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

Credit Card Review: HSBC World Elite Mastercard

 

The HSBC World Elite Mastercard is a relatively new card in the Canadian market. This is not their 'Premier World Elite' which is meant for people who bank at HSBC but rather this card is for any Canadian and it is essentially the same as the Premier version. When HSBC launched this card in late 2018 it became obvious they didn't want to only market their credit cards to those who bank with them, rather they wanted to get into the entire lucrative Canadian credit card market. It was about time they did as Canadians, slow as they may have been to adapt, are learning they don't have to get credit cards from the bank they bank with, rather they can get whatever card they like and HSBC wants part of that pie.

Receive a $20 welcome bonus when you open a Koho Prepaid Mastercard Card Account

KOHO has launched a back to school promotion that sees them offer a short term welcome bonus for new users who sign up with KOHO for one of their prepaid Mastercard cards. When you sign up with the below promo code you'll receive a one time C$20 bonus when you make your first purchase using your KOHO card within 30 days.

We review the Rogers World Elite Mastercard & WestJet will extend expiring Travel Bank credits by 90 days

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

We updated our review of the Rogers World Elite®* Mastercard®* last week. The card is in a small subclass of premium World Elite Cards that are offered with no annual fee and is quite a rewarding and easy to use cash back card. Click here to read the entire review

Earn 15% cash back for the first 2 months with the Tangerine Money-Back or World Mastercard

Tangerine has brought back what could be considered the bigger cash back bonus ever - percent wise that is!  Both the Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card and the Tangerine World Mastercard see the return of their 15% cash back offers that we first saw in fall of 2021! Until September 30th when you apply for and are approved for either of these Tangerine cards you'll be able to earn 15% cash back on all purchases in the first 2 months. The 15% is capped on $1,000 of purchases for a total cash back reward of $150. After that 15% cap is hit or after 2 months the regular earn rate of up to 2% cash back kicks in. 

New 100,000 PC Optimum points offer on PC Financial Credit Cards

 
We have yet another 100K offer for PC Financial Mastercards. You can receive this bonus when you apply by August 14, 2022 and it is good for any one of the three cards in their portfolio:

• PC Financial Mastercard
• PC Financial World Mastercard
• PC Financial World Elite Mastercard
  

Earn up to 80,000 bonus points + receive a first year annual fee rebate with the no foreign transaction fee HSBC World Elite Mastercard

 
The current welcome bonus offer for the HSBC World Elite® Mastercard®  provides up to 80,000 bonus HSBC Rewards points for new cardholders.  On top of the new 80,000 point bonus is also a first year annual fee rebate for the primary cardholder. Once you have those 80,000 points they are worth $400 towards any travel! Since Quebec doesn't allow the first year free waiver the offer there is a whopping 110,000 points worth $550 towards travel but you do have to pay the annual fee so you end up with $401 in travel value.

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.

National Bank's new 5x points multiplier may not be as good as we originally thought

Earlier this week we reported changes coming to some of National Bank's credit cards including a new 5x points earn rate on the World Elite Mastercard. There was a lot of excitement surrounding this announcement, even from us but that may have been a little premature! I'll be honest with you I should have paid closer attention to wording around the new 5x points earning rate. As noted by the always astute Josh C. the 5x points on grocery and dining isn't actually capped at $2,500 per month for those categories but rather $2,500 of all your spending. So if you happen to spend $2,500 on some nice new furniture on your card your 5x points earn rate for groceries is gone for that month!

Changes coming to several National Bank of Canada Mastercards - we'll have another 5x points card on our hands!

National Bank of Canada has announced some changes that will be coming to their Platinum and World Elite Mastercards as of September 1. Both cards will see revised earn rates and some slight changes to the insurance provided on them. While the World Elite Mastercard will also see its annual travel credits benefit changed as well.

Enter the Dragon: DragonPass is now the dominant lounge access program in Canada

July is upon us and that means both Mastercard and Visa Canada are now officially utilizing DragonPass as their business class lounge access provider. Earlier this year Rewards Canada was first to break the news of this unexpected switch for both brands. Mastercard began making the switch throughout April and May while Visa officially launched with DragonPass on July 1st. Recently I had the pleasure of speaking with DragonPass' Andrew Harrison-Chinn about the programs for both issuers and what Canadians can expect from them in the near future.

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

20,000 points + first year free on National Bank cards extended, Tangerine extends 10% cash back offers & earn Aeroplan points for online LCBO purchases

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

National Bank of Canada has extended the current increased welcome bonus offers on their World Elite, and Platinum Mastercards. These two card's 20,000 bonus points plus first year free offer are now available until August 31. 2022. Click here to learn more about these offers.

Receive a 30% bonus when you transfer HSBC Rewards points to British Airways Executive Club

The HSBC Rewards transfer bonus to British Airways Executive Club is now live! We first gave you advance notice back in May and now a reminder that you can receive a 30% bonus when converting your  points! The last few iterations of the bonus have seen it at 35% and 40%, so it is not as high this time but still a very worthy bonus to consider.  This could be a prime time for those of you who grabbed the HSBC World Elite Mastercard in Fall of 2020 and missed the offer last July to convert now. Those of you who signed up for the card in Fall of 2021 with the 100K bonus should have a sizeable amount of points as well to consider converting.

WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard: 450 WestJet dollars welcome bonus and receive your first checked bag free on all WestJet flights

 

WestJet and RBC have further extended the offer of earning 450 WestJet dollars on the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard. The 450 bonus WestJet dollars are awarded when you spend $5,000 in the first three months and can be applied directly as a cash discount towards flights that you book with WestJet.

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.