BMO

Haven’t you damaged your credit card products enough? More negative changes coming to BMO cards

Patrick S Credit Cards

For long time readers of RWRDS Canada you know I have no love lost with BMO. Out of the big 5 banks they have been the absolute worst in devaluing, changing and shadily marketing their products over the past decade or so.

Now, we get even more negative changes from this bank, whose cards don’t even crack into the top 5 of any of our researched rankings as it stands and now they have another knock against them.

Need to give a big shout out to Lukas for advising us of these changes.

$15,000 spend requirement to have annual fee waived with a banking plan

Most of the big banks, including BMO offer some sort of credit card annual fee waiver for having a higher up banking package. Those banking packages often have higher monthly fees although those fees themselves can be waived for holding a minimum monthly basis.

Such has been the case with BMO but now all that changes. Per the latest statement sent to our reader Lukas who holds a BMO AIR MILES®† World Elite®* MasterCard®*, as of May 1 2025 cardholders will need to spend $15,000 on their cards within a 12 month period to receive the credit card annual fee rebate when having a Premium Plan or Performance Plan!

We are making some changes to the BMO Credit Card Annual Fee Rebate terms and conditions effective May 1, 2025.
If you have a BMO bank account with the Premium Plan or Performance Plan and receive the Premium Plan Credit Card Rebate (up to $150 annually) or the Performance Plan Credit Card Rebate (up to $40 annually) (each an “Annual Fee Rebate”) applied to your eligible BMO Credit Card, effective the day after your next BMO Credit Card anniversary date following May 1, 2025, you must spend $15,000 or more in “Qualifying Purchases” annually (within a 12-month period between annual fee-billing dates) using your eligible BMO Credit Card to continue to qualify for the Annual Fee Rebate. A Qualifying Purchase is an eligible purchase that appears on your eligible BMO Credit Card statement, less refunds, and excludes cash advances and cash-like transactions as defined in the BMO Credit Card Cardholder Agreement available online

When I first saw this I thought it might have been that old rule for the no fee World Elite Mastercards and how they had a $15,000 annual spend requirement for cardholders to keep a World Elite and not be dropped down. Which, by the way, both Rogers and PC Optimum have both dropped that requirement. But, this isn’t that rule – this is simply an additional requirement being added by BMO to receive a banking package benefit.

Granted, if your BMO credit card is the primary one you utilize, $15,000 in spending shouldn’t be hard to hit but still the fact you have one more hurdle to think about when having one of their credit cards isn’t cool.

I would love to hear from more of the RWRDS Canada community who have other BMO cards to let us know if you have also received this notice (BMO Ascend, Eclipse Visa Infinite etc.) I am assuming based on the above terms this affects the higher end BMO credit cards that have annual fees but hopefully we can nail down exactly all the cards that are affected with your feedback.

Cards that have been confirmed to require $15,000 in spend to receive the annual fee rebate:

Capping 5x points on Dining and Groceries to $6,000 per year per category on BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Card

Lukas also alerted us to changes to the annual spending cap on the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite card which he spotted on RFD. Currently the card offers 5x points on up to $50,000 in spending annually but now they are splitting the cap into individual categories while all still earning 5x points. (Must read: When earning 5x points isn’t the same as earning 5x points – a loyalty lesson) 

  • Starting Feb 3rd, 2025, we’re introducing individual category spend caps to the accelerated categories, which can be calculated from January 1st to December 31st each year:
    • Dining and groceries: $6,000 per category, per year
    • Transit and gas: $20,000 per category, per year

When you add them all up, the overall cap is actually increased to $52,000 annually but that’s lipstick on a pig. The two most important categories which most Canadians need and use are now capped at $6,000 annually. As I have always stated about the $6,000 cap on groceries for the BMO Cash Back World Elite Mastercard – it’s pathetically low and the same goes here. This is a Visa Infinite card – not an entry level no fee Visa card. These are people who have mid to high income and to cap them with such low amounts – is brutal. Remember, on average a family of four will spend over $16,000 annually on groceries alone!

To flip my tone, the $20,000 on gas and transit each are great – those are nice and high. At least something positive if you have a lot of spend in those categories. This might actually appeal to people who drive a lot for work although the previous $50,000 overall cap would have still appealed and may have actually worked better for them if they didn’t have a lot of spend in other categories.

Wrapping it up

Changes and devaluations to credit cards and loyalty programs tend to be inevitable – we see it from the worst of the lot and the best of the lot. But, nobody seems to do it better or more frequently than BMO Bank of Montreal. For the better part of a decade they have led the pack with devaluations and changes to their products and try to disguise them with sly marketing.

Remember when the BMO Rewards World Elite Mastercard (now the BMO Ascend World Elite) used to be one of the best credit cards in Canada?

Who remembers how they devalued the eclipse Visa products only six months or so after introducing them by changing the BMO Rewards redemption rate?

And now they are at it again. Adding a spend requirement to a banking package benefit? Capping the most important spending categories for the majority of cardholders? BMO never ceases to amaze me.

For those who may be new to RWRDS Canada and the BMO saga over the years – here are just some of the articles we recommend reading:

Images via BMO