5C's Que Pasa

For those who haven’t read all the comments go back and have a look.  Instead of doing my planned post for today I am going to respond to the comments.

Years and years ago our accountant suggested we get the highest limits possible on our credit cards.  We have three personal cards and one business card at the moment.  We use our credit cards constantly and pay them off in full every month.  We average $8,000.00 – $12,000.00 per month on credit between all the cards.  Often less when we are Mexico as we use cash.  Once we get the foreign exchange free card we will be using the card as much as possible in Mexico and now in Europe as we expand our traveling.  Many of the RVers only use their credit cards.  Why should I pay $20,000.00 in cash when I can get points from that money spent?

Using an ATM is only as good as having money in your checking account.  We only transfer the amount of money we need from our company to our personal accounts as needed.   Tax implications.  However we can’t just transfer the money on a whim.  Any money we use in Mexico ( Europe ) has to be totally transferred from our incorporated company account to the personal account before we leave Canada.

In past years we have put $20,000.00  twice on a credit card as down payments on cars we have purchased.

We use our credit card points to travel.  We have flown friends in to visit a few times and then got smart and started to save our points.  We now have enough points to travel to Europe and back in business class and to do it twice.

What if something medical happened to us and we needed to pay up front with our money before the medical insurance stepped in?  Or a mechanical issue with your vehicle or RV?  You can’t get $40.000.00 from an ATM if you don’t have money in your bank account.  I know people who have had to pay first and having a high limit card makes a huge difference.

Boondocking Mexico suggested that we likely would only spend $2000.00 during the one month trip to Europe.  We anticipate spending around $10,000.00.  With the 2.5% charge that adds up to $325.00 CAD.

Rae, excellent point re using your credit card for a few days re the travel medical insurance.  I agree, those $120.00 annual fees are worth it.  Too bad we can only write one off per year on our company.

Marlene and Barbara, of course we will have euro cash with us as well as use ATM’s.  We in fact need 800 euros cash just on our first day in Europe.  I don’t want to be stopping at an ATM carting a suitcase behind me.  Easy way to make myself a target for pickpockets.  So we are bringing the cash with us.

If we can and are able to have a high credit limit why ever would we not?  We are certainly not worried about the card being compromised and thousands spent by someone else.  When and if a compromise happens it is usually just for a few hundred dollars and then the credit card company deals with the problem.

Besides, what if we see a piece of art that we might want to buy?  We find that we have security in having a high credit limit.  It costs us nothing.

I recognize that everyone has to do what is right for them,  just as we have are choosing to do what is right for us.

Stayed tuned for our next project.

So we are off to Europe for an month in just two weeks.  Do we want to be running to the ATM every day or two?  Not really.  A credit card is the best way to go.

However 99.9% of Canadian credit cards charge 2.5% foreign exchange on each transaction.  What, you say?  So very true.  In fact there are now only two credit cards in all of Canada that do not charge the 2.5% FX per transaction.  One has no charge at all but its reviews are horrific and it takes from 8 – 10 weeks for the card to be approved and delivered.  All the reviews I have read say that customer service is practically non existent.  We went with the second card which has a $139.00 per year service charge and it was clearly the better of the two.

Did you know that some of the credit card companies take whatever currency you are charging, be it pesos or euros and then convert the amount to USD and then convert those USD to CAD which is what you pay 🙁  Some but few,  just go from the foreign currency to CAD dollars which is better.

But then 99.9% of Canadian credit cards add a 2.5% foreign exchange fee to each foreign transaction 😯   You must check the fine print on your credit card introduction paperwork.  That is a huge increase to each transaction, especially if  if you are traveling.  Do you know what your credit card is charging you ?

So I started to research non foreign exchange credit cards.  There are some very good ones that are MasterCard but as I already have a wonderful Westjet MasterCard with RBC we needed a new Visa card for Colin.  After having both of our cards compromised this last winter we have confirmed that we need a MasterCard (mine ) and a Visa for Colin.

So we decided to apply for a Scotia Bank Passport Visa for Colin.  The cost is $139.00 per year.  However one can get a supplemental card at no charge.  We have been going thru hell to get accepted, which is a first for us.  Our credit scores are excellent and we have  never ever been thru the third degree as we have  been, trying to get this card.  It has been a full week.  To date we have had to show our financial information for the past three years as well as all of our investment documents.  Yet they want more blood from our veins.

Our wish is to use the credit card as we travel to Europe in two weeks and then pay the balance off @ each statement and earn some nice travel points for the future.  Logical, si?  So we sit and wait and wait.  Worse case, we will just use our ATM card as we travel.  So here we are @ end of day Friday and no information.  Meanwhile last night I called my RBC Mastercard and asked for a limit increase (something I do on a regular basis with all of our cards. )  I was granted a $7,000.00 increase in less than 5 minutes with no questions asked 😯

Meanwhile we have discovered that part of the reason for the delay in the new Scotia bank card is that our address is different from what the credit bureau has for us.  Because of the different address they could not accept our excellent credit ratings and we had to start from scratch.

