The 6 Best World Elite Mastercard Credit Cards in Canada

The World Elite Mastercard credit cards are great for so many reasons. It is an excellent program and competes head-to-head with the best Visa cards in terms of travel perks and travel insurance. While those cards can deliver great values to Canadian travelers, not everyone can get one. In fact, you generally need a credit score above 760, a minimum personal income of $80,000 or a household income of $150,000 to qualify.

Are you ready to enjoy the perks? Here are the best World Elite Mastercard products in Canada:

Rogers World Elite Mastercard: Best for purchases in USD

The Rogers World Elite Mastercard has no annual fees and refinements that make this card a smart choice for international travel. You’ll earn 1.5% cashback on all your purchases, but a generous 3% cashback on all eligible purchases in U.S. dollars, which will soon wipe out the fees associated with currency conversion.

The Rogers World Elite Mastercard offers an attractive range of insurance benefits including trip interruption and trip cancellation insurance. Moreover, the card covers you for out-of-province and out-of-country emergency medical care. You’ll also receive a free Mastercard Travel Pass, giving you access to 1,300 airport lounges worldwide at a cost of $32 USD per visit. And for getaways closer to home, this card also includes collision and damage insurance with a rental car.

The Rogers World Elite Mastercard credit card comes with a welcome bonus of $25 in cashback. To get it, make your first purchase within three months of receiving your card. To be eligible for this card, the company requires customers to have a minimum personal income of $80,000 per year or a family income of $150,000.

National Bank of Canada World Elite Mastercard: Best for helping the planet

The National Bank has amazing financial products so it makes sense that the National Bank World Elite® Mastercard is equally wonderful. This World Elite Mastercard is part of the bank’s À la carte Rewards Plan®.

How easy is it to earn points? It is actually really easy. Since it is a World Elite Mastercard, you can earn up to 5 points per dollar spent at groceries and restaurants until a total of $2,500 in gross monthly purchases is charged to the account. You also get 2 points per dollar on gas and EV charging, as well as recurring bill payments and book with À la carte Travel agency. If you add an extra authorized user, all of their purchases give you more points. The annual fee for this extra card is $50. The annual fee for the main cardholder of $150 is waived the first year.

You can exchange points for travel, products or gift cards. A game-changing feature is that you can get up to $150 a year on travel expenses (airport parking, seat selection, baggage, airport lounges and airline ticket upgrades). If you want to turn the National Bank World Elite credit card into a cash back card, you can. As a primary cardholder of the National Bank World Elite® Mastercard, you simply use your points as a payment on your credit card. With À la carte Extras, you can also invest in a financial product, save on your banking packages or pay your mortgage with your rewards points.

One thing that makes the À la carte Rewards Plan® stand out is that you can choose eco-friendly rewards. The most interesting one? You can exchange your points for withdrawals of carbon dioxide (CO2) offsets through COOP Carbone. That means you help the planet without breaking a sweat.

BMO AIR MILES World Elite Mastercard: Best for collecting Air Miles

The BMO AIR MILES World Elite Mastercard offers huge rewards when you shop with it. It is a powerful AIR MILES points multiplier. You earn 1 AIR MILE for every $12 spent with your credit card, and you can triple your points with AIR MILES partners. You earn double AIR MILES at any eligible grocery store.

The BMO AIR MILES World Elite Mastercard has all manner of extra discounts. You use less Miles with a 25% discount on one worldwide AIR MILES flight redemption during the calendar year. You also get up to 25% off at participating National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car locations.

The best thing about travelling is doing it as often as you please. The BMO AIR MILES World Elite Mastercard gives you unlimited-trips-per-year coverage. You have up to $2 million in eligible travel emergency medical insurance so long as the trip does not exceed 15 consecutive days.

BMO Cash Back World Elite Mastercard: Best for grocery shopping

The BMO Cash Back World Elite Mastercard is, well, also great. Its points redemption breakdown makes it a general use card with far-reaching benefits. You get 5% back on the first $500 you spend on groceries each month, which is the highest cash back earn rate on groceries in Canada. Then you get 4% on the first $300 you spen each month on ground transport including trains, buses, limousines, taxis, etc. But wait, there’s more. You earn 3% on the first $300 you spend each month on gas and EV charging, as well as 2% on the first $500 you spend in recurring bill payments per month. Once you exceed these limits, or spend on anything outside these categories, you earn 1% cash back.

The World Elite is a travel card but your cash back can go anywhere you want. It can be direct deposited
into a BMO savings, BMO chequing or BMO InvestorLine account. You can also apply it as a statement credit.

If you do travel, the BMO Cash Back World Elite Mastercard gives you access to participating airport lounges. You also get up to $2 million in eligible travel emergency medical insurance, but your trip has to be 8 consecutive days or less. You have access to the Mastercard Concierge service and free roadside assistance.

MBNA Rewards World Elite Mastercard: Best for simplicity

The MBNA Rewards World Elite Mastercard is good because you earn 5 points for every $1 spent on eligible restaurant, grocery, digital media, membership, and household utility. This applies until your total for all of the categories combined reaches $50,000 in a year. After that you earn 1 point for every $1 on all other eligible purchases. This card is easy to understand!

The MBNA Rewards World Elite Mastercard is one step ahead of the pack with this next benefit. Each year, the primary account holder gets Birthday Bonus Points equal to 10% of the total number of points the account earned in the 12 months before the month of the primary cardholder’s birthday. The maximum Birthday points is 15,000.

What can you do with your points? You can redeem the points for a cash back, products, travel, and gift cards through the MBNA Rewards Catalogue. For example, you can redeem 10,000 points to get a $100 credit against your travel. Indeed, the redemption value for travel is 100 points per $1, while cash and charity donations are 120 points per $1. This card also comes with travel insurance.

WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard: Best for travelling within Canada and the United States

The WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard comes with extensive travel insurance coverage, as we might expect from an airline. When you use your credit card for everyday purchases, you get 1.5% back in WestJet dollars. If you book flights or vacation packages through WestJet ou WestJet Vacations, you get 2%. You can then use your WestJet dollars toward all or part of a WestJet flight or WestJet Vacations package. One WestJet dollar is equivalent to one Canadian dollar. You can redeem your WestJet dollars to cover the price of the air fare but not to pay the taxes, fees and other charges. While the cash back rate is interesting, you are limited to travelling with WestJet.

The most interesting feature of this card is that you will receive an annual World Elite round-trip companion voucher to anywhere WestJet flies. For example, you can travel within Canada or to the continental U.S. from $119, to Hawaï or Mexico from $399. If you prefer travelling alone, you can exchange your annual round-trip companion voucher for 4 lounge vouchers.