Financial Crooks

We aren’t big AIR MILES rewards customers. We have a credit card with a very low limit which we use for online purchases to reduce the risk of exposing our high limit card to fraud. That credit card earns us the occasional Air Mile. We also get a few Miles when we purchase groceries at Metro, wine at the LCBO, or clothes at one store our children like. We don’t shop at any of those locations frequently, though, so we don’t have many points. Still when I heard most of our AIR MILES were going to expire on December 31 2016, I went online to try to redeem them for something we might use.

What Is the AIR MILES Expiry Date?

Any AIR MILES earned 5 years ago or more will expire on December 31, 2016. From then on, when a Mile reaches 5 years of age, it will expire on the next March 31, June 30, September 30 or December 31.

Once AIR MILES have expired, they vanish. They have no value after they expire. It’s as if they never were earned.

How Can I Check When My AIR MILES Will Expire?

Go to the AIR MILES website at https://www.airmiles.ca/arrow/Home

In the text field under How many miles do you have? type your
Collector Number
And click on the Go button.

At the top right side of the screen is a choice called Your Profile.
Hover on the downwards pointing arrowhead beside Your Profile.
From the menu, select View Transactions.

You will be asked to enter your PIN.
(If you have forgotten your PIN, click on the Forgot Pin/Need Help link.)

In the text field type your
PIN
And click on the Continue button.

The Your Account Page

There is a list of choices under the heading Your Account.
Click on the Request an Expiry Statement link.

Check whether the email address they have on file is correct.
(If not, click on the link Update my email address in my Profile.)

If it is correct, click on the Submit request button.

If all goes well, you will get a green check mark and a Success! Comment in a green highlighted bar.

You should receive an email in 12-24 hours listing your AIR MILES and when they expire.

They warn you to check your Spam and Junk mile folder for the email.

If you’re finished with your AIR MILES transactions, from the top right side of the screen, click on Sign Out.

When Did I Get My AIR MILES Expiry Statement?

I’m waiting to see when I get my report.

I made the request at 6:24 EST Sunday July 17 2016.

I got the report on Monday July 18. So it is fast. It lists how many points will expire at each of the four next expiry dates.

For What Did I Redeem My AIR MILES?

The pickings are pretty slim for people with only a few hundred AIR MILES like me.
So far, I’ve redeemed my points for some tickets to the Calgary Zoo (to see the Penguins!) and to the Toronto Zoo (to see the Pandas!). You can see we’re going for a “black and white creatures” theme this summer.

I noticed, though, that they are limiting the number of tickets available to these zoos to 12 pairs of tickets per calendar quarter. That’s not very many happy AIR MILES customers!

They also are not “e-tickets.” You have to wait to get passes in the mail, and it could take 3-4 weeks for them to put those passes into the mail. With a mail strike pending!

When the mail strike was imminent a week or two ago, by the way, they refused to let you try to redeem the AIR MILES for these rewards at all.

UPDATE: The Calgary Zoo tickets have arrived so that took one week.

I suspect the passes will have to be redeemed for tickets at the zoos after waiting in a line for a long time. I’ll see how that goes when we get them and use them.

Do I Think AIR MILES Is a Good Reward Program?

No.

The only reason I belong is that it costs me nothing.

And back in the olden days, I used to get some reasonable deals buying diapers at Metro and getting AIR MILES and then using the AIR MILES to get $20 gift certificates for Metro. It worked out that I was getting the diapers cheaper than from Costco or Wal-Mart, especially since I would wait for sales. They don’t offer the same incentives recently, I’ve noticed.

Will I Be Able to Use All of My AIR MILES Before They Expire?

I’m not sure. I have to wait for my Expiry Report!

Related Reading

Join In
Do you collect AIR MILES? Will you be able to use all of your Miles before they expire? Did you find any good uses for low numbers of Miles? Please share your experiences with a comment.

Once a teen starts working they are going to need a “real” bank account. Many large employers want to give pay by direct deposit. The student will likely also prefer to have a debit card for school trips rather than carry a large amount of cash for emergencies. And, if your teen leaves home to attend college or university, they may need to write cheques for rent or other fees. When one of my relatives recently turned 16, we helped him choose a bank to open a “real” chequing account and get their first debit card.

