RBC Avion Visa Honest Review: Worth It While Paying Off Debt?
The tap works, the points are fine, and the fee is the real question. A first-person look after years of daily use.
I've had the RBC Avion Visa for years. It's my daily driver, mostly because the tap works reliably and my other cards keep demagnetizing in the console of my Yukon. That's a real reason. It's also the wrong reason to keep an annual-fee card while you're paying off debt.
The good
- Tap reliability that puts every other card in my wallet to shame
- Avion points transfer to airline programs at usable rates
- Insurance package that has actually paid out for me once
The honest math
The annual fee is roughly $120. To break even on that in Avion redemption value, I need to spend enough on the card each year that the points I earn beat cash back on a no-fee card. For most people paying off debt, that math loses.
What I'm doing about it
I'm keeping the Avion for one more year because the tap failures on my other cards make it genuinely inconvenient to swap. Once the LOC drops below $20K, I'll downgrade to a no-fee RBC card, keep the account age (good for my credit score), and stop paying for a benefit I barely use.
A rewards card only "pays for itself" if you'd have spent the money anyway. In debt payoff, that's rarely true.
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