Mississauga Financial Services Deals

Shopping around for a new MasterCard? Here's one that may appeal to the travel bug in you -- apply for a new WestJet RBC World MasterCard by September 30 and you'll receive 100 WestJet dollars and a $99 round-trip companion flight.

The $99 companion fare is valid when purchased in conjunction with another seat on any WestJet-operated flight in Canada or to the continental US. The $99 price does not include taxes, fees, and surcharges. The 100 WestJet dollars are equal to $100 towards any flight with WestJet, including the $99 companion fare. Cardholders will earn 1.5% back in WestJet dollars on every purchase and 2% back when purchasing WestJet flights or vacations.

Now that we've told you the good news, here's the "less good" news -- this card has an annual interest rate of 19.99% on all purchases and cash advances and an annual fee of $79 for the primary card and $39 for each additional card you may require. For complete details on other fees and late penalties associated with this card, or to apply, visit this page.

There is also the option of the WestJet RBC MasterCard for a lower annual fee of $39 for the primary card and $19 for additional cards. Cardholders who opt for this version will earn 1% back in WestJet dollars on purchases and 1.5% back when purchasing WestJet flights or vacations. With this card you will receive 50 WestJet dollars as your bonus gift and will not be eligible for the $99 companion fare.

Note: While the deadline for the 100 WestJet dollars and $99 companion fare is listed as April 30, 2012 on this page, the offer has been extended until September 30, 2012.

If you're searching for an affordable service to trade stocks online, you should take a look at Questrade.com. Questrade is a Toronto based direct-access broker that offers a per trade price from $4.95 to a maximum of $9.95. They also have no activity minimums, no inactivity fees, and 24-hour account management.

Use offer code redflagdeals when signing up a new account with a minimum of $1000 and you will also receive a $50 rebate. Additionally, if you move an account with a minimum of $25,000 from another Canadian brokerage, Questrade will pay your transfer fees up to a maximum of $150.

If you're looking to do more research, there's a long-running thread in our personal finance forums that discusses Questrade with over 2000 replies.

Capital One has recently rolled out changes to some of its more popular credit cards. The biggest story is the revamped Capital One Aspire Cash World MasterCard. Capital One has cut the annual fee (from $120 to $0!) and made some other important tweaks. Here's how the card breaks down now:

• no annual fee
• 1% cash rewards on all purchases
• 50% extra cash rewards every year
• $100 bonus cash reward on your first purchase
• No limit to the amount of cash you can earn
• Ability to add an authorized user for $0
• World MasterCard benefits including travel insurance, extended warranties, and more
• minimum income of $60,000 required to apply

The removal of the annual fee is a big shift that makes this card very appealing. The annual extra cash reward has also moved up from 20% to 50%, which gives you an effective cashback rate of 1.5% on your purchases. To top it off, there aren't caps or limits to the cashback -- it applies to all purchases and there are no hoops to jump through for redemption. You also receive great perks with this being a World MasterCard -- things like extended warranty coverage up to 2-years and travel insurance.

With the new changes, we'd have to say that the Capital One Aspire Cash World MasterCard is now one of the best cashback credit cards available. If your income doesn't meet the requirements of a World MasterCard, the Aspire Cash Platinum MasterCard still offers an effective 1.25% cashback rate with no annual fee and a $30,000 income requirement.

As always, you can check out the RedFlagDeals.com Credit Card Comparison Tool as well as the discussion thread in our personal finance forums for more insights.

If you're carrying some credit card debt, chances are that you're paying 19% -- or more -- on it. MBNA has a decent, no-fee, no-frills card that's particularly good for balance transfers. Here's a look at the MBNA Platinum Plus MasterCard:

• 0% Annual Interest Rate on Balance Transfers for the first 10 full months
• 0% Annual Interest Rate on Access Cheques and Deposits
• No annual fee
• Credit Limit up to $100,000
• Extended Warranty Benefits extending the written warranty for up to one year on most new purchases made with the card

Application restrictions are pretty minimal -- you must be the age of majority with a minimum total household income of $35,000. If you're looking for some of the higher-end credit card perks -- cash back or price protection -- you'll probably do better with something like the Smart Cash card -- or you can explore all the options with RedFlagDeals.com's Canadian Credit Card Comparison page.

Tax time is almost here, and UFile.ca is one of many tools that you can use to make your tax preparation a bit easier. Like other online tax preparation tools, UFile.ca has a range of free and paid options. Here's a look at the groups that qualify for the ability to file tax returns free of charge:

• Low-income taxpayer with income of $20,000 or less
• Free File Friday for taxpayers 60 years or older, March 2 with promo code 543P292
• Student in a post-secondary program last year

If you have dependants, you can also file their tax returns for free. If you don't fall into any of these qualifying groups, you can still try UFile for free -- you will, however, need to pay when you are ready to file.

