Rogers Red World Elite Mastercard Review
The Rogers Red World Elite Mastercard (formerly known as the Rogers World Elite Mastercard) is often overlooked, but it’s easily one of the best cash back credit cards in Canada. This no fee card gives you a cash back rate of up to 3%. Plus, you get five free Roam Like Home days each year.
Simply put, this is the best no fee cash back credit card. The catch is, you must be a Rogers, Fido, or Shaw customer to maximize your return. Read my Rogers Red World Elite Mastercard review now.
Rogers Red World Elite Mastercard
- No annual fee
- $60 cash back when you make a mobile wallet purchase within the first 90 days and 6 automatic payments within the first 8 months for your Rogers, Fido or Shaw postpaid service
- 2% cash back on all non-U.S. dollar purchases if you have 1 qualifying service with Rogers, Fido or Shaw – 1.5% if you’re not a customer
- 3% cash back on purchases made in U.S. dollars.
- 1.5x more cash back every time you redeem for Rogers, Fido or Shaw purchase
- 5 Roam Like Home days
Welcome bonus and earn rate
The welcome bonus is $60 cash back when you make a mobile wallet purchase within the first 90 days and six automatic payments within the first eight months for your Rogers, Fido or Shaw postpaid service. Although that may not seem like a lot, it’s decent since this is a no fee card. It’s also worth noting that this offer isn’t always available.
The earning rate is straightforward. If you’re a Rogers, Fido, or Shaw customer, you’ll earn 2% cash back on all purchases. Non-customers get 1.5%. Purchases made in U.S. dollars earn you 3% cash back. You should redeem your cash back for Rogers, Fido, or Shaw services to maximize your rewards, since you get a 1.5X boost. That makes your cash back 3%.
Rogers World Elite Mastercard benefits
For a no fee card, the Rogers World Elite Mastercard has a decent amount of benefits. Admittedly, some of these perks only give you basic coverage, but this is a no fee card, so any additional benefits should be considered a win.
1.5X cash back boost
When you redeem your cash back for Rogers, Fido, or Shaw services, you’ll get a 1.5X boost. That means your regular earning rate can be as high as 3%. There’s no other no fee credit card that earns you that much cash back.
5 Roam Like Home days
The Rogers Red World Elite Mastercard recently added five free Roam Like Home days. That means you can use your cell phone abroad and not be charged data for five days (as long as you don’t exceed your regular data limits). This benefit has a value of up to $75.
Travel insurance
- Emergency medical – $1,000,000 / 10 days for those 64 and under, 3 days for those aged 65 – 75
- Trip interruption – $1,000 per person, up to $5,000 total
- Trip cancellation – $1,000 per person, up to $5,000 total
- Rental car collision/damage – $65,000 / 31 days
The included travel insurance is surprisingly good for a no fee card. You get travel medical, trip interruption/cancellation and rental car collision/damage insurance. The only extended insurance you’re missing is delayed/lost bags and hotel/motel burglary insurance. Although you only get up to 10 days of emergency medical insurance, you can extend that by calling the insurance provider and paying for the additional days.
Airport lounge access
Cardholders get a complimentary membership to Mastercard Travel Pass provided by DragonPass. This gives you access to more than 1,300 airport lounges worldwide. However, this is just the membership (regular value $99 USD). You still need to pay for individual lounge visits, which are $32 USD.
Purchase insurance
- Purchase assurance – 90 days
- Extended warranty – Up to one additional year
As a World Elite Mastercard holder, you get some excellent purchase insurance. Any purchases charged to your card are covered for 90 days from theft, loss, or damage. In addition, the manufacturer’s warranty is doubled up to one additional year. If you ever need to make a claim, you must provide your original receipt and the statement when you made the purchase.
Free Boingo Wi-Fi
Although not advertised on the website, cardholders get a free Boingo Wi-Fi account since it’s a standard benefit for World Elite cardholders. With this perk, you’ll get access to 1,000,000+ Wi-Fi hotspots with no additional fees.
When your cash back is paid out
As part of this Rogers World Elite Mastercard review, it’s vital to understand how your cash back is paid out. Once you’ve accumulated at least $10 in rewards, you can apply the balance to any purchase made in the last 90 days with the Rogers Bank app or through your online banking. Alternatively, you can set your cash back to be redeemed automatically toward your next purchase. This is a great feature since many other cash back programs pay out only once a year. Again, redeeming your cash back for Rogers, Fido, or Shaw services is best since you get an increased cash back rate.
