mabba18

Update: Got the OBC conformation last night. ~5 business days, which seems good to me. It is showing up in Navigator and in My Account online. Oddly, it is listed twice 🤔

Purchased 100 shares of CUK and manually submitted screen shots with required info on Thursday 21 March. Got approved yesterday, 25 March. Just waiting for it to be applied by HAL. One question for those that have already used the Stockholder credit, or are onboard now: Is this credit covering gratuities? The actual benefit letter says it doesn't, but I've never seen other OBC with that restriction (only non-refundable or no casino).

I don't want to sound like a Freedom Mobile ad, but another thing I really like is that I can turn off overseas roaming at the carrier level, in my account online. That way it is 100% off, even if I don't do anything with my phone or SIM. Which is good, because it would drain my pre-paid balance in seconds, haha. Not sure if other carriers offer similar options. Also, as far as I understand, no pre-paid plan, Canada or European will work with celluar-at-sea. It might connect, but there will be no service. Only works with post-paid account that can be billed.

I just moved over to Freedom Mobile, and their roaming plans look pretty good. Disappointingly they don't support the one country we will be spending the most time in (Norway) on our upcoming cruise in May. Freedom mobile also has worldwide wifi calling. I will be able to use voice and text as if I was at home, using wifi or data. Our Previous cruise, I had signed up for Airalo, as it was the only eSIM I could find that covered most of the Caribbean. However, that cruise was shortened and re-routed the next day, and we didn't go to any of the countries that I paid for. Airalo refunded me in credit, which is more than I expected, so I am going to reload a European eSIM for our up coming cruise. I don't think Airalo is the absolute cheapest travel eSIM, but it is the one I have heard the most positive things about. I also have a few backup eSIMs with some extra data that were given away free. Not sure if any of those are still available now.

We had a Scotiabank Passport a few years ago, but we couldn't justify the annual fee for the amount we travel. Started to travel again, we looked to pre-paid cards for extra security. WealthSimple and Wise offer physical cards with no FX fees, like the EQ card already mentioned. We've had issues signing up for Wise, so I hesitate to suggest it. WealthSimple has been good so far. Easy to load, and 1% cash back on spending on top of no FX fees.