Low mortgage rates are still making a big splash. If you're looking for long term security, ING Direct is offering a 10 Year Fixed Rate "Unmortgage" at 3.99%. Some other institutions have followed suit, but a 10-year fixed rate mortgage at under 4% is definitely news!

ING Direct mortgages give you flexible prepayment options -- you can make lump sum payments up to 25% of your original mortgage amount and increase regular payments up to 25% every year.

If you're still considering your options, you can compare mortgage rates with the RedFlagDeals.com mortgage comparison tool.

After BMO jumped out of the gate with a 5-year fixed rate mortgage at 2.99%, other financial institutions have responded aggressively with low mortgage rate offers of their own. Now, multiple banks have 2.99% 4-year fixed rate mortgages!

• 2.99% 4-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage at RBC Royal Bank
• 2.99% 4-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage at TD Canada Trust
• 2.99% 4-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage at Scotiabank
• 2.99% 4-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage at CIBC

Instead of the extra year you get from BMO, these 4-year mortgages tend to have a more flexibility in terms of paying off your mortgage -- longer amortization periods and higher prepayment/payment increase options, for instance. No offer is definitively better than the other since everyone has different needs.

All in all, it's a good time if you're hunting for a mortgage. Even if you aren't, educating yourself now will help you in the long run. You can start doing more research with the RedFlagDeals.com mortgage rate comparison tool.

November 26, 2011 Update: With the news in August that TD bought MBNA Canada, we can't be certain how much longer the Smart Cash Platinum Plus MasterCard will be available. To date, it remains one of the best no-fee cashback credit cards on the market, and it's very much worth a look if you don't have one. It could definitely come in handy during the holiday season, too!

Originally posted September 24, 2009: Still looking for the right credit card? MBNA has put an impressive credit card offer online. The MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus Mastercard is a no annual fee card with some pretty robust cash back rewards. Here are the details:

• Get 5% cash back on net gas and grocery purchases for the first 6 months (up to spending $600 per month, 1% thereafter)
• Get 3% cash back on net gas and grocery purchases thereafter (up to spending $600 per month, 1% thereafter)
• Get 1% cash back for all other net retail purchases
• 1.99% introductory annual interest rate on balance transfers and cheque cash advances for 10 months
• No annual fee

As a platinum card, it also carries the the normal platinum benefits -- a warranty extension of up to one additional year on most new purchases and free car rental insurance when renting vehicles. In terms of application restrictions, you do need to have a minimum income of total household income of $35,000 or greater. Overall, it's a very strong credit card offer. If you want to see how it stacks up to the competition, use the RedFlagDeals.com's Canadian Credit Card Comparison page or you can compare it against other MBNA Credit Cards here.

Capital One has recently introduced a new cashback credit card that will be a good fit for a lot of consumers out there. The Capital One Aspire Cash Platinum MasterCard has no annual fee and offers cashback on all purchases (1% with an annual 20% cashback bonus for 1.2% total). Here's a closer look:

• 1% cash rewards on all net purchases
• 20% extra cash rewards every year
• $50 bonus cash reward on your first purchase
• Ability to add an authorized user for $0
• Platinum perks including travel benefits (baggage delay, travel accident insurance, car rental collision/damage) and extended warranties (double the manufacturer warranty up to 1 additional year)
• $30k minimum personal income

With no annual fee, modest requirements, and some good perks, this is good general-use credit card. If you're not at a point where you qualify for or need more robust options like the very popular Capital One Aspire Travel World MasterCard, the Aspire Cash Platinum makes a lot of sense. You get platinum benefits, won't be restricted by redemption tiers, and you get a straight cash reward with no fuss.

It's worth noting that Capital One has also launched the higher end Aspire Cash World MasterCard as well.

To do more research, check out the RedFlagDeals.com Credit Card Comparison Tool as well as the discussion thread in our personal finance forums.

If you're considering opening a Tax-Free Savings Account or finding an institution with a better rate than your current, there are 2 options right now that are offering an interest rate of 3%.

The institutions are Peoples Trust and Canadian Direct Financial. Money at both institutions is insurable by the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation. Do note that Peoples Trust does not currently offer online banking.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, you can place up to $5,000 a year in post-tax dollars in TFSA-eligible accounts earnings on those dollars are tax free. You can also have a look at our quick primer on TFSAs that will give you the a rundown of uses, benefits, and weaknesses.