Rogers World Elite Mastercard eligibility
- You’re a Canadian citizen or permanent resident.
- You’re at least the age of majority in your province or territory.
- You have a minimum annual personal gross income of $80,000 or a household income of $150,000.
In addition, a credit check will be performed to determine your eligibility. Although Rogers doesn’t state a minimum credit score requirement, you’ll want yours to be at least 700 before applying. Also, Rogers requires you to spend a minimum of $15,000 on this card each year, or you’ll be downgraded to a different card.
How the Rogers World Elite Mastercard compares
The Rogers World Elite Mastercard is often considered one of the best cash back credit cards in Canada, so it has a lot of competition. Generally, you’ll want to compare it to a few different cards to see what’s best for you.
Rogers Red World Elite Mastercard vs. Rogers Mastercard
The Rogers Mastercard is the most comparable credit card. It’s essentially the same as the Rogers Red World Elite Mastercard but has fewer benefits. That said, the World Elite card has a much higher minimum income requirement of $80,000.
Rogers World Elite Mastercard vs. Tangerine Money-Back Card
The Tangerine Money-Back Card is a popular cash back card since you can earn 2% cash back on up to three categories of your choice. All other purchases earn you 0.5%. Although the base earning rate is lower than the Rogers World Elite Mastercard, the Tangerine Money-Back card only requires a minimum personal income of $12,000 to be considered.
Rogers World Elite Mastercard vs. American Express Cobalt Card
If your goal is to earn as many rewards as possible, and you’re not worried about an annual fee, then the American Express Cobalt Card is a good choice. You’ll earn 5 American Express Membership Rewards points on eats and drinks (including groceries) per $1 spent, 3 points on streaming services, 2 points on travel and transit, and 1 point on all other purchases. With American Express Membership Rewards you can redeem 1,000 points for a $10 statement credit. This makes the card a hybrid cash back/travel program. The monthly fee for this card is $12.99, so that’s $155.88 you’d be spending each year.
Final thoughts
My Rogers World Elite Mastercard review is positive. The card is ideal for anyone in the following situations:
- You make a lot of U.S. dollar purchases – Although you’ll pay a foreign exchange fee of 2.5%, the 3% cash back earned on U.S. dollar purchases will offset your costs.
- You don’t want to pay an annual fee – There’s no monthly or yearly fee to worry about.
- You want easy cash back – The earn rate is incredibly since you can get up to 3% back.
Overall, this card is impressive, but it has a high minimum personal income requirement for you to be approved. Additionally, some people will also be annoyed that the extra cash back doesn’t apply to all foreign transactions. That said, the card has no annual fee, and any cash back earned is easy to redeem.
Should be noted that the “cash back” rewards can only be used on Rogers or Fido related expenses like your phone or cable bill.
If you don’t use any rogers products you can use the rewards.
Hi Greg,
You can request a statement credit once a year so this card is still a good fit for people who don’t use Rogers product if they don’t mind waiting. I personally would only use this credit card for foreign transactions, so that once a year credit would be perfectly fine for me.
Thanks!
I did not know about the statement credit, that does make it more valuable if I ever decide to ditch my Fido services. Rogers is pretty misleading where you can the cashback.
I find that most credit card reviews don’t focus on how the rewards can be used very much, which makes a huge difference in the value of the card.
the 80k 150k isn’t a deal breaker if you have the lower tier Mastercard and spend more then $2500 a month for 6 months or so they will upgrade you the world elite no matter how much you make. I got my PC world elite on only 60K income and now I am upgraded to the Rogers world elite on far less than 150k family income I would need.
Hey Greg,
Yeah when you do a deeper dive, it’s a decent card considering it has no fee and offers no foreign transaction fees. Although the insurance details haven’t been released yet, but I imagine 10 days of travel medical insurance will be included is a nice bonus.
Good point about reviews talking about how the rewards can be used. Generally speaking, I tend to compare cards to other cards, but moving forward, I should include a section on how the points can be used.
