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

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 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 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 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.

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.

What are they thinking? BMO is changing their best credit card and for the most part it's getting worse

Wow, thanks to our frequent news tip contributor @Joshnet we learned of some unexpected credit card news today. BMO is making changes to their BMO World Elite™* MasterCard®*. This card is the best travel card in the BMO portfolio of cards but in general over the years it has fallen in the ranks in the entire Canadian credit card market. Back in 2015 it was #1 in our Travel Points Cards with Annual Fee category but with multiple devaluations it started dropping down and is now in 5th spot. Now, it appears the card may even fall out of the top 5 completely thanks to the changes that BMO has announced to the card.

Clash of the Credit Cards! BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* Card vs. HSBC World Elite® Mastercard®

It's time for another Rewards Canada Clash! This time in our Clash of the Credit Cards we see BMO's relative newcomer take on HSBC's flagship card! Those cards are the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* Card and the HSBC World Elite® Mastercard®

January 13 Update: New 70,000 point + first year free offer on the BMO Rewards World Elite Business Mastercard, the Top Bonus Offers & redeem Mileage Plan miles on Royal Air Maroc

Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your daily dose (or near daily dose) of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more. This update is brought to you by the HSBC World Elite Mastercard which is currently offering a welcome bonus of up to 100,000 bonus points worth $500, has no foreign transaction fees and no annual fee in the first year! 

 
A new offer was released today for the BMO Rewards World Elite Business Mastercard that offers up to 70,000 BMO reward points. You earn 50,000 points when you spend $5,000 in the first three months and an additional 20,000 points when you spend $35,000 in the first twelve months. Plus, they’ll waive the $149 annual fee for the first year. Click here to learn more.

Biggest ever bonus offers revealed for the BMO Rewards World Elite Mastercard, BMO eclipse Visa Infinite & BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege cards

 
The current era of card issuers topping their best ever welcome bonus offers with even better offers continues today with BMO revealing new best ever promotions for their BMO World Elite™* Mastercard®*, BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* Card and the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege* Card. The two premium cards see welcome offers of up to 60,000 bonus points and the first year annual fee waived while the ultra premium Infinite Privilege card sees an offer of up to 90,000 points.

Podcast Episode 86: 2021 Year in Review. A look back at what happened in the world of loyalty programs, credit cards and more

 

BMO Rewards redemption special for any travel bookings

 

BMO Rewards, the proprietary credit card redward program from BMO is known as one of the less flexible programs when it comes to redeeming for travel. The reason behind this is that you are limited to booking travel via BMO Rewards to ensure you get the most value out of your points. BMO does have a Pay with Points feature where you can mimic other proprietary credit card program's book any travel any way you want and redeem points against charge option but with a lot lower value. Now, BMO has launched a limited time promotion where you can use less points with their Pay with Points option when redeeming towards any travel purchase.

BMO introduces two new small business cards - the BMO AIR MILES World Elite Business Mastercard & BMO Rewards World Elite Business Mastercard

 Today BMO introduced two new small business Mastercards that replace a couple of their current  offerings. The two new cards are the 

• BMO AIR MILES®† World Elite®* Business Mastercard®* 
• BMO Rewards® World Elite®* Business Mastercard®*

These cards are now being offered in place of the the BMO AIR MILES Business Mastercard and the BMO Rewards Business Mastercard. Outside of now being World Elite Mastercards the new cards have different earn rates, annual fees and benefits from those seen on the cards they replace. Let's take a look at these two new offerings:

New increased welcome bonus of 50,000 points + first year free on the BMO Rewards® Business Mastercard®

BMO's mainstay premium small business card, the BMO Rewards® Business Mastercard® sees the return of it's 50,000 point welcome bonus which ran for the latter half of 2020 all the way into February of this year. The 50,000 bonus points are awarded when you spend $5,000 or more on the card in the first three months of having it. On top of that the annual fee of $120 is waived for the first year of having the card. That means you basically get those 50,000 points at no cost outside of the spending that you actually put on the card.

March 1 Update: Last day to grab higher welcome offers on three BMO cards, WestJet $0 companion voucher good for almost two years, Hugo Boss returns to Amex Offers

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

Today is the last day to grab the increased welcome offers on the following BMO credit cards. All o

• BMO Rewards® Business Mastercard®
• BMO World Elite™* MasterCard®*
• BMO Rewards® MasterCard

All of the above cards will have lower welcome offers as of tomorrow.

Clash of the Credit Cards! American Express Cobalt Card vs. BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Card

 

Welcome to another Rewards Canada Clash!

If you listened to our podcast from June 2020 entitled Clash of the Credit Cards - you'll know that we've changed our Showdown features to Clashes. The reason why is that lots of sites and blogs are using Showdown now, some are using battle so we wanted to continue to be unique so our comparisons are now Clashes! 

This time we have another Clash of the Credit Cards that pits two 5x points cards against each other! Those cards are the American Express Cobalt™ Card and the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* Card

Continue on to the main Rewards Canada site to read the Clash in its entirety!

Less than a week left to get the increased welcome bonuses on the BMO Rewards World Elite Mastercard and BMO Rewards Mastercard

 

Yesterday we let you know that the increased welcome offer for the  BMO Rewards^® Business Mastercard^® is coming to a close in just under a week. Well we also received notice from BMO that two of their other BMO Rewards cards will also be seeing decreased welcome offers. Both are the consumer Mastercards - the BMO World Elite™* MasterCard®* and the BMO Rewards® MasterCard will be seeing their current offers of 40,000 points and 15,000 points being decreased as of March 2nd. 

One week left to grab the 50,000 bonus point offer on the BMO Rewards® Business Mastercard®

If you have had your eye on the BMO Rewards^® Business Mastercard^® you'll want to make sure you apply for it between now and March 1. After that date the welcome bonus will drop by a significant amount although retain a first year free offer. Currently the card is offering 50,000 BMO Rewards Points when you spend $5,000 on the card in the first three months along with no annual fee in the first year.