Remember, rates are subject to change!

TradePub is a magazine service that offers subscriptions to industry specific publications as well as complimentary eBooks and technical document downloads. Generally, subscriptions are free as long as you work in the relevant industry. Here are some of the goodies available at RedFlagDeals.TradePub.com:

• Oracle Magazine - Oracle Magazine contains technology strategy articles, sample code, tips, Oracle and partner news, how to articles for developers and DBAs, and more. Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world's largest enterprise software company.
• Bloomberg Businessweek - this offer includes four free issues and the digital playbook Power Plays.
• EDN - EDN magazine provides how-to solutions for design engineers in the electronics industry.
• Twitter Means Business - this eBook excerpt details how your company can benefit from Twitter.
• Bank Systems & Technology - Bank Systems & Technology delivers information on the strategic use of technology for increased productivity and profitability.
• Profit Magazine - this magazine reports on technology investments.

January 22 update: Good news! ING Direct's THRiVE Chequing Account is now available to everyone. It's one of a number of free chequing accounts out there but it's the most full featured by a fair margin. You can't get free e-mail money transfers, overdraft protection, and interest on your balance together in any of the other free chequing accounts. Originally posted August 26: Very soon, ING Direct will offer Canadian customers a no-fee chequing account called "THRiVE Chequing". Here are some of the features that might interest you:

• an interest rate of 0.25% for balances of $0 - $49,999, 1% for $50,000 to $99,999.99 and 1.1% for $100,000 and more.
• ING "Whoops!" overdraft protection covers you for up to $250 in overdrawn funds without fees or interest provided money is paid back within 30 days
• no-fee bank machine access to The Exchange Network
• free email money transfers and free first order of cheques (20), additional cheques are 20 for $10
• email notification every time you make a withdrawal

10,000 accounts will be available on September 14. You can learn more about the account here and pre-register if you are an ING Direct customer.

Wave Accounting Inc. is a Toronto-based company that provides web-based accounting software designed specifically for small businesses and it's all free, online, at WaveAccounting.com. The idea is to take those paper documents and Excel documents and get them into an accounting system with as little pain as possible. You can import transactions from your bank accounts, have Wave Accounting categorize expenses for you, and let the system do some of that manual accounting work. What's the catch? How can it be free? Here's how they explain it:

In Wave, you’ll soon see special savings opportunities for things that matter to your business. Mobile phone services, for instance, or office products, or business banking — all at a lower cost than you may be paying now. If you choose to take advantage of any of them, Wave gets paid by the supplier. So you save money and Wave makes money.

When it's free it's hard to beat and it's easy to sign up to give it a spin. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Toronto-based Payment Evolution has been getting some press recently with articles in the Financial Post and on StartupNorth.ca highlighting their free online payroll solution. It's tailored to small businesses looking to spend more time working on their business and less time dealing with the administration of payroll. Free is of course a very small-business friendly price, and it'll remain free for those businesses that have 5 employees or less. If you have 6 or more employees, it's still a very affordable $18 per month.

As far as we're aware, this is the only free payroll solution available in Canada; if you find more or other useful small business tools, please share them in them comments!

If you're looking for a travel rewards credit card, Capital One has emerged with a very strong offering. The Capital One Aspire Travel World MasterCard comes with a lot of perks and looks to be one of the strongest options available. Here's a look at the primary features:

• $120 annual fee
• 2 miles per $1 spent on all purchases (including travel that you redeem points on)
• sign-up bonus of 35,000 miles when you make your first purchase
• anniversary bonus of 10,000 miles annually
• extended warranties and price protection
• comprehensive travel insurance (accident, car rental, travel emergency medical, flight delay, trip interrupt, trip cancellation, baggage loss, baggage delay)
• option to redeem reward miles for cash or gift cards
• annual interest rate of 19.8%
• minimum household income of $60,000 required to apply

The annual 10,000 reward miles bonus takes care of most of the $120 annual fee (leaving $20) and the robust travel insurance is a big enticement. The sign-up bonus is definitely pretty juicy as well. Reward miles can be put toward a wide variety of travel costs -- flights, hotels, vacation packages, train, bus, cruises, and car rentals. The notable restriction is that there are set redemption tiers up to $600, at which point the redemption is just 100 points per dollar.

Overall, it's a very flexible travel rewards card. If you are careful about how you redeem miles, you can have a return rate around 2%. That, along with the other perks (travel insurances, extended warranties, and the option of 1.5% cashback for instance) make this worth checking out.

To do more research, check out the RedFlagDeals.com Credit Card Comparison Tool.