BMO CashBack® World Elite®* Mastercard®*
This heavyweight cash-back card is ideal for big families, avid travellers, and pretty much anyone who spends a lot on groceries, gas or getting away.
Rewards: Earn 5% cash back on groceries for the first $500 spent in a billing cycle, at which point the rewards rate drops down to 1%. Cardholders also earn 4% on transit, 3% on gas for the first $300 spent (with a 1% earn rate afterwards), and 2% on recurring bill payments. All other purchases earn 1% cash back with no limits.
Welcome Offer: Earn up to 10% cash back for the first three months on qualified purchases (up to $2,600).
Annual Fee: $120 (waived in the first year)
Other Benefits and Drawbacks: The BMO CashBack® World Elite®* Mastercard®* comes with a few frills, namely $2 million worth of emergency medical coverage for eight days for any cardholder under 65 years old, but its real strength lies in its rewards. It falls short on its hefty $120 annual fee, but the card’s welcome bonus and other perks offset this cost.
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Neo Standard Mastercard
Anyone with a Neo account who wants to save some serious cash can look no further than the Neo Standard Mastercard. That is, if they also happen to shop at a lot of Neo partner stores.
Rewards: Unlike the other cards on this list, Neo promises an average of 5% unlimited cash back at Neo partners, rather than offering rewards for broad categories like groceries or gas. It also guarantees cardholders at least 1% back for the first $5,000 worth of purchases, regardless of a retailer’s individual policy.
Welcome Offer: Up to 15% cash back on a cardholder’s first purchase at a Neo retailer.
Annual Fee: $0
Other Benefits and Drawbacks: While a 5% cash back offer is particularly attractive to fans of Neo-partnered brands and stores (the financial company claims over 10,000 partners across Canada), it doesn’t offer any rewards outside of its network. This card also doesn’t offer much in the way of consumer protections or travel coverage.
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WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard
If you fly WestJet a lot, this card is for you. It may not have particularly high earnings, but the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard’s 1.5% across-the-board earn rate means nearly every purchase you make can count towards your next flight.
Rewards: Grants 1.5% of all everyday purchases in WestJet dollars or 2% back on all WestJet flights or vacation packages. However, WestJet dollars can only be used for WestJet-related purchases.
Welcome Offer: Earn up to 450 WestJet dollars (a value of up to $450 off the base fare). Get 250 WestJet dollars after the first purchase and 200 WestJet dollars after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months. Conditions applyǂ.
Annual Fee: $119
Other Benefits and Drawbacks: Unsurprisingly for an airline card, the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard offers a suite of travel and consumer protection perks. However, there is an obvious downside—you can’t use the rewards on anything except WestJet. This card also has a steep annual income prerequisite of $80,000 for a single person or $150,000 for a household.
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CIBC Costco Mastercard
Anyone who eats out, buys plenty of Costco products online, or simply fuels up regularly at a Costco pump should consider this card thanks to its decent rewards points and consumer protection perks.
Rewards: Get 3% cash back at restaurants and Costco gas stations, or 2% back at non-Costco gas stations and online Costco purchases. This card also gives 1% back on all other purchases, including purchases at a brick-and-mortar Costco store.
Welcome Offer: None.
Annual Fee: $0
Other Benefits and Drawbacks: This card includes optional balance protection purchase protection and extended warranty protection—all great options for a store card. That said, cardholders will need a membership to take advantage of this card. And most in-store Costco purchases, except Costco gas, will earn just 1% cash back.
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MBNA Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard
Frequent online shoppers will love this card’s respectable cash-back rate for Amazon purchases, as well as its lack of an annual fee. This goes double for anyone who also happens to be a habitual Whole Foods shopper.
Rewards: If you have a Prime membership, you’ll get 2.5% in Amazon Rewards back on every online purchase at Amazon.ca, as well as purchases at Whole Foods and foreign currency transactions. Cardholders without Prime earn 1.5% on just Amazon.ca and Whole Foods purchases.
Welcome Offer: $150 worth of Amazon Rewards on the first $3,000 spent on the card at Amazon.ca, grocery stores or restaurants in the first six months of having it.
Annual Fee: $0
Other Benefits and Drawbacks: While the lack of true cash back is a downside to the MBNA Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard, pretty much any product can be found on Amazon. The two-tiered rewards rate is also a little annoying if an Amazon Prime membership isn’t right for you.
