We review the BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard and earn 20x PC Optimum points on beauty products at Shoppers Drug Mart

Here's your Rewards Canada update! Your near daily dose of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more.

We have updated our review of the BMO Ascend^TM World Elite®* Mastercard®* formerly known as the BMO Rewards World Elite Mastercard. The card and the rewards program have undergone a slew of changes over the years so this review catches up on all that has happened from the name change, to earn rates, redemption and more. Click here to see what we think of BMO's flagship travel rewards card

BMO will cap the AIR MILES Mastercard's new 2x grocery earn rate

 

Last week it was announced the BMO AIR MILES Mastercards will be receiving a full time grocery store purchase accelerator in light of AIR MILES losing the Empire group of stores as a partner. The news revealed the co-brand cards will earn 2x AIR MILES Reward Miles on purchases at all grocery stores but as we have learned now the press release from BMO omitted one key detail about the new accelerator.

50% bonus qualifying spend on bookings with Air Canada for Business & posting issues with the BMO AIR MILES 3x partner multiplier

Here's your Rewards Canada update! Your near daily dose of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more.

If your business participates in the Air Canada for Business program now is the time to book flights with Air Canada. From today through to September 30th all companies that participate in the program will earn 1.5x the qualifying spend on bookings made during this period. For example if you purchase a $1,000 fare you will be credited with $1,500 in spend for your company. The only fares not eligible are flight pass purhcases and basic economy - all other fares qualify. Click here to learn more.

Clash of the Credit Cards! BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Card vs. MBNA Rewards World Elite Mastercard

Welcome to another Rewards Canada Clash! This time in our Clash of the Credit Cards we have two more 5x points cards go against each other! Those cards are the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* Card and the MBNA Rewards World Elite® Mastercard®

BMO AIR MILES Mastercards to receive a new accelerated grocery store earn rate

Good news today for holders of BMO AIR MILES credit cards as they'll soon be earning more miles for grocery purchases made anywhere. This comes not too long after the news that the Empire group of grocery stores (Sobeys, Safeway, FreshCo etc.) were leaving the AIR MILES and thus effectively removing a big chunk of the partners the BMO AIR MILES cards had as their accelerated earn rate locations.

Top Cash Back Credit Card Sign Up offers for July - These cards provide the best value out of their welcome bonuses

 
Here are Rewards Canada's Top 5 Cash Back Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of July 2022. This is not a 'best' credit card list like our Top Cash Back Credit Card rankings but instead a look at cards that have very good acquisition (welcome/sign up) offers. As always when choosing a card you should always take other factors into account other than the just sign up bonus, but when some of these cards are first year free, they can and do pay off even when you grab them strictly for the sign up rewards. 

BMO Rewards to make any travel booking redemptions at 150 points for $1 permanent

 

BMO announced a positive change to their proprietary BMO Rewards program that will happen in August. As posted by HermanH on RFD, BMO will make their current promotional redemption offer of 150 points to $1 for any travel booked via any provider permanent as of August 2, 2022.

The BMO AIR MILES Mastercards are due for another revamp

In light of the recent news of Sobeys et al. moving from AIR MILES to Scene+ and my updating of the Rewards Canada review of the BMO AIR MILES World Elite Mastercard it became very apparent to me that BMO is going to have to revamp their portfolio of AIR MILES co-brand credit cards. In this post we'll look at why I think these cards need to be updated and how the bank should update them.

Updated review of the BMO AIR MILES World Elite Mastercard and CIBC AC Conversion Visa offering a chance to win Air Canada flights

 Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your near daily dose of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more. Today's update is brought to you by the HSBC High Rate Savings Account with which you can enjoy a total annual interest rate of up to 2.65% on new deposits± Click here to learn more about this offer

 

We updated our review of the BMO AIR MILES®† World Elite®* Mastercard®* this week. The card is the pride and joy of the co-brand partnership between BMO and AIR MILES and is considered the flagship credit card for the program. The review also includes details how Sobeys switching to Scene+ affects the card. Click here to read the entire review

Top Cash Back Credit Card Sign Up offers for June - These cards provide the best value out of their welcome bonuses

 
Here are Rewards Canada's Top 5 Cash Back Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of June 2022. This is not a 'best' credit card list like our Top Cash Back Credit Card rankings but instead a look at cards that have very good acquisition (welcome/sign up) offers. As always when choosing a card you should always take other factors into account other than the just sign up bonus, but when some of these cards are first year free, they can and do pay off even when you grab them strictly for the sign up rewards. 

Changes coming to the flight discount benefit on the BMO AIR MILES World Elite Mastercard

Just when I had hoped BMO was done with making changes to their credit cards they go and make another one! This time it is small but significant change that is happening to the BMO AIR MILES®† World Elite®* MasterCard®*. That change affects the AIR MILES discount flight benefit, the one that offer 15% off AIR MILES flight redemptions in North America. This change will take place as of July 4, 2022 and for some it will be good, for others not so good.

