In 2012, there was an Amazon.ca credit card issued by Chase, from the VISA network.
The main advantage of this was that no conversion fees were charged for transactions in foreign currencies.
This card had no annual fee and allowed you to earn cash back on purchases at amazon.ca.
Unfortunately, this card disappeared from the Canadian market on March 15, 2018, leaving a void on the no-conversion-fee side.
A gap that Scotiabank has been quick to fill with cards that have no foreign currency conversion fees:
and, as of August 1, 2019:
Another interesting card is the HSBC World Elite Mastercard.
Let’s see what features this new credit card, issued by MBNA, has on the Mastercard network.
The Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard is a Mastercard network card.
That means you can use it for purchases at Costco warehouses, just like any other Mastercard credit card!
Check out the list of the best Mastercard credit cards for Costco.
The Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard has no annual fee.
It is therefore a convenient credit card to keep, year after year, for your credit history.
However, if you already have such a card for this purpose (such as the BMO® CashBack® Mastercard®* or Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card), you do not need to add a new card to your wallet for this purpose.
If you are an amazon.ca Prime subscriber ($79/year), the Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard will allow you to earn 2.5% back in Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard points on eligible purchases:
If you are not an amazon.ca Prime subscriber, you will earn 1.5% for these various purchases EXCEPT for foreign currency transactions (it will be 1% like the rest).
Outside of these purchase categories, the Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard will give you 1% back in Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard points.
This is similar to the vast majority of credit cards with no annual fee.
Check out the best current cards on this page!
The discounts you earn with the Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard are “Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard points”.
You can only use these points at amazon.ca.
In fact, for every 2,000 points you earn, you’ ll automatically get a $20 Amazon.ca Gift Card, directly into your Amazon.ca account linked to the credit card.
The welcome offer is a bonus accumulation rate in Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard points.
For the first 6 months, you will receive a 5% discount on eligible purchases you make:
…up to a maximum of $3,000 (i.e. a maximum discount of $150).
This is a great credit card for people who regularly store at Amazon.ca or Whole Foods stores… AND who are subscribers to the Amazon PRIME service($79/year). These people will be able to get a 2.5% discount for these purchases.
Amazon Prime service includes free, same-day or 1-2 day delivery, depending on your location.
Unfortunately, this new credit card charges a 2.5% conversion fee for foreign currency transactions.
While Amazon Prime subscribers get 2.5% discount for foreign currency transactions (which offsets the fee and makes a zero gain), non-subscribers only get 1% discount (which makes the remaining cost equivalent to 1.5% for foreign currency transactions).
If your goal is to get a card with no conversion fees, you might as well go with a specialized card like the Scotiabank Passport™ Visa Infinite* Card (which has a very good welcome offer at the moment) which eliminates any conversion fees and allows you to accumulate between 1 and 2 points/dollar at the passage !
Or if you prefer a Mastercard credit card (for shopping at Costco), the HSBC World Elite Mastercard is especially recommended!
If you store regularly on Amazon.ca, you probably know the trick to buying gift cards in grocery stores (Metro / Super C) with the Scotiabank Gold American Express® Card!
The latter allows you to accumulate 5 points / dollar in these businesses, a discount of 5% (or more depending on how you use your points).
When you purchase amazon.ca gift cards at these stores, you get 5% on all your purchases at Amazon.ca.
This far exceeds what this new Amazon.ca credit card offers.
Savings are here:
