The revamped TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card is officially here and to celebrate TD has introduced the best ever bonus of up to 145,000 points along with no annual fee in the first year on the card. News of the card’s overhaul was released this past July with changes to the earn rates, annual fee and benefits. We’ll cover those and this new welcome bonus here in this post.
The Best Ever Welcome Bonus
The card sees a new welcome bonus of up to 135,000 points. That’s the actual welcome offer if we are to compare apples to apples. It is being marketed as up to 145,000 points since TD is also including the up to 10,000 bonus birthday points you can receive. The birthday bonus however is there for any cardholder – new or existing so we don’t really consider a true part of the welcome bonus. That being said it is true that if you do included it you can earn 145,000 points in your first year with this card. Whichever way you look at it – 135,000 points and your first year free or 145,000 points and your first year free – you have the best ever bonus seen on this card.
The bonus is broken down as follows:
- Earn up to $1,000 in value† including up to 145,000 TD Rewards Points, and get a full Annual Fee Rebate† for the Primary and 1st Additional Cardholder† for the first year and additional travel benefits. Must apply online by May 28, 2023.
- Earn a welcome Bonus of 20,000 TD Rewards Points when you make your first Purchase with your Card†.
- Earn 115,000 TD Rewards Points when you spend $5,000 within 180 days of Account opening†.
- Earn a Birthday Bonus of up to 10,000 TD Rewards Points†
- Get an annual TD Travel Credit† of $100 when you book at Expedia® For TD.
- To receive the first-year annual fee rebate, you must activate your Card and make your first Purchase on the Account within the first 3 months after Account opening and you must add your Additional Cardholders by May 29, 2023.
I put the key elements of the bonus in bold text. Those two points along with the first year free are the primary part of the new welcome bonus and they are easy to achieve. 20,000 points right away on your first purchase and then an additional 115,000 if you spend $5,000 over the course of six months. That’s only $833.34 in monthly spending required which should be easy enough for those whose income ($60,000 personal / $100,000 household) makes them eligible to get this card.
Value in the Welcome Bonus
Here are just a few examples of what those 135,000 points can get you in terms of rewards:
- $675 worth of travel when you redeem via ExpediaForTD
- $540 worth of travel when you redeem for any travel that you book yourself and charge on the card
- $540 worth of education payments when you redeem your TD Rewards points via HigherEdPoints. ($540 is an example of the value as you have to redeem in 62,500 point increments for HigherEdPoints)
- $337.50 in gift cards.
Annual Fee
The card’s annual fee has been increased to $139 from $120. Although you do get the first year free with this latest offer.
If you are a TD All-Inclusive account holder, you’ll continue to receive a full rebate of the Annual Fee for the Primary Cardholder and the First Additional Cardholder as well.
Earn Rate Changes
Base Earn Rate
The base earn rate is now 2 points per dollar spent. This is a 33% decrease from the previous 3 points per dollar earned. This puts the value of the new base earn rate at 0.8 cents per point (0.8% return) when you redeem for the any travel anywhere option or 1 cent per point (1% return) if you redeem via ExpediaForTD. This is down from 1.2% to 1.5%. Personally I don’t like to see base earn rates below 1% on a premium card like this but I guess you can still can get 1% if you redeem via ExpediaForTD.
New Grocery, Restaurant and Pre-Authorized purchases accelerators
To offset the decreased base earn rate TD has added increased points earning for grocery store and restaurant purchases as well as pre-authorized purchases.
For grocery store and restaurants the new earn rate is now 6 points per dollar spent. This a 100% increase from the previous 3 points per dollar. This puts the value of this new earn rate at 2.4 cents per point (2.4% return) when you redeem for the any travel anywhere option or 3 cents per point (3% return) if you redeem via ExpediaForTD. Restaurants will include take out and food delivery as well!
For pre-authorized purchases the new earn rate is 4 points per dollar spent. This is a 33% increase over the previous 3 points per dollar. This puts the value of this new earn rate at 1.6 cents per point (1.6% return) when you redeem for the any travel anywhere option or 2 cents per point (2% return) if you redeem via ExpediaForTD.
Each of these new category accelerators have an annual spending caps of $25,000 each. If you hit that cap in any of the categories you will earn the best earn rate of 2 points per dollar on spending above the cap amount.
New ExpediaForTD earn rates
There are also slight changes to the earn rates for ExpediaForTD purchases. The card used to earn 9 points per dollar for online bookings or 6 points per dollar for phone in bookings. That has now been changed to 8 points per dollar for either type of booking. So a slight drop of 1 point per dollar for the online bookings and good jump of 2 points per dollar when you call to make a booking.
Ovearll these changes could either be good news or bad news and that will depend on the cardholder’s spending habits. With groceries, dining and pre-authorized purchases being very popular categories utilized by most Canadians these changes are good as it should actually work out for most cardholders to earn more points than they did before. However if you don’t make a lot of purchases in those categories and/or use a different card for groceries and restaurants with really strong earn then these changes are not so good for you.
However you will actually earn more points than what we list above on a portion of all purchases made on the card….. continue reading the next section to learn how!
New benefits and insurance enhancements
The changes for the First Class Travel Card don’t end with the earn rates. There are several new benefits and enhanced insurance coverage that starts today.
Birthday Bonus Points
Just like TD’s MBNA products they have added Birthday Bonus Points to this card. Cardholders will receive 10% of the total number of TD Rewards Points earned over the 12 months preceding the Primary Cardholder’s birthday, to a maximum Birthday Bonus of 10,000 TD Rewards Points. Depending on how much you spend on your card this could equate to earn rates of up to 2.2 points for base spending, 4.4 points for pre-authorized payments, 6.6 points for grocery/restaurants and 8.8 points for ExpediaForTD
$100 annual TD Travel Credit
New to the card as well is a $100 annual travel credit. This credit is applied on your first Eligible Travel Credit Purchase posted to the Account in a calendar year. An Eligible Travel Credit Purchase includes:
- A Hotel, Motel, Lodging, or Vacation Rental Purchase of $500.00 CAD or more made with Expedia For TD; or
- A Vacation Package Purchase of $500.00 CAD or more made with Expedia For TD, that includes a Hotel, Motel, Lodging or Vacation Rental booking packaged with a transportation booking.
Insurance Enhancements
The card now has three more types of insurance coverage and its travel medical insurance coverage has been bumped up to $2,000,000 per person from $1,000,000. Here are the three new insurance benefits:
- Mobile Device Insurance coverage up to $1,000 for eligible mobile devices in the event of loss, theft, accidental damage or mechanical breakdown.
- Hotel/Motel Burglary Insurance coverage up to $2,500 per occurrence for each Cardholder on the Account and eligible family members travelling with the Cardholder.
- Flight/Trip Delay Insurance is available when 75% of the trip’s cost is charged to the Card.
Wrapping it up
I would have to say for the most part the card has been made better. It has the potential to earn a lot more points for many of the cardholders, the additional benefits and insurance coverage easily make up for the $19 increase in the annual fee – and you won’t even pay that fee in the first year if you get the card with this latest welcome bonus offer!
Click here to learn more about and/or to apply for the card
† Terms and Conditions apply.
Sponsored advertising. The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) is not responsible for thecontents of this site including any editorials or reviews that may appear on this site. For complete and current information on any TD product, please click the Apply Now button.