Canadians once again have access to Mastercard credit cards with No Foreign Transaction fees! After the loss of the HSBC World Elite Mastercard in early 2024, the very small contingent of No FX Fee cards in Canada was without a true Mastercard credit card offering 0% on non-Canadian dollar purchases. Well, that has changed in the past few months as Zoomer+ and CARP Rewards have updated their Mastercard offerings to include No FX Fees.
Hat tip to the eagle eyed kiraly on Red Flag Deals who found out that this card recently added a No FX Fee benefit in the past few months!
The updated Zoomer+ CARP Rewards Mastercards
Launched in 2022, the Zoomer+ CARP Rewards Mastercards have not garnered much attention but I’m sure that will change now. These cards are part of the “powered by Brim Financial” ecosystem like the CWB Mastercards and the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard. In fact, if you take a close look at these Zoomer+ cards you’ll see they are very similar to the old versions of Brim’s own Mastecard offerings.
The big update to both cards is the addition of No Foreign Transaction fees. That means both cards will not charge the average 2.5% that is charged on most credit cards when making a purchase that is not in Canadian dollars.
Recommended reading: Guide to No Foreign Transaction Fee Credit Cards for Canadians
The rest of the features of the cards appear to remain as was seen on them before with the Zoomer+ CARP Rewards Mastercard earning an unlimited 1 point per dollar spent (1% return) and the World Elite earning 2 points per dollar spent up to $25,000 annually (2% return) and then 1% on any spending after $25K.
The World Elite card comes with an excellent suite of insurance benefits including car rental CDW coverage of up to 48 days with an C$85,000 MSRP max. Although, it does surprise me that there is only 3 days of out of province emergency medical coverage for those who are 65 or older. I mean we are talking about a card that is targeted to an older demographic right with Zoomer+ and CARP? But I do get why – Zoomer+/CARP probably gets some decent kick backs on selling CAA travel insurance to their members so why eat into that right?
Wrapping it up
Having a No FX Fee benefit added to the Zoomer+ CARP Rewards Mastercards is great for our market! We have been without a true Mastercard credit card with No FX fees for nearly two years and now to have two options – a no fee one that you can have just carry for those foreign transactions or the fee based World Elite with higher earning and a decent insurance package if you are looking for more out of your Mastercard.
The World Elite version card is a serious challenger to the new Weatlhsimple Visa Infinite card. The Zoomer+ World Elite is cheaper to have ($120 vs $240 annually) unless you meet the requirements to have the Wealthsimple’s $20 monthly fee waived. The Zoomer+ card also has better insurance coverage but on the flipside has that $25,000 spending cap on the 2% earning whereas Wealthsimple is unlimited for the 2%.
