Canadian travel hacking made simple

If you’ve been paying attention to some of our American neighbors, they’re doing something pretty interesting: by taking advantage of credit card sign-up bonuses, they’re racking up tens of thousands of travel miles, which can then be redeemed for perks like free hotel stays, cheap flights around the world, and other great deals.

But travel hacking hasn’t really caught on in Canada. Does that mean you should give it a try before everyone else figures it out? Let’s take a closer look.

How do you hack?

The concept behind Canadian travel hacking is simple. You find an attractive credit card offering serious bonuses for signing up or spending a certain amount on the card, and do whatever it takes to get the travel rewards. Once you’ve received your rewards, you move onto the next credit card. Hard core travel hackers have anywhere from two to 15 cards on the go at one time -- maybe even more.

In fact, some hackers are so involved in the game that they have to do something called manufactured spending to be able to get all the rewards. Many of these cards require a minimum spending level over a certain period of time to get the sign-up bonus. Since the hackers have so many cards on the go, they can’t possibly spend enough to satisfy each of the requirements. So they’ll do things like buy coins directly from the U.S. mint and then deposit them back in their bank accounts. It creates a transaction without having to actually spend the money.

And that’s really the whole concept of Canadian travel hacking in a nutshell. It’s one of those things that’s easy to understand, but hard to sometimes successfully implement. A travel hacker has to aggressively stay on top of all the deals, figuring out which sign-up deals are the best.

Can Canadians do it?

Sure they can. Canadians can do most anything Americans can, except maybe vote for the next president.

The issue is that sign-up bonuses aren’t quite as good on this side of the border. While U.S. travelers can routinely snag credit card sign-up bonuses worth $500-$1,000, Canadian travelers are left with bonuses worth only a few hundred dollars.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with getting a few hundred dollars of rewards. Take the TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card, one of the many credit cards you can sign-up for using our credit card page. It offers a 20,000-point bonus just for signing up for the card, plus an additional 20,000-point bonus once you spend $1,000 on it. Plus, TD will waive the annual fee for the first year of $120. For someone just getting into Canadian travel hacking, this is a good place to start.

Just how much are 40,000 points worth? You’re looking at travel points worth approximately $200. But if you kept the card for a year and spent an additional $2,000 per month on it, you’d be looking at rewards of nearly $500. That’s enough to fund a round-trip plane fare for an upcoming winter getaway.

How about if you prefer cold, hard cash? It’s certainly more difficult to hack your way to getting serious amounts of cash, but if you’re a big spender, you might want to try the SimplyCash Preferred Card from American Express. It’ll give you 5% cash back for the first six months of having it, up to a maximum of $400. And after that, you’ll get 1.5% back. If you’re a big spender, it’s easy to see how you could end up with $500, $600, or even more after the course of a year.

Conclusion

It’s tougher for Canadians to travel hack, simply because our banking system isn’t quite as competitive as the U.S. banks are. But there are still deals out there that can easily build your miles. I’d suggest anyone interested in Canadian travel hacking to keep an eye out and only sign up when the deals are too good to pass up.