Do you make a lot of purchases where you can't use a credit card, or perhaps you don't qualify for a decent rewards credit card, like the Citi Enrich 1% Cash Back card?

Well, there are actually reward DEBIT cards (yes, those Interac cards) available for Canadians.

Now, the rewards are nowhere near as good as those offered on credit cards, but you can use these everywhere, and often on big-ticket items where credit isn't accepted, but Interac is, like tuition, rent, computer parts, etc.

So, here are the only two Canadian reward debit cards that I could find:

BMO Air Miles Debit Card Rewards:

Bank of Montreal will give you 1 mile for every $40 you spend with your debit card. This isn't so bad, considering that their no-fee credit cards offer the same level of rewards. For 175 miles, you can get a $20 Gift certificate to Shell (which you can use on gasoline).

For 175 miles, you can get the same Cineplex "night out" coupon offered with Scotia Bank. And for 125 miles, you can get a $20 gift certificate to Roots. But basically, the cash-equivalent rewards are about $20/175 miles.

This means that you'd have to spend $7000 to get $20, or a return of about 0.28%.

Scotia Bank Scene Points & Scene Debit and Credit Cards:

Scene points are really only good for one thing: seeing movies at Cineplex theatres (Galaxy Cinemas, Cinema City and Famous Players Theatres (including Coliseum, Colossus, Silver City and Scotiabank ((formerly Paramount)) Theatres). So, if that's useful to you, then great, but Air Miles offers wayyyyy more spending opportunities.

Since you can get Air Miles rewards through a number of methods, it's better to earn that, rather than being a member of 5 different points programs where it takes you forever to reach the rewards threshold on any 1 program.

Each $5 you spend on your Scene Debit card gets you 1 point. If you have their Scene Credit Card, you get 1 point per $1 spend.

The same Cineplex Odeon "night out" package (2 adult tickets, 2 drinks and popcorn) costs 2500 Scene Points. So, to earn this, you'd have to spend $12500 on your Scene card. Soooo... the BMO plan is better, since you'd only have to spend $7000 to get that reward. Having said that, their Scene Credit card is pretty decent if you do like going to Cineplex theatres.

Individual Adult tickets cost 1000 Scene Points, or about $5000 in Debit card purchases.

Scene Credit Visa Card

Since you get 1 point per dollar spent, and a Cineplex Odeon "night out" package costs 2500 points, you can get the package once spending $2500. If you are used to paying full retail prices for 2 adult Cineplex tickets + 2 drinks + popcorn, that's a value of around $30+ (especially if you live somewhere with high sales taxes), which is a reward of1.2%+, which is better than cash-back credit cards (But with more hassles).