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Tangerine World Mastercard
Most credit card rewards programs are prescriptive — you earn a steep rewards rate on one or two shopping categories, but a measly 1% on everything else. The Tangerine World Mastercard lets cardholders customize their rewards to their lifestyle, albeit at a lower rewards rate than many elite cash-back cards.
Rewards: Earn 2% cash back on two spending categories of your choice: groceries, furniture, restaurants, hotels, gas recurring bill payments, drug stores, home improvement, entertainment, public transportation, or parking. All other categories earn 0.5% cash back.
Welcome Offer: Earn 10% cash back ($100 value) on up to $1,000 in purchases made within the first two months of owning the card when you apply by April 30, 2024.
Annual Fee: $0
Other Benefits and Drawbacks: This card’s flexibility is underpinned by its lack of spending caps. If you overwhelmingly buy groceries or gas with your card, you’ll still earn rewards on all of it. Tangerine Bank clients will also love this card — if you deposit all of your rewards into a savings account, you get a third 2% category to choose from. That said, the card’s $60,000 minimum income requirement restricts who can apply. Households qualify if they earn $100,000 a year and individuals can get around the personal income requirement if they have over $250,000 in a Tangerine Bank savings or investment fund.
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Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card
Similar to the Tangerine World Mastercard, this one gives cardholders a customizable rewards program with a much lower barrier to entry.
Rewards: Earn 2% cash back on two spending categories of your choice, including groceries, furniture, restaurants, hotels, gas recurring bill payments, drug stores, home improvement, entertainment, public transportation or parking. All other categories earn 0.5% cash back.
Welcome Offer: Earn 10% cash back (up to $100 value) on up to $1,000 in purchases made within the first two months of owning the card when you apply by April 30, 2024.
Annual Fee: $0
Other Benefits and Drawbacks: The Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card’s income requirement is only $12,000 per year, making it far more accessible to most Canadians than its higher-ranked World counterpart. However, it doesn’t give Tangerine Bank clients the option of unlocking a third 2% spending category the way the World version does.
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RBC Cash Back Mastercard
A bare-bones cash back card mainly geared towards groceries. It has few perks, but one of them happens to be a lack of any annual fees.
Rewards: Get 2% cash back on groceries and 1% cash back on all other purchases.
Welcome Offer: None.
Annual Fee: $0
Other Benefits and Drawbacks: This card doesn’t have much besides its rewards program. It also caps out at $120 in cash back for groceries. That said, it does have rental car insurance and cell phone insurance coverage, which are valuable and rare.
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RBC Cash Back Preferred World Elite Mastercard
If you’re looking for a card without any rewards earning caps, you’ve come to the right place. This card doesn’t give much in the way of cash back, but you can spend as much as you want without hitting a limit.
Rewards: Get 1.5% cash back on all purchases.
Welcome Offer: None
Annual Fee: $99
Other Benefits and Drawbacks: The hefty annual fee isn’t ideal, but anyone using a card with an unlimited earnings cap might not need to worry about that. Aside from its rewards program, this card also has airport lounge access, rental car insurance and checked baggage insurance.
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Triangle World Elite Mastercard
Athletes, renovation geeks, and Canadian Tire connoisseurs will appreciate a card that gives Canadian Tire Money as rewards and the Triangle World Elite Mastercard delivers.
Rewards: Get 4% back in Canadian Tire money on qualifying pre-tax purchases at Canadian Tire, Sport Chek, Mark’s/L’Équipeur, Atmosphere, Party City, Sports Rousseau, Hockey Experts, L’Entrepôt du Hockey and participating Sports Experts stores. You’ll also get 3% back in Canadian Tire money on groceries up to $12,000 per year (unless it’s at Walmart or Costco) or 0.5% in Canadian Tire Money at gas stations. After that, you earn 0.5% in groceries. The same goes for all other purchases.
Welcome Offer: None
Annual Fee: $0
Other Benefits and Drawbacks: This card is great for cardholders who love Canadian Tire, Sport Chek, Mark’s and the other qualifying stores listed above – but that’s largely where the benefits end. It is a card aimed at specific brands. It also has a fairly high annual personal income minimum of $80,000, meaning about 6 million Canadians can qualify.
Credit card data research and analysis provided by Debra Toews, Tia Duncombe and Jack Choros.
