There are some important things to know about this card:

1/ It has a minimum credit limit of 10,000 dollars – the largest basic credit limit of any infinite card other than the RBC private banking infinite card. This will make it more difficult to qualify for.
2/ The concierge service is very limited with this card. In contrast, the TD infinite concierge includes all services, including trip planning. RBC’s is limited to just basic things.

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Best part of Visa Avion, a couple times a year they let you switch to British Airways points at a 1 to 1.5 ratio. Very cool, got enough for the wife and I to head to england a couple times this year.

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James: I received an email from a loyal reader who didn’t want to be named. I found his story really interesting and insightful he also informed me that “did you know that all three major banks use the same Infinite concierge call centre in the US but subscribe to different services? Well, when I called one day for using my RBC card for holiday trip planning I was told this is a premium service RBC doesn’t include in its concierge service. I gave them my TD infinite card and they said no problem – td apparently gives all infinite clients the full suite of services.”

I think James and Unknown both helped make this article so much stronger and useful to the public. Ultimately that is the main objective at BankNerd.ca

Kevin: We heard about the British Airways points ‘switch’ but we weren’t sure if it was a rumor or not. When we asked questions regarding it we received no replies. Happy to hear though that it isn’t a rumor! I hope you took plenty of pictures of your England trip, England is stunning. I’ve been trying to find time to fly out their (I am a huge soccer fan).

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Thanks Bank Guru – the concierge service is a bit of a mystery; I was surprised to find out the whole thing is an American enterprise. When I called them to order flowers for my wife recently, they said thank you for “using Visa Signature…oh, I mean Infinite card services.”

In other words, the concierge service is little more than a call centre company that works for a bunch of American card companies, and now appears to have moved into the Canadian market. I will say that the service personnel there are very professional, and they do their best to understand the nuances of the Canadian customer.

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Interesting update on Infinite RBC card. They recently lowered the minimum credit limit to 5K from 10K. I asked my local branch about it and they said that too few people were qualifying for the 10K limit and simply moving to other banks such as TD or CIBC to get the card. This seems to indicate several things: one, few Canadians have the income needed to get higher end cards; second, too many Canadians (many who do have higher incomes perhaps) are carrying large amounts of debt and can’t qualify for higher end cards.

I understand RBC’s decision, but I’m really not sure how the card is any different from a Visa Plat now?? Yes the design is different, but not much else it seems….

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Thanks for the update! It actually doesn’t differ much from Visa Plat. My guess is that market share was going away quickly and they needed to recoup it and also use it as an upsell for other products.

Thanks again for the update

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I have worked for both RBC and TD canada trust. My experience between the two infinite cards is that the TD card is far superior. Not only with ease of booking and flexibility of ways to book travel, but just that there is a clear value for your points whereas with the avion your point value changes depending on what you are booking which to me does not make much sense.

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HELLO,
CANADA EMBASSY

ROSS HORNBY
CANADIAN CONSUL TO EUROPEAN UNION AND AFRICA
canadaconsule@hotmail.com

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