Ease of redemption:
Excellent
Minimum redemption:
None
Why Rogers Mastercard?
The Rogers Platinum Mastercard is a deceptively good credit card. It lacks a certain glitz and glamour, but beneath the surface is a really solid offering for two reasons, detailed below in our Rogers Mastercard review.
Cashback & Foreign Perks
First, the card offers 1.25% cashback on everything, which puts the Rogers Mastercard in the conversation for the best cashback credit card in Canada. Second, Roger’s pays 3% cashback on foreign exchange payments. That 3% effective cashback pretty definitively makes Rogers the best no-foreign transaction fee credit card in Canada. Last, but not least Rogers customers enjoy a 2% cashback on it’s products or services.
To top it off, Rogers is offering a welcome bonus of $25 to give the card a try, all that’s required is one purchase within three months of activation. The annual fee of $29 is waived year one – with Rogers customers able to easily keep the card free forever.
Welcome Bonus and Annual Fee Waiver
Sign up for the Rogers Platinum Mastercard and you’ll receive a $25 welcome bonus. The first year’s fee of $29 is waived for everyone – however, we feel it is justified to label this card entirely fee-free, because if you have a Roger/FIDO bill set up for recurring payment on the credit card the fee is waived each and every year.
How the Rogers Platinum Cashback Works?
Forget all that category nonsense – with Rogers Mastercard you get 1.75% on each and every CAD purchase made on the card – including Costco!
This cashback was initially meant to be spent on Rogers/FIDO products charged on the card, things like internet, telephone or cable packages. However, customers may now download the MasterCard Pay with Rewards app which allows rewards to be redeemed at millions of participating merchants on and offline – generally everywhere Mastercard is accepted.
If you don’t fancy downloading the Pay with Rewards app, you may call Rogers directly once per year and the cashback will be applied as an overall statement credit. So, call them up at the end of your first term and the entire amount earned will be deducted from your statement.
Rogers Foreign Currency Cash back
Do you shop anywhere online with pricing in USD? Do you vacation in the United States? If the answer to either of those questions is yes, then you absolutely should have a no-foreign exchange fee credit card, and the Rogers Platinum MasterCard, with the 3% cash back, is the best in the market. As was stated in the introduction, foreign currency purchases are usually priced at 2.5% by the banks, with an additional 0.5% or so going to the payment processor. The Rogers MasterCard 3% cash back covers the charges and then some. Rogers has also added Zero Liability insurance, which means you are off the hook for any unauthorized purchases – a plus when navigating unfamiliar foreign lands.
This makes the card a top option for non-Rogers customers as well – the only downside being that an annual fee of $29 will kick in year two absent a Rogers bill paid directly from the card.
Closing Balance
This Rogers Platinum MasterCard review makes the case for ‘best in show’ in two different card categories: 1) the best no-fee cashback card in Canada with a flat 1.25% and 2) a top foreign exchange card, with 3% on non-Canadian charges. Either designation would be enough to earn consideration for a spot in your wallet; the double crown makes this one a sure thing. Use the Rogers MasterCard for all non-CAD purchases, and you might consider using it day to day as well – at the very least, recurring FIDO or Rogers bills should be stuck on there for the $29 fee waived from year two onward.
