aka: CIBC Dividend Infinite Visa vs Capital One Cash Back Plus Platinum

It looks like CIBC card is the successor card to the CIBC Dividend Platinum Visa card that I've written about before.

The tiers are the same, and there's still an annual fee, but as a nice plus, the card now includes:

• Some travel health coverage (read the policy for the full details)
• Allows you to go over your credit limit without getting hit with a Visa overlimit fee (A feature created by the credit card company's creation of a fake problem)
• Visa Infinite Concierge Service

High Annual Fee Credit Cards

The annual fee for the CIBC card is still $79, which can wipe out the benefits for many.

As I calculated in the original article, based on the tiered cash-back system: "if you spend $50 000 on this card in a year, you'll get about 1.47%
cash back, or 1.312% if you include the $79 annual cost." You really have to spend a lot of money in the higher tiers to make up for the lower earnings in the lower tiers + the annual fee. Contrast this with the MBNA Smart Cash, with no annual fee, which offers a flat 1% cash back, but 3% on gas and groceries. 

The major competitor credit card to this one is the Capital One Cash Back Plus Platinum (Compuglobalhypermeganet), another high-annual fee card with big cash back rewards for (only) big spenders. 

The Capital One Cash Back Plus Platinum offers:

• 1% cash back annually on total purchases up to $10,000
• 1.5% cash back annually on total purchases between $10,000.01 and $20,000
• 2% cash back annually on total purchases above $20,000

This works out to a 1.7% cash back on $50 000 in purchases, or 1.5% after taking into account the $99 annual fee for the Capital One Credit Card. The annual fee is higher, but associate cards are free, vs $39 for the CIBC card. Of course, the "Visa Infinite" awards like travel insurance and Infinite Concierge are unavailable.

Overall, you yourself must determine, based on your own spending habits (and any associate card users!), which card would be the best for you.  The best advice is, do your research! Compare as many offerings as you can!