BMO CashBack World Elite MasterCard Review

The newest Cash Back rewards credit card in the Canadian market at time of posting this is the BMO CashBack World Elite MasterCard.
Officially released on May 13th, the card looks to take on this ever
growing market with a strong earn rate coupled with a decent insurance
and benefits package for a cash back card.

Overview

The BMO CashBack World Elite MasterCard is the top end
premium cash back card from BMO that now consists of a portfolioe of
three cards. The BMO CasBack MasterCard, the BMO CashBack World
MasterCard and of course the BMO CashBack World Elite MasterCard. The
last of which is the card we detail in this, only our second review of
cash back card in the Canadian market.

Sign up Features 

Like most cards in the cashback category there is no actual sign up
bonus.

Costs

TheBMO CashBack World Elite MasterCard has a $120
annual fee for the primary card and no fee for any secondary cards. As
mentioned above however the first year’s annual fee is waived for new
applicants. The interest rate
on the card is 19.9% which is in line with most of the cards at
this
level.

Earning

The BMO CashBack World Elite MasterCard earns a nice simple 1.75% CashBack Reward on all eligible purchases made to the card.

Redeeming

The beauty of Cash Back credit cards is
the simplicity in redemption. There are only two ways to redeem your
cash back and both tend to be automatic. Either a cheque is issued to on
a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis or it is issued as a statement
credit on a similar time basis. For the BMO CashBack World Elite MasterCard it is the latter as the cash back reward is issued as a annual statement credit on your January statemenr. This
is where Cash Back tends to be a little less rewarding than Travel
Rewards as most Travel Rewards cards, especially those that don’t have
set redemption charts, give you access to your rewards that you have
earned on a monthly basis rather than a yearly basis. But then again you
are limited to travel whereas with this cash back you can use it on
anything you want.

Features and Benefits

The BMO CashBack World Elite MasterCard comes
with a small insurance and benefits package. It offers 8 day out of
province travel medical insurance for those up to age of 65 and like
almost all cards in Canada now, the card also has Extended warranty
protection and purchase protection. However these last two benefits are
the Plus version which means the protection is even better than most of
the other cards. For example the purchase protection is 180 days versus
the usual 90 days and the Extended Warranty adds up to 2 years of extra
warranty protection versus the usual 1 year.

What is good about this card

The best thing about the BMO AIR MILES MasterCard
is the simplicity of the cash back earn. No category bonuses, no
spending tier requirements. Just a nice 1.75% cash back on all
purchases. This is in fact the highest no-category or tier bonus earn
rate of any cash back card in Canada. The 8 day travel medical insurance
and Plus versions of extended warranty and purchase protection are also
great features.


What is not so good about this
card

The BMO CashBack World Elite MasterCard
comes with some small drawbacks, not enough we believe to warrant
knocking this card out of your selection process. The first not so good
thing about the card is the annual fee. True there are quite a few
higher end cash back cards with similar benefits that have the same
annual fee but there are some that offer a good proportion of those
benefits with no annual fee or a lower annual fee. The second gripe we
have is the annual statement credit. We get it. BMO wants you to spend
that money with their merchants as they’ll make money off the merchant
fees but perhaps they should at least look at increasing the amount of
times it is awarded (not just once per year) when you have to compete
with mbna who will issue you a cheque every month if your cash back
rewards total $50 or more. Finally while we do like the insurance and
benefits it comes with, other cash back cards that cost the same offer
more benefits likes travel accident insurance, Auto rental CDW coverage
and even things like baggage delay and flight delay insurance.


Conclusion

This is only our second full review
of a Cash Back card here on Rewards Canada although with our comparison
chart and blog coverage we do have quite a bit of insight to this
category. The BMO CashBack World Elite MasterCard with
its 1.75% return is nearing the returns of the best Travel Rewards
credit cards but still falls short of many that are at 2% including this
card’s brother, the BMO World Elite MasterCard. That being said it is a
great return when compared to other cash back cards. True those others
may have higher returns in select categories but when you average out
all your spending there is a good chance you’ll get a better return with
this card.
The card itself can make an excellent primary or first card
in your credit card portfolio if you aren’t into travel rewards but for
those who are travel savvy and can’t get away from the almighty mile or
point then this card could make a good secondary or tertiary card in
your wallet.

Care to comment? Do you agree or disagree with us? Tell us what think
about the BMO CashBack World Elite MasterCard below!

Related Links:

BMO CashBack World Elite MasterCard on
bmo.com

Rewards Canada’s Cash Back Credit Card Comparison including the BMO CashBack World Elite MasterCard

Other cards to consider from the Cash Back card category:

Capital One® Aspire Cash™ Platinum MasterCard®

CIBC Dividend Visa Infinite

MBNA SmartCash Platinum Plus MasterCard

Scotia Momentum VISA Infinite card

SimplyCash™ Preferred Card from American Express®