Welcome to my post on the Best Cash Rewards Credit Cards for 2017. I’m a firm believer in no-fee banking and no-fee cash rewards credit cards. I use no-fee cash rewards credit cards for virtually all of my monthly spending. That said, I always make sure to pay off the credit card bills each and every month so I don’t have to carry a balance and pay crazy high interest. In Canada, there are several options when it comes to no-fee cash rewards credit cards.
Note: this page contains affiliate links. As an affiliate of Tangerine, this blog receives a small commission for each sign up.
Here are the top 5 Best Cash Rewards Credit Cards for 2016:
Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card
Here are some key features of this card from the Tangerine website:
- Now earn 4% Money-Back Rewards for the first 3 months in your chosen categories
- Earn 2% Money-Back Rewards on purchases in two 2% Money-Back Categories of your choice, and 1% Money-Back Rewards on all other purchases.
- Have your Money-Back Rewards deposited into a Tangerine Savings Account, and get a 3rd2% Money-Back Category.
- Money-Back Rewards are earned automatically and paid monthly, and can either be applied towards your Credit Card balance or redeemed into your Savings Account.
- No limit on the amount of Money-Back Rewards you can earn.
- Change your 2% Money-Back Categories to suit your spending.
- Orange Alerts are emailed to you so that you’re up-to-date on what’s happening in your Account.
In my opinion Tangerine’s credit card is simply the best no-fee cash rewards credit card on the market today. I like that I can choose how I get my 2% cash back from 10 different categories.
Here is the list of the categories to choose from:
Grocery
Restaurants
Gas
Drug store
Entertainment
Furniture
Hotel-Motel
Recurring bill payments
Home Improvement
Public Transportation and Parking
Since groceries are the largest expense item after the mortgage in my family budget, I definitely want to get 2% cash back on that. If the cash rewards are deposited to my Tangerine Savings Account, then I get to choose a 3rd category from which to get 2% cash back.
Overall I feel that when it comes to Best Cash Rewards Credit Cards, the Tangerine credit card offers the best value of any card on this list. I sincerely hope that they won’t scale back the perks of this card like MBNA did on their Smart Cash card a few years back.
MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus MasterCard
The runner up on this list of the Best Cash Rewards Credit Cards is the MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus MasterCard. This card was an upgrade from my previous MBNA Smart Cash card. One of the features I hated about that card was that I got 2% cash back on eligible purchases up to a max of $400 and 1% cash back thereafter. My monthly groceries alone cost nearly $1,000 (family of 4) so I really didn’t feel like that card was earning much at all for me.
With the MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus MasterCard there are no limits on cash rewards. This feature puts it in direct competition with the Tangerine card. Besides the 5% teaser promo, it offers a standard 2% cash back on groceries and gas and 1% on everything else. While cardholders don’t get to choose how they get the 2% cash back like they do with Tangerine, I feel that groceries and gas are obvious choices for most people because those monthly expenses are among the largest.
Here are some key features of this card from MBNA’s website:
Make your shopping work for you. Get cash back on the most common purchases.
- Get up to 5% cash back on eligible gas and grocery purchases for the first 6 months‡
- Get up to 2% cash back on eligible gas and grocery purchases thereafter‡
- Get up to 1% cash back for all other eligible purchases‡
- 1.99% promotional annual interest rate† (AIR) on balance transfers✪ for the first 10 full months
- No annual fee
President’s Choice Financial World Elite MasterCard
President’s Choice Financial offers one of the better cash rewards credit cards, but only if you shop for groceries at Loblaw’s.
Here are some key features of this card from the PC Financial website:
With the PC Financial® World Elite MasterCard®, you’ll still earn PC®points towards free groceries1 – just at a faster rate. Plus it comes with a long list of premium benefits you’d expect to pay for, but won’t have to.
Please note: a minimum annual personal income of $70,000 or household income of $120,000 is required for this premium card.
No annual fee
Earn 30 PC points per $1 spent at Loblaw’s and Shoppers Drug Mart stores
Earn 10 PC points per $1 spent everywhere else
At Esso earn bonus of up to 3 cents per litre in PC points
On all other purchases earn 10 PC points per $1 spent
**The PC points conversion is as follows: 10 PC points is equal to 1 cent**
This card is definitely a premium card with lots of other free benefits such as free Travel Medical Insurance for trips up to 10 days in length, Car Rental/Collision loss damage waiver insurance and even a 24/7 concierge service in case you need to get concert tickets or book a dinner reservation!
How it works is that a cardholder earns PC points that can be redeemed as cash towards groceries at any Loblaw or affiliate grocery store. In order to redeem points a person must have a minimum of 20000 points. Since most of my grocery shopping is done at Loblaw’s or its affiliates, this card effectively gives me 3% cash back when I use it in their stores.
Unfortunately, this card is only offered to people with minimum annual salaries of at least $70k or households earning a combined $120k.
Capital One Aspire Cash Platinum MasterCard
Coming in at number 4 on the list is the Capital One Aspire Cash Platinum MasterCard. It offers a 1% cash back on all purchases.
Here are some key features of this card from the Capital One website:
With the Aspire Cash Platinum MasterCard, you get cash rewards on every purchase – and there’s no limit to the amount you can earn.
PRODUCT SNAPSHOT
- 1% cash rewards for every $1 on all purchases
- No annual fee
- No limit to the amount of cash you can earn
- Cash rewards have no expiry date
EXTRAS
- Add an authorized user for $0 and earn even more cash with their purchases
- Platinum MasterCard benefits, including Purchase Assurance and Extended Warranty
President’s Choice Financial MasterCard
Besides the premium world elite MasterCard discussed above, PC Financial also offers another no-fee MasterCard that comes in at number 5 on this list of the Best Cash Rewards Credit Cards.
Here are some key features of the President’s Choice Financial MasterCard from PC Financial’s website:
The PC Financial® MasterCard® is our‡ original no annual fee MasterCard. Use it everywhere you shop to earn PC® points towards free groceries, Joe Fresh Style™ and more1.
Here’s a look at its perks:
No annual fee
Earn 10 PC points per $1 spent
At Esso earn bonus of 2 cents per litre in PC points
On all other purchases earn 10 PC points per $1 spent
**PC points conversion is as follows: 10 PC points is equal to 1 cent**
The big difference that I see between the Capital One Aspire and PC Financial MasterCard is that Capital One truly offers cash back with no limits; whereas PC Financial offers its PC points instead of direct cash rewards. As I mentioned above, PC points are only worthwhile if a person shops for groceries at Loblaw’s or one of its affiliates and, again, a person needs a minimum of 20,000 PC points before they can use them towards their groceries.
I feel that both, the Capital One Aspire and PC Financial MasterCard are as basic as can be when it comes to cash rewards credit cards. While they both have no annual fee, they simply offer a standard 1% cash back on all purchases. Depending on where a person shops for groceries will largely determine whether or not they get the value out of the PC card. So I think that the Capital One card definitely has the broader appeal of the two.
Thanks for reading my post on the then best cash rewards credit cards for 2017, I’ll be updating this regularly to stay current with all the promotions.
Check out my article on No Fee Banking Tangerine vs PC Financial
Mustard Seed Money
Friday 28th of October 2016
Thanks for sharing. I've been using a Navy Federal card with 1.5% cash back but have been looking around to see if there is anything else out there. Thanks for sharing your picks!!!