Useful Coin Counting in Canada Links

Ever want to make apple caviar? Or some faux 90s Orbitz drinks? How about molecular mojitos?
Well good luck if you're in Canada and don't want to spend a fortune.

Once again, it's another year, and I publish a set of the average currency exchange rates for 2011, which are usually used for converting gains/losses into Canadian dollars. These are the rates that you could use for your tax return due April 30, 2012 for the 2011 tax year.

All in all, I found Avis to have the cheapest prices for me, totaling $186, all inclusively, for a 6 day rental of what Avis considers to be a full-size car (which they specify as a Chevy Impala or equivalent).

I'm sure this is a tired topic, but everyone has an opinion on it, so I figure I'll share mine.

I'm by no means a frequent flyer, in fact I signed up for Aeroplan so I could get the $3 discount per flight leg by being able to decline the Aeroplan points. They'll probably expire before I get anything out of them.

Here's my take:

BMO, the bank that offers the excellent Prepaid Travel Mosaik Mastercard, and the

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Just wanted to put in a good word for Global Towing and Recovery in Kitchener/Waterloo. They hooked up a flatbed tow in good time at a good rate that was almost half of what I was first quoted from another major local company.

It's not quite 2012, but the financial world is usually a sleepy one over Christmas and New Years.

Here's the likely list for 2012. I'll be sure to update it if anything manages to change. I hope it does, but I must say that the options today are far better than they were a few years ago. It's a good time to be alive!   

I just had an external hard drive, formatted NTFS, seem to fail in an unusual way.

The drive seemed to spin up fine and mount fine in Linux and Windows, but appeared blank.

It's not quite 2012 yet, but I see the car dealers all have 2012 models out, so I think I'm allowed to play the same game too.

Equifax is one of the two credit report bureaus in Canada. The other is TransUnion. There used to be a third, but they shut down their Canadian operations.

Credit report bureaus are required by law to discuss your report with you if their report was used and you were denied or rejected credit when requesting a loan.    

I have absolutely no idea what kind of help they can offer over the phone, so if you're aware, please post a comment here.

Assessment down for review, as some people really didn't like it... Please come back November 18th, 2011 for the re-assessed assessment :) (Well I guess that didn't happen... yet...)

Buy Online and Save Money!

Most items on Amazon are tax-free, so you're almost always saving money even if the price is "the same"! Often the price is less, especially if you can buy used, rather than the ripoff used bookstore

I just bought a car, and I figured I'd write this article to help explain some of the things that I had a hard time finding an answer to, or being too confident in the information I had received.

Debit Mastercards have been around forever!

Since 1982, some credit unions in Saskatchewan have issued their own debit Mastercards.

Most people think that there are only two internet options in most areas, usually something along the lines of "Rogers or Bell", but that's rarely true.

Two other, often far better options, available in all and some of KW respectively are:

Teksavvy

I should add that the price on Amazon seems to vary.

The economylube that I went to doesn't take appointments for e-tests,
they solely do it on a dropin basis and quickly, which is a much better
way of doing things for me!
They are, however, big on upselling, so just be sure to know what you're
going there for and get just what you need and came in for.

Seat GTE Simple Answer

This means that Air Canada is going to assign you a seat at the gate, but it could mean a lot more than that.

This card will be replacing the GM Card that TD bank has discontinued.

I consider the BMO Prepaid Travel Mosaik Mastercard to be the best reloadable prepaid cards on the market.

Here's (mostly) why:

It's the start of 2011, and this will be a review of my top picks for the best prepaid cards for various purposes.