. My priority is to accumulate points that I can transfer either to Marriott, Hilton or airline partners. How I view the current cards:

Cobalt: Frequently recommended but I have my doubts with it primarily due to the 5x for restaurants since a lot of merchants aren’t recognized as restaurants by AMEX and I‘d end up with 1pt/$. Not many other perks to me or SUP worth noting especially if the 5x pts aren’t coming in.

Platnium: Way too expensive for what you get. Reduced lounge access and restaurant credits are even less enticing to me and this is what pushed me to Gold as it was a cheaper annual fee with similar perks. I only ended up using 1 lounge pass which was underwhelming. I have 6 passes with my Wealthsimple Visa available for now and that card covers my no forex international expenses.

Marriott Bonvoy: My biggest expense on leisure travel now seems to be accommodation. I’m leaning towards this card but the SUP of 60K pts sucks and the rest of the cards perks seem limited. I’m not planning on spending a ton of money at their restaurants either.

Aeroplan Card: I occasionally travel on Air Canada with my perks or if I’m redeeming points (which I find really difficult to accumulate and actually use) so the multipliers here aren’t useful to me. Neither Aeroplan cards seem useful to me and the new changes coming seem even worse.

That being said, what card should I switch to, or is the Gold the most suitable for me?

I have about 92k points on Amex and 32k points on Aeroplan. I’m looking to book a return fare ticket from Canada to India. What is the most optimized use of my points situation?

I noticed something odd with my Scotiabank Amex Gold (Scene+).
When I dine at restaurants in Canada I earn the expected 5x Scene points.
But when I use the same card at the exact same restaurant chains in the United States, I only get 1x.
Is this normal / expected behaviour for this card?
Does the 5x restaurant category only apply to Canadian merchants, or should it also trigger on U.S. locations of the same brands?
Curious if anyone else has seen this or has official confirmation from Scotiabank/Amex.
Thanks!

I’ve been looking everywhere in the app to update my new income, can’t find anything

As the title said, I was wondering what the ideal datapoints Amex Canada was looking for. Anyone approved for the shiny metal Gold card and can help?

I know the Cobalt is wayyyy better but for my first card I’d like the Gold.