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Earning rewards with your credit card is a great way to take advantage of your everyday purchases and turn them into something extra.
With the Capitol One Smart Rewards™ Mastercard® and its unique rewards structure, you’ll not only earn valuable points, but you’ll also get positive reinforcement on good financial behaviours.
The Capital One Smart Rewards™ Mastercard® is a distinctive offering in the Capital One family of cards.
This no-annual-fee credit card stands out in the Canadian market by rewarding you when you make payments to your credit card balance instead of when you make the initial purchase.
This unique earning structure is designed to help build good habits around your credit use, which in turn can help improve your credit score.
The Capitol One Smart Rewards™ Mastercard® is accessible to nearly everyone thanks to the fact that it doesn’t charge an annual fee, and it doesn’t have set minimum income requirements.
In fact, you can even check online to see if you’ll be pre-approved without actually applying, helping you understand your credit options without affecting your credit score with a hard check.
Since the Capitol One Smart Rewards™ Mastercard® makes it easy to apply and be approved, this is a good credit card option for students, for people who are newer to the credit journey and looking to build credit history, and for those who are working to improve their credit score.
One of the most interesting things about the Capital One Smart Rewards™ Mastercard® is the unique way you earn rewards with the card.
Unlike other credit cards in the Canadian market where you earn rewards when you make a purchase on your credit card, with the Capital One Smart Rewards™ Mastercard®, you actually earn reward points when you make payments on your credit card statement.
The card’s one-of-a-kind earning structure lets you earn 5 points for every $1 you pay towards your credit card balance.
By structuring the card’s rewards program this way, Capital One promotes good financial habits and incentivizes responsible behaviours around money.
Plus, once you’ve got some points sitting in your Capital One account, you can easily redeem them for gift cards, statement credits, and more using Capital One’s online portal.
The redemption rate depends on the exact details of each redemption, but as an example, you can redeem 20,000 points for a $25 gift card.
As a Mastercard, the Capital One Smart Rewards™ Mastercard® will also work for all your Costco purchases, making a solid no-annual-fee option for anyone who likes to stock up at this popular retailer.
In addition to giving cardholders the ability to earn rewards while making payments on their credit cards, the Capital One Smart Rewards™ Mastercard® also offers some helpful perks and benefits.
For cardholders who enjoy an adventure away from home, the card offers common carrier travel accident insurance, baggage delay insurance, and car rental collision/damage waiver insurance to give you some added peace of mind on the road.
When making a purchase with your Capital One Smart Rewards™ Mastercard®, you can feel extra secure thanks to the card’s purchase protection benefits.
With this feature, eligible items purchased on the card are protected against loss, damage, and theft anywhere in the world for 120 days from the date of purchase.
Additionally, the card offers extended warranty coverage that gives you double the length of time as the original manufacturer’s warranty (up to 2 years) when you purchase an eligible item with your Capital One Smart Rewards™ Mastercard®.
With the Capital One Smart Rewards™ Mastercard®, you can also take advantage of the helpful features that Capital One offers all its cardholders.
This includes the ability to :
The Capital One Smart Rewards™ Mastercard® stands out in the Canadian market thanks to its unique rewards structure, which makes it a notable option for someone who’s looking for a solid entry-level credit card.
With a rewards structure that gives out points as you pay your balance, this card promotes good credit behaviours, making it particularly ideal for people who are at the beginning of their credit journey and for those trying to rebuild their credit score.
In line with this, it’s great to see that the card is also very accessible since it doesn’t have an annual fee or a minimum income requirement. This also makes it a good card for students, young adults, and anyone looking to add a no-cost Mastercard to their wallet.
This said, one area that could be improved is the lack of welcome offer.
Although the card’s earning rate and benefits are fairly in line with other no-annual-fee cards, it would be fun to see some sort of welcome offer added to entice new cardholders. For example, you could perhaps let new cardholders earn extra points if they hit a certain payment threshold consistently.
The Capital One Smart Rewards™ Mastercard® is a good card for someone newer to their credit journey or for those looking to rebuild their credit score. This also makes it an option worth exploring for students/young adults and newcomers to Canada since it also helps build good credit usage skills and habits.
Overall, Capital One Smart Rewards™ Mastercard® is a compelling part of the Capital One family of cards, and it’s nice to see a type of rewards structure that promotes good financial habits.
To learn more about how credit scores are calculated, starting out on your credit journey as a student, or the best credit cards for newcomers to Canada, we recommend exploring our additional guides below.
To increase your credit limit with Capital One, you can request an increase through the app or the website, or you can contact Capital One’s customer service team by phone.
The amount you’re able to increase your credit limit will depend on a number of factors, including your income, your payment history, your current limit, and more.
To pay your Capital One credit card, you’ll need to follow the following steps:
1) Sign into your bank’s website or app
2) Navigate to “Bill Payment”
3) Add your Capital One card as a “new payee.” For this, you’ll use your Capital One credit card’s 16-digit numbers the account number.
4) Follow your specific bank’s instructions to complete the set-up.
5) You can now pay your Capital One credit through your bank’s online site or app.
The Capital One Smart Rewards Mastercard helps to rebuild your credit score by incentivizing the payment aspect of credit card usage, encouraging you to pay your credit card balance each month.
Your ability to make on-time and consistent credit card payments is a key aspect of how your credit score is calculated, and this card helps you focus in on that aspect of credit building.
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