Students Should Not Have to Pay Fees to Handle Their Banking

I don’t think anyone should have to pay fees to bank but I especially don’t think students should have to pay someone for the privilege of depositing and withdrawing their own hard-earned money! Apparently, the major banks agree because many of them offer free bank accounts for full-time students. And smaller banks like Tangerine and PC Financial offer free bank accounts for everyone.

Why Teens Should NOT Open Their First Chequing Account at a Big Canadian Bank

I buy Crest toothpaste. I’ve switched flavours and styles several times over the years, trying to get one that doesn’t taste too badly and that offers the most types of protection for my teeth. I’ve never even tried Colgate or the other brands. Why? Because I started using Crest as a child and I’m loyal to the brand.

I don’t want my teenaged relative, or anyone else, to feel “loyal” to a bank. Canadian banks abuse customer loyalty: they offer less interest and charge more fees to their customers on an almost annual basis. At the same time, they offer incentives such as higher interest and lower fees to “new” customers which they won’t always match for existing customers even if the loyal customers call in and ask for a deal.

So while a teenager or full-time student can open a bank account with reasonable interest and no fees at almost any Canadian bank, I’m advising them not to open one at one of the Big Five Canadian banks (BMO, CIBC, RBC, Scotia or TD.) It’s too risky that they will decide to stay at that bank when they graduate: and then they will start getting zinged with annoying and expensive fees and earn low interest on any savings.

At Which Bank Did I Recommend Our Teen Student Relative Open Their Account?

I recommended our teenaged relative open his first chequing account at Tangerine.

The two banks we considered were

PC Financial
Tangerine

We didn’t consider

because they don’t offer a full-featured no-fee chequing account with a debit card and ABM access.

PC Financial’s No Fee Chequing account and Tangerine’s Chequing Account do offer:

a debit card
cheques
free debit payments
free cheque payments (although you have buy the paper cheques for Tangerine and don’t for PC Financial)
a modest interest rate paid on chequing account balances
online banking, including with an App
the ability to set up automatic payments, for free
the ability to receive payroll deposits, for free

Why Did We Pick Tangerine vs PC Financial for a First Chequing Account?

There were a variety of reasons why Tangerine fit the customer’s needs better:

Tangerine currently has an offer (at least until September 2016 and probably indefinitely) that gives a customer opening their first account ever with Tangerine or ING Direct, a $50 bonus if they open an account and deposit $100 and if they enter an Orange Key from someone already banking with Tangerine.
PC Financial does not offer any cash for opening a new account.
Tangerine does not require the new customer to already have a chequing account. You can get your id verified and your signature set on the file at Canada Post locations. You can verify your id and set up your signature for PC Financial at their in store pavilions but there is no store near where my relative lives.
The PC Financial chequing account is better than Tangerine’s if you write many paper cheques because the cheques themselves are free to order. (You do get 50 free paper cheques from Tangerine when you open an account, but after they are used up you have to buy them.)
Our relative doesn’t have to write any cheques yet, so that wasn’t an incentive.
Tangerine offers free email money transfers. If the person receiving the money is a Tangerine it’s very fast to receive and deposit the money. Many of this relative’s friends and family bank with Tangerine so this was a valuable option.
The student will also be opening a savings account to hold “back-up money” for regular spending. That will keep the money at a slightly higher daily interest savings rate until it’s needed than leaving it in the chequing account.
Transfers from Savings to Chequing accounts at Tangerine take place instantly. Transfers from savings to chequing at PC Financial are delayed at least one business day. That makes Tangerine way more attractive.
The Tangerine website is clearer and easier to use than the PC Financial website.

Why Only Open an Account at Tangerine?

Actually there is no reason to only open one account. In time, I expect my relative to open accounts at other institutions.

Why Open Bank Accounts at Several Different Banks or Financial Institutions?

In the near future, I will be encouraging this relative to start playing the “interest rate” game. Electronic banking makes it very, very easy to move cash savings including those for education or vacations to maximize the interest earned.

When my relative has a $1000 or so saved up, I’ll be suggesting he check the rates for savings accounts at

Tangerine
PC Financial
Oaken Financial
EQ Bank

And others to see what’s on offer.

If there is a good rate, it will probably be worth it to open a savings account and move the longer term savings money into it. And when a better rate is offered somewhere else, move it again. It only takes a few minutes of typing and sometimes a letter to get it going.

For now, though, our relative is happy to have a debit card and a chequing account to get their pay. I’m happy they are not paying any fees and are learning that it shouldn’t cost them any money to save their money safely in a bank.