We have lived @ 315 since 2003 and moved in 2012 to # 319.  The credit folks still have us living at #315.  We moved to # 319 in 2012.  The only change in the address is one digit, from 315 to 319 and so I had to write a long letter today with many attachments proving our new address.  However here in Canada we have two credit agencies that watch over us, TransUnion and Equifax.  So I had to send a letter to both as I have no idea which or perhaps both have the error.

I spoke to a human at TransUnion today and he exclaimed at how high a credit rating I had, yet he could not change the address issue.  Meanwhile after 7 days we still are not approved for the credit card.  N0t quite true.  We are approved but for only 10K, we want a limit of at least 20K.  So we continue to wait.  The thing is, we don’t need the card but we just would prefer to not have to pay the 2.5% FX rate.  Yesterday I called my Mastercard company and asked for a limit increase.  In less that 5 minutes I had a 7 K increase with no questions asked.  But I don’t want to use that card in Europe as it has the 2.5% FX charge.  Worse case we will just make ATM withdrawals.

All I am suggesting, is that you check if you have to pay the foreign exchange of 2.5% or not on your card.  Secondly, is your credit rating correct or not.  We never thought of it but then when we apply for this new credit card, we were put thru the third degree and did not pass.  The funny thing is, is that with our current cards, our credit limit is just under $100,00.00.  So you just might want to check what your credit rating is.  In Canada there is no charge to obtain the information.  However in our case, the rating for us was fine but our address was mixed up and affected our credit 🙄

That was just one of the things I had to deal with yesterday…. 😕

I got my left leg injected today and it was not quite as painful as yesterday’s injections.  So now I wear my heavy thick compression stockings for a week.  Yuck 😥  Certainly not looking forward to my two sessions starting mid June when we get back from Europe.  It is going to be too hot to wear thigh high stockings.  Oh well, not much I can do about it.

We then proceeded to get another half day’s worth of errands done.  Now that the taxes are done we normally just relax and take things easy but not this year.  I am finally starting to get excited about our trip, we leave in just over two weeks.  The time is going to pass quickly.

I took no new photos today so here are some left over photos taken in my garden on the Isla.

This is the only evidence of a bloom that I have had on this plant in two years. I see it blooming everywhere prolifically but not in my garden.

Just after Semana Santa many sticks were left in the sand. I was amused at the birds balancing on the ends.

I never tire of watching the locals travel the beach.  The foal was following its mom.

Hope you all had a good day.  Thanks for checking in.

What a long day today turned out to be.  The focus of today followed by many errands was to get my right leg injected for my vein therapy.  Tomorrow will be my left leg.  However instead of three weeks in a row of treatment I will have to wait until mid June to complete the final two weeks.  One can’t fly after having the treatment so I am forced to delay my treatment.

What a funky bus from Alberta. Very red!

It just might be a very old bus conversion to RV.  The lady was driving and the fellow in the passenger seat was waving at me.

Once my veins were injected I had to take a walk.  I guess to get the medication flowing through my veins.

Loving seeing spring as we walked.

So many greens.

Some child built this birdhouse and here it sits in the middle of a city park.

An oasis in the middle of a neighborhood.

So ended another full day.

Quite the busy day again but we got so much accomplished.  We even sold both of our bikes and the bike rack.  I had purchased a new bike two years ago but only used it for 15 minutes.  I am just too frightened of falling and injuring my hips.  So I put it up for sale online Sunday evening and someone came to buy it today.  He saw Colin’s old bike and offered $50.00 for it and he bought our bike stand as well.  So we are ahead $270.00 and no longer have bikes cluttering our yard.

Speaking of our yard, we finally have a bud on one of our two trees about to open.

Walking is all I want to do.  Sadly once again I did not get out today. Other than going out twice to chase some geese off the lawn I haven’t been outside since Friday.  Stupid things like being on hold for the Government of Canada waiting to ask for some forms to be sent out took just under an hour as did so many other phone calls I had to make today.  It seems to be taking longer to get any one task completed.

Just for fun I thought I would throw in some RV TV shots taken in our last few weeks on the Isla.

They never seem to learn.  First the blue car got stuck and the red truck came right up to him and also sank.

He just kept spinning that tire until it was almost buried.

We had a lot of fog in March which was unusual.  It cooled things off and required sweaters and jackets.

Yet another one.

Pushing did not work nor did a small Jeep trying to pull it out. They finally had to resort to getting a tractor.

Success.

Gosh it is only 7:20PM.  We may get in an early dinner for a change.  Good thing as Colin is off a 5:45AM to get a specific exterior shot in the perfect light.