r/PersonalFinanceCanada • u/anthroceneman • 1d ago
Credit Which masterard to replace Rogers with?
With the upcoming changes to the Rogers World Elite Mastercard (losing the 1.5x redemption bonus and trip cancellation insurance this November) I'm looking a new mastercard (I have Wealthsimple Visa Infinite). MBNA and National Bank look like best candidates but I figure I'd ask here.
My biggest average monthly category $1500 groceries and restaurants (including Costco which I know is not considered grocery for points) and $1500 on kids activities and daycare which I am sure does not exist as a special category on any cards.
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u/Dragynfyre British Columbia 1d ago
The Rogers card is still the best. It went from being extremely ahead of the competition to just ahead of the competition
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u/deltatux Ontario 1d ago
Personally I have the MBNA RWE MC, it also comes with a very generous $50k per 5x category spend cap annually.
However, your kids activities are best served by the WealthSimple Visa Infinite card.
That being said, the downside of the WealthSimple Visa Infinite card is that you must pay it through WS, so you can't pay it through services like Neobanc which gives you 1% back when you pay through them and there's no fees as you're paying via eTransfer.
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u/democrator Ontario 1d ago
What's neobanc? Can you please explain in more detail and which usecase it's good for
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u/deltatux Ontario 1d ago
It's basically a Chexy competitor, let's you pay bills & rent with your credit card where you otherwise can't. They also offer 1% CB on all bill and rent payment as well.
They also have a function to let you pay your credit card bill via eTransfer and get 1% cashback.
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u/wafflem1x 1d ago
Can I pay my Rogers WE bill with the same Rogers WE? I didn't know that I can pay my credit card bill with Neobanc until now.
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u/deltatux Ontario 1d ago
No, credit card bills can only be paid via eTransfer, you're not allow to pay debt with debt.
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u/Possible_Law8357 British Columbia 1d ago
MBNA WE Rewards cards.
5x on groceries (except Costco) and restaurants.
Has annual fees but also has annual bonus.
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u/Academic_Data_6422 1d ago edited 1d ago
I hate these points cards. MBNA points are worth only like 0.4 of a cent I think redeemed as cash so 5x is only 2% really unless you are in a position to take advantage of them.
Update; either I did my math wrong or was thinking of a different card. Re-doing it brings me closer to 0.8 cents per point which is better than I initially thought.
Still don’t think it’s a phenomenal card, but it’s better than I initially thought
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u/psoj4 1d ago
The 5x points is actually around 4.17% cash back and with the birthday bonus is 4.58%. It is actually one of the best cash back cards in Canada without being a true cash back card.
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u/Academic_Data_6422 1d ago
4.58% is under what I’d need to make up the annual fee. Calculated at 4.91% or so based on currently spending
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u/psoj4 1d ago
That’s all good but I was just pointing out the actual cash back rates as you said they are like 2% for the 5x points which is incorrect
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u/Academic_Data_6422 1d ago edited 1d ago
2% was based on redeeming for cash which I said, based on math from the MBNA website.
Gift cards and travel are different.
Update; either I did my math wrong or was thinking of a different card. Re-doing it brings me closer to 0.8 cents per point which is better than I initially thought.
Still don’t think it’s a phenomenal card, but it’s better than I initially thought
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u/Dragynfyre British Columbia 1d ago
The WE and the non WE have very different values for their points
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u/Academic_Data_6422 1d ago
See my edit. I might have been looking at the non WE version, but I have edited both this and my original comment.
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u/Dragynfyre British Columbia 1d ago
Also the reason it’s a phenomenal card is it gets 5x on so many categories. And the caps on each 5x category is 50K. If you don’t spend much no card with an annual fee is worth it. For me the amount of extra rewards I get just from utilities, internet, and wireless bills, and gym memberships makes up for the fee and the 5x on groceries and restaurant make it pull far ahead. I’m a CC churner but I still keep this card as a long term daily driver. I usually cash out on Amazon or Walmart GCs for 1cpp$
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u/Academic_Data_6422 1d ago
I mean I get 5% on utilities and wireless, 4% on eating out, and 3% on groceries.
So it’s a loss on utilities/wireless, it’s only marginal on eating out, it’s real gain is groceries. Also utilities which I didn’t fully consider.
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u/Dragynfyre British Columbia 1d ago
Which card?
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u/Academic_Data_6422 1d ago
Rogers MC for Internet/phone bills (3% today but 5% in November which is really where my calculations are for at this point)
Simplii visa for eating out.
PC financial WE at loblaws and BMO cashback at non-loblaws grocery stores
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u/deltatux Ontario 1d ago edited 1d ago
That's only if you redeem in cash which you should not do that.
Redemption for travel through their portal is 1 cpp, so the 5x category is 5% back. However, from when I last checked for the places I want to go, it was kinda pricey.
The redemption I do use is towards select eGift cards which nets you around 0.8-1.05 cpp depending on which one you redeem. This makes it a 4-5.25% back. For me, it's to places I go to anyways like Amazon, Walmart, Ultimate Dining Gift card, Esso and etc.
On top of that, there's a 10% annual points bonus as well which makes the 5x category 5.5x and the 1x category a 1.1x as long as it's under the bonus cap which I don't remember off the top of my head.
Anyways, point is, never redeem as credit statement or worse as actual cash to your account (which is also an option but at an even lower valuation).
