Canadian Credit card with no foreign fees - Brim Mastercard looks promising

[zurberts]

Hi everyone,

I do a fair amount of business travel and was disappointed when Chase disappeared from the landscape and took the Amazon Visa and Marriott card with them which offered no transaction fees in foreign countries.

Anyway, have been looking at alternatives and found this site but nothing really floated my boat: not interested in a Rogers/Fido card that pays out in their stores, Home Trust looked alright but when I did some digging saw some people were waiting months to hear back from them (probably because of Chase's departure from Canada) and Scotia's Passport charges a fee, and HSBC has a card but you need an account with them to qualify.

https://creditcardgenius.ca/blog/canadian-credit-cards-no-foreign-transaction-fee/

Then I came across the new Brim card which is new and after I applied, say they are in pre-launch so we will see where this goes but they claim to offer a free card with 1% cash back, no transaction fees and free Boingo Global use. They have a few fee cards starting at $99 which have a lounge key which got me excited but you still apparently have to pay to get access so I said forget that.

The Brim World and World Elite Cards give you LoungeKey membership and access to hundreds of exclusive airport lounges around the world, regardless of airline, frequent flyer membership, or class of ticket. Please note, it will cost you $27 USD per visit, per person. You can find more information about LoungeKey here [/size]including the full list of accessible airport lounges around the world.[/color]

Anyway, will let the group know how it works out. If you have experience with this, I would be interested to hear your story.

If you want to check it out. The link is below - I shamelessly include my referral link. I used someone else's online so they could get some cash back by my sign up. Hoping someone does the same :)

https://brimfinancial.com/?code=11371

[meghan88]

Thanks for reminding me about Brim.  I've been wondering whether it's worth having a card like this as compared with what we spend on the Visa Infinite after balancing out the points. 

If we spend 4K / year in Euros, I get 12K in points, which is worth $60.

I calculate that if we were saving the 2.5% that visa is charging, that's $100, which means a net difference of $40.  Not bad, but then there's the hassle of having to worry about another card.

The thing that really steams me is that TD is increasing the forex charges on ATM withdrawals, from 2.5% to 3.5%.  Not that we use much cash while we're there, but it still seems like a gouge.

Is Brim available to QC residents?  I know that the Home Trust card isn't.  We are moving from ON to QC at some point.

[zurberts]

Is Brim available to QC residents?  I know that the Home Trust card isn't.  We are moving from ON to QC at some point.

Can't find anything from a quick scan on their site but it does say on some online blogs that it is available in Quebec. You can always try to apply.

[zurberts]

Received this email the other day. Looks like cards are starting to go out. Will see when I receive mine:

Brim is proud to announce that we are processing card applications in the priority they were received and that Brim Mastercards are being mailed out tomorrow!

All approved applicants up to February 1st will receive an email notification on Friday. Cards will continue to be mailed out in batches based on application date.

We recognize it’s taken a bit longer than expected and we appreciate your patience. We want to assure you our team is working in overdrive to deliver a new payment experience we all agree is long overdue in the marketplace.

We are dedicated to protecting your privacy and safeguarding the personal information you have entrusted us with. Brim’s privacy policies and procedures comply with privacy laws and regulations and we are committed to the highest standards of data security and integrity.

If you have any questions or if there's anything we can help you with, please reach out to us at support@brimfinancial.com.

[zurberts]

I just received my card in the mail today. The online system allows you to lock out the card entirely, online purchases, or foreign purchases which I haven't seen before.

They also have a "budget" section which seems to itemize your transactions into different categories.

The mobile app says it is still "coming soon" on their site.

Will see how it goes when I try using it.

Keep you posted...

[zurberts]

I just came back from a trip to the US and was impressed with Brim. Their exchange rate was about spot on and here are a few things I learned/like:

- the online web portal lets you control what is locked out: the entire card, online purchases, foreign purchases
- you can change your pin online
- you get to see pending transactions and they show up almost instantaneously
- you collect points (like many other cards). What I learned though is that you can apply them to individual purchases in your transaction list to use them. A little different than other cards where you apply it to NEW purchases rather than ones you already made so you don't have to pull out the card and use it on something to make sure you get value out of the points especially if you don't use it all the time. It is very useful here since I would only use it internationally where they wouldn't know how to apply the points (I am thinking like PC financial where you use the points in THEIR stores).
- What really impressed me was that I arrived at my hotel late and needed to eat. Dominoes was one of the few places open. Once I placed my order I got a fraud warning text message and got to respond that it was a valid transaction. I also got an email a few min later (due to my email client resolving the message more slowly) with a similar message. It was good to see they are watching out for these things.

So far so good. I will keep using it as I travel abroad.

[zurberts]

The mobile app is now on the Google Play store for Android users (I see it is available for other platforms including Apple). It works well. For a while it would crash when you would go to certain screens but it has been improved.

What I have found useful in the app:

- they have fingerprint sign in
- it let's you lock out your card in the app (completely, online, internationally)
- you get to see AND apply the points you have earned to transactions. The only improvement could be that it updates your balance right away but that takes some time to update
- pending transactions show up quickly - even internationally
- posted transactions have a details button which show the foreign transaction type, amount, and spot exchange rate
- you can set travel notices right in the app - I would typically call the credit card company ahead of time so I wouldn't get blocked so this saves time waiting to speak with someone.

There is a budget section but I haven't played with that since my use is limited to international spending which gives a small window into my spending habits

All in all, I like the app!

[zurberts]

Another thing I learned about Brim which was a nice little treat:

as today is my Birthday I got a nice email from them (I wish all sites that you enter your DOB was as pleasant to read):

"To celebrate your birthday, we're adding 500 points ($5 value) to your account".

Very nice! Score!

[zurberts]

I just signed up for the free Boingo account. Once you have your Brim Mastercard, swing over to brim.boingo.com, enter in your card # and it tells you you get:

• One membership, at no additional cost
• Access to 1+ million hotspots worldwide
• Access on up to four devices
• No Wi-Fi roaming fees

The account setup was painless. I will try this next time I travel if there is a Boingo hotspot in an airport.

Some other useful links:

Managing your Boingo account https://selfcare.boingohotspot.net/login
Getting started with Boingo https://redeem.boingo.com/mcsi/signup-complete/?tid=2da78da9-47a0-4ae6-8c2d-48bfa0889374