BMO CashBack® Mastercard®* Review

If you’re not interested in the best travel credit cards, then the odds are you’re looking for something that offers cash back. These cards are highly lucrative since you don’t need to worry about what your points. Instead, you’re earning a fixed percentage in cash back on all your purchases, which is easy to understand. As you can imagine, every major bank offers one of these cards, so read my BMO CashBack® Mastercard®* review and find out if it’s one of the best cash back cards in Canada.

BMO CashBack® Mastercard®*

The BMO CashBack® Mastercard®* is BMO’s no fee cash back credit card. Think of this as an entry level card which is why you don’t get many benefits. That being said, this card quite often has promotions where you can earn additional cash back for the first three months. Right now you’ll earn 5% cash back on all purchases up to $100 ($2,000 spend). Once your promotional period ends, you’ll earn 3% cash back on grocery purchases, 1% on recurring bill payments and 0.5% cash back on all other purchases. 

Another interesting BMO CashBack® Mastercard®* benefit is the balance transfer option where you’ll have a 0.99% interest rate for 9 months. Although there’s a 2% fee on the amount you’re transferring, that’s a small price to pay to get such a low interest rate for 9 months. For perspective, most credit cards charge an average interest rate of 19.99% so you could save a fair amount of money as long as you pay off your entire balance before the promotional period ends.

The discount on car rentals at National and Alamo as well as the extended warranty are nice extra benefits, but it’s nothing to get too excited about. This is an excellent choice if you’re looking for one of the best student credit cards.

How BMO cashback rewards work

Okay, so we know that you earn cashback with theBMO CashBack® Mastercard®*, but how does that work when it comes to the payouts? BMO actually gives you quite a few options for your cash back. You can have it deposited into your BMO chequing account, deposited into your Investorline account, or you can use it as a statement credit. 

In addition, you get to choose how often you get your cash back. You can have it deposited monthly or annually. You can also choose to have it sent to you when you’ve earned a certain amount of cash back ($50 minimum, $10 increments). The final choice is to have it paid out one in one lump sum. 

I personally recommend cashing out as soon as you can. Any cash back you’ve earned just sits in your rewards account and doesn’t earn any interest. As soon as you get paid out, you can deposit it into one of the best high interest savings accounts where you can start earning interest. 

Note that this cashback system applies to all BMO cash back cards including the BMO CashBack® World Elite®* Mastercard®*.

How the BMO CashBack® Mastercard®* compares to others

The BMO CashBack® Mastercard®* definitely doesn’t fall into the list of the best cash back credit cards in Canada, but for a no fee card, it’s okay. However, there are a few other cards that are arguably better.

First, there’s the Tangerine Money-Back card that gives you 2% cash back on up to three categories of your choice. All other categories earn you 0.5% cash back. This card is incredibly popular since it’s the only credit card out there that allows you to pick your categories with an accelerated earn rate. There’s also the Tangerine World Mastercard which is similar to the Money-Back version but comes with some additional benefits. Both of these cards have no fees so pick the one that fits your spending.

Final thoughts

My BMO CashBack® Mastercard®* review is neutral. This isn’t one of the best cash back credit cards on the market but it does have no annual fee and a low minimum income requirement. 

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