Not a good choice for foreign purchases. In my recent US$ transactions Rogers tagged on 10% Approx on top of Mastercard foreign exchange rate + 2.5% Foreign Transaction Fee. Talked to Customer support for almost 3 hours without any explanation. Tried to submit an online message through my account but that feature actually appears to have been disabled. Worst customer service and worst card to use for foreign purchases
Hi Sumar,
This is the first I’ve heard of this. Did all your $US transactions have that 10% mark up?
I would stay away from this card considering i have used three times and every time i had to call rogers to verify transaction. Today they have blocked my card and is under review. Apparently someone from rogers will call me to discuss.
I Agree with Mr. Ali about the card. They have also blocked my card without informing me and the account is under review. I do not know what type of review it is as i earn more than double there threshold income. Someone from rogers will call me with no time limit for review mentioned. This is totally ridiculous.
[…] Home Trust Preferred Visa has no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees. There’s also the Rogers World Elite Mastercard that technically charges the 2.5% fee, but you earn 4% in cash-back on all purchases made in a […]
I’m retired was using a Rogers card, they upgraded me to the world elite and I make a lot less than 80k
have never been blocked, my transactions always go through no problem.
I love my Rogers World Elite Mastercard! I do not make $80k annual income but I qualify for the average monthly spending so they upgraded my card. Downloaded the Pay with rewards app to use cashback to redeem for my Rogers statement
Does this card give you cash back on all purchase or are some excluded? I am trying to get clarification
Natasha,
Yes, you get cash back on all your purchases. Things that aren’t eligible are say interest charges on your credit card.
[…] no fee credit card to look at is the Rogers World Elite Mastercard which gives you 1.75% cash back on all purchases and 4% cash back on purchases made in a foreign […]
We applied for the Rogers Elite Mastercard as well. After qualifying and receiving our new card we went to make a purchase and discovered our card had been blocked. (Very embarrassing when standing in a lineup). We spent over a hour on the phone with several people from Rogers including a manager. No one would tell us why the card was blocked, only that it was under investigation. NOT GOOD ENOUGH. We would definitely not recommend this card to anyone after our experience.
Regarding the Rogers Elite Master Card there are a lot of people saying you can only redeem the cash back on Rogers products this is not true. You are able to redeem on any purchase made with this card.
Customer service subpar for a premium credit card. Archaic process with no communication to set up preauthorized automatic payments (3 billing cycles still no luck).
Also does not support Apple Pay.
The card is going to be massively downgraded by Rogers come June 202. How true is this? If true, do you recommend a similarly generous no fee card or with annual fee card? I may be looking to ditch my Rogers WE MC soon because of the 15,000 spending requirement.
Scottie,
If you’re looking for a no fee, no foreign transaction fees card, check out this list – https://www.moneywehave.com/canadian-credit-cards-without-foreign-transaction-fees/
Hi Barry,
The list is okay but they do not provide the same flat rate and insurance as Rogers WE come June 2020.
The “best” alternative for flat fee cash back is the Tangerine Money Back card but you only get 2% on three categories of your choice. All other categories earn you .5%
Hi Barry, has Rogers restricted the purchases in which the cash back can be implemented? For a while these were almost any purchases and lately it seems to be just a handful of them. Thanks!
Oswaldo,
As far as I know, there hasn’t been any change to what you can claim cash back on. you just need to have a minimum of $20 in cash back to make said claim.
Hi Barry,
Have you tried using the Mastercard Airport Experiences membership? Is there a limit as to how many times w can use it? No passes means we can’t bring a guest in with us?
Thanks!
Martie,
You need to register with Mastercard for your Loungekey access. No passes means you’re paying for every visit including your own.
Hi Barry,
I have used this card without any difficulty for several years. However, I recently noticed a serious deterioration in customer service. A simple activation of a replacement card required four calls.
I also draw your attention to the fact that starting June 2020, ONLY transactions in US$ will be exempt from the 2.5% conversion fee. Purchases in any other currency than US$ (Euros for example) will not benefit from that feature. Much less attractive for those who travel elsewhere than the US …
Hey Gilbert,
This was one of the most underrated credit cards out there but with these new changes coming on June 2nd, it’s now just average. Adding the $15,000 annual minimum spend requirement was also ridiculous.