After putting a lot of focus into their AIR MILES cards and the new rise eclipse Visa card, BMO is now paying some attention to their mainstay proprietary travel rewards credit card, the BMO AscendTM World Elite®* Mastercard®*. The card that once was one of the best in Canada now sees a new increased welcome bonus of 90,000 points.
The 90,000 BMO Rewards Points bonus
New BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard cardholders will get up to 90,000 points and the annual fee waived in the first year for both the primary cardholder and authorized users.*
- Bonus offer awarded as follows: 45,000 points when you spend $4,500 in the first 3 months,
- 3,750 points for each subsequent month in which you make at least $2,500 in purchases on your card, for 12 months.
It’s nice to see BMO increase the welcome bonus points offer on this card but they have also increased the amount of spend required. The previous iteration of the offer required a total spend of $27,000 spread across 15 months the get the bonus. Now with this new offer they require $34,500 in spending across 15 months to get the 90,000 points.
That’s right it does take a full 15 months as the the first three months are $4,500 in spend to get 45,000 points and then from month 4 through to 15 you need to spend the $2,500 per month to get all the bonus points. If you are shy of the $4,500 in the first three months you won’t get any of the 45,000 points so make sure you are on top your spend for this portion of the offer.
For the month 4 to 15 bonuses, those are monthly so if you are shy of spending $2,500 in one month you can still earn the bonus points in the other months you do hit that spend amount.
Not only does it take 15 months to get the entire bonus, but $34,500 in spending is crazy high and is by far the most out of any premium cards and even ultra premium cards in market other than BMO’s eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege Card! Most cards require anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000 in spending and have welcome bonus value that is similar or better.
In the BMO Rewards program 90,000 points is worth $600 towards any travel or BMO Investment products. The absolute value however after taking into account the annual fee for the second year is $450. You can also redeem for statement credits with their Pay with Points redemption option which the 90,000 points would provide $450 ($300 after 2nd year annual fee) in cash back credits.
First year free
Along with the 90,000 points this current new cardholder welcome bonus offer includes the first year free on the primary card and authorized users. The annual fee on the card is $150 and supplementary/additional cards are $50 each but note that if you do plan on attempting to get the entire 90,000 points bonus you will be charged the fees in your second year as you near completion of the 12 additional months of bonuses.
Earn Rates
The card earns BMO Rewards points like other proprietary BMO cards and has category multipliers on the types of purchases:
- 5 points for every $1 spent on eligible travel purchases
- 3 points for every $1 spent on eligible dining and entertainment purchases and recurring bill payments
- 1 point for every $1 spent everywhere else
The 5x points for travel is capped at $15,000 in spend for this category annually and the three 3x points categories are all capped at $10,000 in annual spend each.
Airport Lounge Access
The BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard offers an annual Mastercard Travel Pass provided by DragonPass membership which normally costs up to US$99 per year. The membership provides discounted access to over 1,300 lounges worldwide.
The card also provides four (4) complimentary visits per calendar year to any of the lounges in the program. This is a unique benefit to this card as the majority of Canadian World Elite cards do not offer any free visit passes, just the membership so you can get the discounted access.
Wrapping it up
BMO has increased the welcome bonus on their headlining travel rewards card, the Ascend World Elite Mastercard to 90,000 points. While it is always good to see a bigger bonus it’s a tough one to rave about when you have to spend $34,500 over the course of 15 months to receive it. While many of the people who can apply for this card would have no problem spending that amount the question would be why? With that amount of spend it would be more advantageous to get yourself 3 or 4 different cards over the same 15 months and easily come out with $2,000 or more in welcome bonus offers instead of $450 and still spend less than $34,500!