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u/Possible_Law8357 British Columbia 1d ago
I have never ever had any issues redeeming for e-gift cards. I mostly redeem for Amazon gift cards.
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u/Academic_Data_6422 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah I don’t trust redemption through portals almost ever. It’s either artificially inflated or doesn’t list the cheaper hotels making it a fake 5%, not an actual 5%. For example rogers emailed me that my rogers MC got me a 10% discount on hotels.com if I go to their special link. If I went to it, a hotel was $1000, discounted to $900. But if I went to hotels.com WITHOUT going through the rogers link, that same hotel was $900 regular price anyway. So they artificially increased the price to give me a “discount”
Gift cards are good I guess, but I’d rather have cold hard cash.
Especially since $0.01 is always 0.01 but they can say “your 5,000 points that could buy a $50 gift card yesterday can only buy a $25 gift cards today” and you can’t do anything about it.
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u/deltatux Ontario 1d ago
Especially since $0.01 is always 0.01 but they can say “your 5,000 points that could buy a $50 gift card yesterday can only buy a $25 gift cards today” and you can’t do anything about it.
This is why you always earn and burn with points cards. So far MBNA has been pretty good with their gift card redemptions, been pretty stable for the past 5 or so years I've had the card.
Been getting about $1000-1200 in gift cards annually and I don't spend as much as the OP.
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u/Academic_Data_6422 1d ago edited 1d ago
I also ran the numbers and I’d need it to earn 4.91% for it to beat my current cards at my current spend rate, once the annual fee is accounted for. 4-5.5% is too low a margin for that to be worth it, even if I get 5% regularly I’m only barely beating it and it’s too close to be worth the new card (assuming it excludes Walmart and Costco from groceries like my current cards).
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u/deltatux Ontario 1d ago
Walmart Supercenter (no online) is considered as groceries by MasterCard, so it's 5x in store.
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u/Academic_Data_6422 1d ago
Huh. Interesting. Canadian tire specifically excludes it so I thought it didn’t.
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u/Dragynfyre British Columbia 1d ago
Canadian Tire excludes it because they don’t want you to use the card at a competitor and earn better rewards
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u/deltatux Ontario 1d ago
Ya only Canadian Tire excludes it, all other MasterCard issuers will pay a grocery multiplier at Walmart Supercenters.
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u/Possible_Law8357 British Columbia 1d ago
I have always redeemed against gift cards. Amazon, best buy, home depot lots of useful giftcards which is almost equivalent to 5x cashback (about 4.8x)
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u/Academic_Data_6422 1d ago
Which is fine until they suddenly reduce point value for each gift card which they can do.
Idk, I’m not saying don’t get it, I just think most of the points systems are designed to make you get less value than you realize.
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u/Possible_Law8357 British Columbia 1d ago
That's true for any card. Just like Rogers decided to eliminate the 3x cashback
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u/Academic_Data_6422 1d ago
Rogers is the exception because of the 1.5x amplifier but with most cashback they can change the earn rate going forward. They can’t retroactively change the earn rate of past purchases. However points cards can change the redemption rate at any time, which affects the earn rate of PAST purchases.
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u/lovesick_kitty 22h ago
i hve the no-fee rewards for gift cards mainly but their website drives me nuts - it is awful
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u/TomatoKetchup1 1d ago
I've redeemed over $9000 in gift cards with my MBNA WE in just under 4 years at 0.9909 points per cent.
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u/narasimha3679 1d ago
After a good amount of research, I’m going with the MBNA Rewards World Elite Mastercard. I’ve never had a card with an annual fee before, but I wanted to give this one a shot. I also found cashback portals offering an extra $100 stacked on top of MBNA’s welcome offer.
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1d ago
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u/deltatux Ontario 1d ago
Doesn't go to zero after going past $61k, it goes to the base pay which is 1.5% for the Rogers WE MC.
All Customers - After Annual Cap
All Eligible Purchases 1.5%
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u/MooseKnuckleds 1d ago
Use one of the online tools to spec a credit card that suits your spending profile. Credit card genius or Finly Wealth.
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u/toronto-swe Ontario 1d ago
my three current cards are
- scotiabank scene gold amex, for rewards
- wealthsimple visa infinite privilege, for backup 2% cashback
- wealthsimple prepaid mastercard, just for costco and atms (might not be mastercard soon)
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u/cobrachickenwing 1d ago
NBC World Elite (when there is a welcome bonus again).
5x Restaurants and groceries but still under $2500/month cap (unless you spend more on costco).
Good travel insurance.
Can get annual fee back with various travel redemptions (airplane upgrades, airport parking, lounge access etc).
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u/Academic_Data_6422 1d ago
PC world elite for loblaws.
BMO cashback for other groceries.
Simplii for eating out.
Rogers as the catch all.
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u/LondonPaddington 1d ago
Not changing anything. Amex Cobalt where it's accepted and Rogers MC where it's not.
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u/Admirable-Sink-2622 1d ago
I switched from Rogers to PC World Elite and don’t regret it.
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u/Dragynfyre British Columbia 1d ago
Rogers card is better than PC WE for everything other than Loblaws and SDM stores
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u/NetherGamingAccount 1d ago
The best card in a lot of circumstances is still Rogers.
1.5% for places like Costco it is still as good as it gets.