Hi there, have you been sponsored (and paid handsomely) by Rogers marketing to perpetuate duplicity for them because first, you saying “it is justified to label this card entirely fee-free, because if you have a Roger/Fido bill set up…” makes such a broad assumption and conclusion especially if alluding “for everyone” on the same line and second, equating “fee-free” with waiving and rebating fees obscures objective truth. Evidently, you are deluded on the first since it takes just one person saying they have nothing billed with Rogers to make that label not applicable, and conflicted in the second when you know “annual fee of $29 will kick in year two absent a Rogers bill paid directly from the card”. Furthermore, those fees are still being CHARGED FOR REAL to people who have nothing else tied to Rogers and/or refuse strings tying them to PAP, which would be one too many cases against considering this a truly “free” card! Third and vicious tall tale is when you carelessly declare this card is the “best no-foreign transaction fee credit card in Canada” while in the same paragraph you acknowledge “the 2.5% exchange fee” exists, which is another REAL COST against you dreaming this “free”. Compare this to HSBC Premier WE MC (new), Chase Amazon/Marriott Rewards (legacy) and Home Trust Preferred Visas that are without that exchange fee and instead save you those fee costs upfront. Perhaps you believe CHASING “4% cashback on purchases in foreign currencies” is a good excuse to dream again “fee-free” as you get the upfront fees awarded back LATER, but that only partially fits under your “HITS” (especially given your third misstep about boasting “best no” FX fee card) because you lose 2.5% in fees on foreign purchase returns where you do not get that 4% (and BTW, why do you say “forget all that category nonsense” only to return with “two different card categories” “nonsense”, which the category of “4% on non-Canadian charges” minus 2.5% fee is actually only 1.5% reward that is not your own money, e.g., unless you were also fooled by the greedyrates(TM) 4% trick, “On $10,000 of foreign spend that’s $150 (and NOT $400) in rewards earnings” as $250 is FX fees you had first paid that you will now just be getting back!). In fact, your readers should be made more aware of your missing “MISSES” information to help them properly determine the actual NON-/usefulness and COSTS of using this card in contrast to you OVERRATING its “Ease of redemption: Excellent” and “Minimum redemption: None” :
0. Cardholders must meet “Minimum $20 spend” threshold to buy Rogers stuff and/or must always “contact Rogers directly once per year by December for credit in January” next year to get back their fees and rewards;
1. $29 Annual Fee : COSTS YOU MONEY after the first year unless you meet (first) PAP requirement that must be Rogers (second), which your lost freedom is the price;
2. No cash back on foreign purchase returns to offset COSTS of 2.5% FX fees charged upfront, i.e., YOU LOSE YOUR MONEY;
3. “No cash back on ATM withdrawals abroad” to offset COSTS of 2.5% FX fees charged upfront, i.e., YOU LOSE YOUR MONEY AGAIN unless you never secure this need (emergency or otherwise) nor short of foreign cash carried on your travels;
4. No insurance coverages/No protections COSTS you risk mitigation, i.e., YOU LOSE YET AGAIN IN CLAIM(S) COMPENSATION unless lucky/nothing bad ever happens and/or you are already covered with something more useful than this Rogers/Fido card THAT POSSIBLY CAN COST YOU MORE BEFORE AND EVEN AFTER ITS “BEST” REWARDS BEEN REDEEMED
Although everyone should be entitled to have opinions and conclusions even if they are both lopsided and inaccurate as to be innocently deceptive and also be free to delude oneself as much as one likes otherwise, it is however unjustified to mislead/ill-advise everyone else with those delusions of this card being “entirely fee-free”, “free forever” and “a sure thing” “best value” given the above facts such as COSTS and (be shamed) even more so if proven to have been done intentionally and/or profited obscenely from it in some way. Have a nice day, eh?
We are admirers of your prose!
Your main issue seems to be: we are compensated for our reviews (theoretically yes but fear not, we have made nothing yet) and our compensation has led us to make claims you deem false. These claims are 1) the card is fee free, but non-Rogers customers are charged a $29 annual fee from the second year and 2) the 4% cash back on foreign transactions is not rightly called no-transaction because it offsets but does not waive said fee. We have made both points very clear in the body of the article, but we appreciate you restating them with a greater passion than we could ever hope to replicate. All that being said, we still think this is a great little card that is free*, offers a good standard cashback on domestic, and a heightened cashback which more than offsets foreign transaction charges.
I have the Fido Mastercard since i am not a big spender of over $12,000 a year and also i dont have any rogers product . Its a free no annual fee and i benefit from 1.5% redemption on everything including foreign purchase. So far so good, the card is probably one of the best cards around, but because it provides no protection and insurance it would be essential to have a 2nd card for large purchases or auto collision waiver.
Is the Rogers card is still worthwhile now that the cashback percentage has dropped on USD transactions? I was using the card specifically for when I travel to the US and I think maybe I should switch.
Hi David, It is still a worthwhile card, but others like the Home Trust Preferred Visa, which we are currently reviewing, make a good argument to have supplanted it as the best no foreign exchange rate card.