The Home Trust Preferred Visa is one of only a handful of true No Foreign Transaction fee credit cards remaining in Canada. After a slight surge (And by surge we're exaggerating as we mean perhaps a dozen or so cards) in the No FX Fee market, it has dropped down to only four consumer cards, one of which is the Home Trust Card, one small business card and a trio of prepaid cards.
The review of the Home Trust Preferred Visa review is broken down into the following sections:
Overview
The Home Trust Preferred Visa is an entry level no annual fee cash back rewards credit card. It offers a simple earning structure and does not charge any foreign transaction fees on purchases made in currencies outside of the Canadian dollar.
Costs & Sign up Features
The Home Trust Preferred Visa is a no annual fee card so there a no costs associated with it in that regard! Currently this card does not offer a welcome bonus for newly approved applicants.
The interest rate on the card is 21.99% on purchases and 21.99% on cash advances and balance transfers.
You must have a minimum annual income of $15,000 or more to be considered for this card and it is not available to residents of Quebec.
Earning
The card earns cash back as follows:
- 1% unlimited cash back on all eligible purchases made in Canada.
The key term here is "in Canada" as purchases made outside of Canada including online purchases do not earn any cash back rewards.
Redeeming
The beauty of cash back credit cards is the simplicity in redemption - no worries about calculating value in travel or merchandise rewards. The cash back rewards are right there in front of you, no guess work involved and for many, cash is king.
With the Home Trust Preferred Visa card the cash back reward is issued once per year as a statement credit in January.
Features and Benefits
The Home Trust Preferred Visa only provides one benefit, but it's a big one:
No Foreign Transaction fees
The Home Trust Preferred Visa does not charge any extra fees for purchases made in currencies other than the Canadian dollar. This represents a typical savings of the 2.5% which is charged over and above the exchange rate on most cards in Canada.
Insurance
The Home Trust Preferred Visa comes with only one type of insurance coverage:
- Purchase Security Insurance - 90 days
What is good about this card
- Having No Foreign Transaction fees is the best thing about this card.
- The 1% cash back earn rate is strong for a no annual fee card. It isn't the highest out of all no fee cards but it does beat out a large portion of the competition which tend to award less than 1%.
What is not so good about this card
- Not being able to earn any cash back rewards on purchases made in foreign currencies.
- No welcome bonus offer, most of this card's competition offer some sort of welcome bonus.
- Only paying out the cash back rewards once per year. Most cash back cards in Canada have moved to on demand or monthly cash back redemptions.
- No extra features or benefits outside of the No FX fees including very limited insurance coverage.
Who should get this card
- Consumers who want an actual credit card that offers No FX Fees in addition to charging no annual fees
- Consumers looking to fill the Visa portion of their credit card portfolio with a no fee card where their primary cards of use are FX Fee charging American Express and/or Mastercard cards.
Conclusion
The Home Trust Preferred Visa is a basic credit card that isn't great but it's not terrible either. It's just somewhere in the middle. The No Foreign Transaction fees benefit is the main reason you would get this card. Yes, the 1% cash back earn rate is good for a no fee card, but having it limited to Canadian dollar purchases kind of sucks when other No FX fee cards (credit or prepaid) still give you rewards for purchases in other currencies on top of not charging an FX fee.
Latest card details:
Home Trust Preferred Visa Credit Card
No welcome bonus at this time
Annual Fee $0 | Additional Cards: $0 | Annual interest rate 21.99% on purchases, 21.99% on cash advances and balance transfers | $15,000 minium income
- 1% cash back on all purchases in Canada
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- Purchase Security insurance
- Click here to apply for Home Trust Preferred Visa Credit Card
Other cards to consider if you are looking at this card:
- EQ Bank Card
- Koho Premium Prepaid Visa
- Scotiabank Gold American Express card
- Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite card
- Wealthsimple Cash Card
This review was first posted on September 10, 2024 and is updated on a regular basis
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