It appears Rogers Bank will be adding the Rogers Connections Mastercard to their credit card line up. There aren’t a lot of details out on the card, in fact they probably shouldn’t even be out yet. Lucky for us the benefits guide and disclosure summary can be found publicly and they are up on the Rogers site. This guide provides a peak into what the new Rogers Connections Mastercard will offer.
This card will become the fourth on offer from the communications giant’s financial arm Rogers Bank. The first three cards have been in market for quite some time now. Those cards are the very popular Rogers World Elite Mastercard as well as the Rogers Platinum Mastercard and the Fido Mastercard. They did have four cards previously however the chatr Mastercard is no longer available for new applications.
Earn Rates
From the benefits guide we learn the earn rates are as follows:
- 2.0 points for every dollar ($1.00) of Net Purchases made with your Account in United States dollars (which is equal to a
Rewards value of 2.00%). - 1.0 point for every dollar ($1.00) of all other Net Purchases made with your Account (which is equal to a Rewards value of 1.00%)
For the most part that makes this card a 1% cash back card. The 2% return on U.S. purchases is a nice boost that helps somewhat offset the foreign transaction fee of 2.5%. If you choose to redeem for eligible Rogers purchases that is boosted to a 1.3% and 2.6% return.
Redemption
In terms of redeeming, you can redeem 1 point towards 1 cent as cash back with a minimum redemption of $10 required.If you choose to redeem for Rogers products or services you will receive 30% extra value.
You may redeem your Rewards towards Eligible Purchases at a regular redemption rate of 1 point per $0.01. You may also redeem Rewards for Eligible Rogers Purchases, in which case your Rewards will be valued at 130% of their redemption value compared to redeeming for a regular Eligible Purchase. As an example, 10,000 points can be redeemed for an Eligible Purchase of $100 or an Eligible Rogers Purchase of $130.
Benefits
At this time the benefits guide only spells out one benefit on the card and that is annual benefit for those who have a cell phone plan with Rogers. The card will provide 5 days (US or International) of Roam Like Home per year. US Roam Like Home currently costs $12 per day while International is $15 per day. That means this benefit provides up to $75 in value.
There is no mention of any other benefits or insurance coverage in the guide however Rogers does seem to publish separate insurance certificates on their site. I tried fiddling with some of their existing card insurance card URL’s but could not come up with anything just yet. One would have to assume, that the card will have some sort of insurance benefits since it will be targeted to Rogers customers who travel outside of Canada and potentially carry an annual fee. If their World Elite Mastercard can be offered for free with insurance benefits, this card should have something as well.
Annual Fee
The card will have no annual fee in the first year and then it is $29 per year after that. This makes it the first card from Rogers to have an annual. That being said, this card will most likely be targeted to Rogers Wireless customers with the Roam Like Home benefit and by being a customer you can have the annual fee rebated:
We will rebate your annual fee for your Rogers ConnectionsTM Mastercard® account if, at the time your annual fee is charged, you have used your Rogers Connections Mastercard to pay at least ten (10) Rogers Communications Canada Inc. monthly bills in full since your Rogers Connections Mastercard account was opened or since your last annual fee was charged (as applicable).
Wrapping it up
It looks like we are going to have yet another new credit card in Canada with the Rogers Connections Mastercard. The rewards credit card market is already crowded and now there will be one more to choose from. However, this card will fit a very niche market and that’s Rogers Wireless customers who are looking to save on their Roam Like Home charges and be able to extract extra value in their points for Rogers purchases.
Now, we wait for the official announcement of this card from Rogers to see what else it may offer!
The card details should be featured via this link in the near future.
Images via Rogers