Credit cards & Foreign transactions

[lifephasenext]

It is a bit disheartening to see the credit card bonuses offered in the US, isn’t it? We wanted a card that had no foreign transaction fees and there are very few options in Canada (3 last I looked). The one that we used to have (a Chase Marriot) pulled out of Canada. We now use the Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite so there are no further fees on top of the normal currency exchange. It does have a points-back system where the points are convertible to $ credits. What I discovered, though, is that if you use the points against travel costs (AirBnB, flights, trains, buses, rental cars, hotels, etc.), the value of the points is significantly higher than if you just request a credit against your statement. (I just checked and they are having a very good promo right now, including no fee in the first year and loads of points, so might be worth checking out if you are in the market.)