In my ongoing series about who is providing good exchange rate for Canadians, it’s time to re-recognize Apple. Their pricing have already been recognized earlier, however the newest iPhone is actually cheaper in Canada than in the USA. Given that the Canadian dollar is currently below par, the iPhone prices of $649, $749 and $849 for the 16, 32 and 64GB iPhone 4S are the same as their US Dollar prices.

This contrasts the iPhone 4 Canadian launch prices, which were $659 and $779‎ for the 16/32GB versions.

I had a Rogers message pushed to my computer yesterday, using the same mechanism that they use for bandwidth warnings. It said:

Effective between July 26, 2011 and August 3, 2011, your Rogers Hi-Speed Internet Extreme package will include up to 24 Mbps of download speed and 100 GB of usage per month at no additional charge (currently this plan includes up to 15 Mbps of download speed and 80 GB per month). You will be able to surf more, download more and do more faster than ever before!

This was interesting, because the previous service was 15MB/s and 80GB cap. So both the speed and the cap has been increased. If you look at their website, many of their current cable internet offerings have increased. Note that prices increased recently, so this upgrade was not “free”. Also note that unless you have a DOCSIS 3.0 modem, you won’t get these new speeds – I upgraded modems last year when I upgrade from Rogers Express to Extreme. If you are on an upper tier, call Rogers to make sure your modem can keep up with the new speeds you are paying for – or downgrade and save some money.

Rewards Canada took the time to examine all the travel credit cards available in Canada and produced this list of top cards:

1: Capital One Aspire World MasterCard
2: CUETS Platinum Class MasterCard
3: BMO World Elite MasterCard
4: BMO Air Miles Gold MasterCard
5: MBNA Travel Rewards Platinum MasterCard

They also rank no-fee travel cards, hotel cards and others.

At Williams Sonoma, they are running a sale on select All-Clad items. Specifically the 8″, 10″ and 12″ non-stick stainless fry pans are on sale. The 10″ was $115 with a cover and the 12″ was $149. I didn’t get the price of the 8″, I already have one.

Prices aren’t bad, the sale prices on the American website are $80 and $100.

They’re running out of stock in the stores, so if you’re an All-Clad fan, get these quickly.

I was looking at the Rogers Internet plans today and realized that both the $60 Extreme and $47 Express service are now 10Mbps. The only differences are upload speed (1Mbps vs. 0.5Mbps) and bandwidth cap (95GB vs. 60GB).

I’m not much of an uploader and I’ve never downloaded more than 60GB, so it was an easy way to save $156 a year.

Over The Rainbow has some of the best jeans selection in the city. They have both a blog and twitter and now are offering an online coupon for the summer:

Autotrader, arguably the best site for buying and selling used cars in Canada, is allowing people to list their cars for free. The listing will only be shown on the Internet and will not be published in their print publications. Take advantage of it now!

The only problem with the free listing is that there are numerous fake ads now. If you are shopping for a car, and a deal seems to be too good, it’s likely a fake and that is collecting email addresses or phone numbers. So be careful out there.

A while back I blogged about sling bags for carrying digital SLR’s. Future Shop has a great sale on the Lowepro 200 AW sling bag, just $80 until April 30.

I’ve always used a credit card that had purchase protection. It’s one of those “bonus” features that are found in most non-point cars that I think are really worth it. The TD Gold Select is one of the few cards that offer purchase protection and don’t have a fee. This protection even covers damages to an item you purchased:

Enjoy worry-free shopping with Purchase Security and Extended Warranty Protection. If an eligible item that you purchased in full with your eligible TD Visa Card is stolen or damaged within 90 days of purchase, it may be replaced or repaired or you will be reimbursed for it. If the item comes with a manufacturer’s warranty, you may be entitled to double the warranty period by up to 12 additional months.

There’s plenty of other cards that offer this, some without a fee – so shop around! It’ll protect you from purchasing broken tv’s.

Competition has been heating up in Canada’s discount brokers. About a year ago, they began rewarding active traders and large account holders with lower trading fees.

If you don’t have a large account or do frequent trades, shop around for the lowest normal rate. Here is a list of the trading prices for Canadian brokers:

eTrade – $19.99
TD Waterhouse – $29
RBC Direct Investing – $28.95
BMO InvestorLine – $25
CIBC Investor’s Edge – 25.00
ScotiaMcleod Direct Investing – $28.95
eTrade – $19.99
Questrade – 1¢ per share, minimum $4.95 / maximum $9.95 – this stands out as being better than the active trader/frequent trader fees of many of the other brokers.

Account holders with large asset values can benefit from dramatically lower trading fees. E-Trade is the winner here with the lowest asset value needed to get lower fees as well as having the lowest fee. Call your broker to make sure they have a list of all your account holdings (including spousal accounts) to make sure you can qualify for the cheaper trades. Here is a list of the brokers and their asset levels required to get lower trading fees:

eTrade – assest of over $50,000 get $6.99 trades (normal is $19.99)
TD Waterhouse – assest of over $100,000 get $9.99 trades (normal is $29)
RBC Direct Investing – assest of over $100,000 get $9.95 trades (normal is $28.95)
BMO InvestorLine – assest of over $250,000 get $9.95 trades (normal is $25)

The other way to get lower trading fees is to be an “active trader”. These reward people that make frequest trades with lower fees. There’s a few different ways that the brokerages have provided this:

CIBC Investor’s Edge sells 50 trades for $395. That’s $7.90/trade but you must use them in a year. (Normal price is $25.00)
ScotiaMcleod Direct Investing has $14.95/trade if you make 30-89 trades per quarter. 90+ trades get $8.95/trade. (Normal price is $28.95)
eTrade has $9.99/trade for 30+ quarterly trades. $6.99 for 150+ trades.
TD Waterhouse has $9.99/trade for 30-149 trades a quarter and $7.00 for 150+