Top Cash Back Credit Card Sign Up offers for May - These cards provide the best value out of their welcome bonuses

 
Here are Rewards Canada's Top 5 Cash Back Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of May 2022. This is not a 'best' credit card list like our Top Cash Back Credit Card rankings but instead a look at cards that have very good acquisition (welcome/sign up) offers. As always when choosing a card you should always take other factors into account other than the just sign up bonus, but when some of these cards are first year free, they can and do pay off even when you grab them strictly for the sign up rewards.

The BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard is officially here, is it a card worth considering?

 
The BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard is officially here. First announced back in February, this is the rebrand and revamp of the BMO World Elite Mastercard. As of today the card name changes and the earn rate structure changes as well. In general, the changes to the card can be considered a devaluation. Back in 2015 it was #1 in our Travel Points Cards with Annual Fee category but with multiple devaluations over that time it started dropping down and for 2022 sits in 5th spot. Now, it appears the card may even fall completely out of the top 5 thanks to these further changes. 

Top Cash Back Credit Card Sign Up offers for April - These cards provide the best value out of their welcome bonuses

 
Here are Rewards Canada's Top 5 Cash Back Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of April 2022. This is not a 'best' credit card list like our Top Cash Back Credit Card rankings but instead a look at cards that have very good acquisition (welcome/sign up) offers. As always when choosing a card you should always take other factors into account other than the just sign up bonus, but when some of these cards are first year free, they can and do pay off even when you grab them strictly for the sign up rewards.

April 7 Update: 20 new confirmed Cobalt 5x points Multiplier Locations, Plastk Secured Credit Card 10,000 point welcome bonus & BMO will switch to DragonPass on April 15

Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your near daily dose of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more. Be sure to subscribe to the Rewards Canada News email newsletter so that you don't miss out on any loyalty program news and offers! You can subscribe to the newsletter here

 

Another big update to the Rewards Canada American Express Cobalt Card Confirmed Multiplier Locations feature. Thanks again to FM providing this latest list of updates. Some of these were on the list already but it is always good to be reminded of all locations where you can earn the extra points. The locations that are new to the feature are in bold below. I also added one location in Calgary that coded as 5x for me on a purchase I made this week and that was Bolo Cakery.  Click here to visit the list of locations

Here's the list of locations that FM provided:

Top Travel Credit Card Sign Up offers for April - These cards provide the best value out of their welcome bonuses

 
Here are the Rewards Canada Top Travel Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of April 2022! This is not a 'best' credit card list like our Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings but instead a look at cards that have very good acquisition (welcome/sign up) offers. As always when choosing a card you should always take other factors into account other than the just sign up bonus, but when some of these cards are first year free, they can and do pay off even when you grab them strictly for the sign up rewards.

Top Cash Back Credit Card Sign Up offers for March - These cards provide the best value out of their welcome bonuses

 Here are Rewards Canada's Top 5 Cash Back Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of March 2022. This is not a 'best' credit card list like our Top Cash Back Credit Card rankings but instead a look at cards that have very good acquisition (welcome/sign up) offers. As always when choosing a card you should always take other factors into account other than the just sign up bonus, but when some of these cards are first year free, they can and do pay off even when you grab them strictly for the sign up rewards.

BMO Rewards Technical Issue Update: You can now redeem 150 points towards $1 for any travel booked on your BMO Rewards cards!

On March 1st we posted about BMO Rewards having technical issues for any one looking to book flights with the BMO Rewards online booking platform. We wrote about it as we took issue with how BMO was handling it by asking their cardholders to go out and book any travel they wanted on their cards and then redeem 175 points towards every $1 of said travel charge. We called them out on this as here are their customers expecting to book travel and redeem at 150 points to $1 but due to the bank's booking platform issue they were asking them to redeem more points than originally planned. Well lo and behold it appears they listened to us as sometime between March 2nd and March 3rd BMO changed it for the better. 

Technical issues hamper new flight bookings with BMO Rewards, bank tells customers book elsewhere and redeem points for that travel but at a lower value!

 
UPDATE: We did it! This post seems to have made BMO change their course and are now charging 150 points for $1 instead of 175 to $1. Read our update here.

I went to check out the BMO Rewards site as part of my normal rounds of checking out all the issuers sites for anything new or interesting and it appears BMO Rewards is having technical issues for new flights bookings. Their temporary solution is letting customers they can book the flights themselves with whomever they want and they can take advantage of special promotional rate to redeeming points against the charge however that rate is not as good of rate if you book flights through BMO Rewards.  

Podcast Episode 88 - February 21, 2022 BMO, What are you doing? Part II

Who would have thought that almost exactly a year after we had a podcast "BMO, What are doing?" we release this episode, BMO, What are you doing? Part II. Yes, BMO is at it again, changing their best travel rewards card and for the most part it is getting worse. The BMO World Elite Mastercard will become the BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard on May 3, 2022 and will undergo changes in the points earning category that make this card drop down in the ranks of cards in the Canadian Market. Listen now to learn more and hear our thoughts on these changes.