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Picking the right travel credit card is one of the easiest ways to earn rewards, save money, and pay less for your next trips. For a wider view, you can also browse our ranking of the best credit cards in Canada.
By pairing strong earning rates with solid perks (free airport lounge access included), the BMO Ascend™ World Elite®* Mastercard®* earns a real spot in your rewards wallet.
Here are our top 8 reasons why we think the BMO Ascend™ World Elite®* Mastercard®* and BMO Rewards belong in your travel strategy.
A welcome offer is a fast way to start, since it drops a big batch of points in your account soon after you get the card.
That is the first reason we like the BMO Ascend™ World Elite®* Mastercard®*: it almost always runs a strong welcome offer, adding tens of thousands of BMO Rewards points after you hit the minimum spend.
The current offer reaches up to 115,000 points, worth about $770 in travel value. You can see the card’s current offer and value in the graphic below:
The second reason we like the BMO Ascend™ World Elite®* Mastercard®* is the earning rates. You collect between 1 and 5 BMO Rewards points per $1 spent, so your balance grows fast in the right categories.
The earning rates work like this:
Every time you use the BMO Ascend™ World Elite®* Mastercard®*, you earn BMO Rewards points that you can then put toward several options.
Once you have some BMO Rewards points in your account, you can use them as follows:
I always steer people toward travel here. At 150 points = $1, that is about $0.67 per point, while everyday expenses sit at 200 points = $1, so $0.50 per point.
One of the simplest ways to upgrade an airport day is to spend the wait in an airport lounge with free snacks, drinks, and more.
This is another strong point for the BMO Ascend™ World Elite®* Mastercard®*: membership to Mastercard Travel Pass with 4 complimentary airport lounge passes per year.
This perk gives you over 1,300 lounges worldwide through the DragonPass program, so you can sit down before your next flight.
If you cross between Canada and the US often, a NEXUS membership saves time and smooths out every border crossing.
The BMO Ascend™ World Elite®* Mastercard®* gives you a statement credit of up to $200 toward the NEXUS application fee when you charge it to the card in your first year as a cardholder. Since the NEXUS application fee is US$120, that credit covers it in full.
Another money-saving side of the BMO Ascend™ World Elite®* Mastercard®* is its travel insurance package.
With the card, you get the following coverage:
Credit card travel insurance and car rental insurance save you real money, especially since car rental insurance can run upwards of $25 a day.
Another reason to add the BMO Ascend™ World Elite®* Mastercard®* to your wallet is the set of perks and discounts that save you money and keep your purchases more secure.
With the BMO Ascend™ World Elite®* Mastercard®*, you get perks like:
As a cardholder, you also get car rental discounts with National, Alamo, and Enterprise, special pricing on Cirque du Soleil shows in Canada and Las Vegas, and more offers through the World Mastercard portfolio.
Our last reason for liking the BMO Ascend™ World Elite®* Mastercard®* is that it helps keep you online when you are travelling abroad, through its partnership with FlexiRoam.
As a World Elite Mastercard holder, you get a free or discounted eSIM, so you can keep in touch with family and friends from almost anywhere.
Want to compare your connectivity and data-security options? Read our guides on what an eSIM is and how to keep your data secure abroad.
There you have it: 8 solid reasons we like the BMO Ascend™ World Elite®* Mastercard®* and why it is worth a look for your next credit card.
The welcome offer, the travel insurance, the 4 lounge passes, the strong rates in key categories, and the flexible ways to redeem points cover a lot of ground. My one caution: keep the $15,000 travel cap and $10,000 category caps in mind before you apply, because heavy spenders will hit them. To keep up with new offers like this one, you can also sign up for our newsletter.
If you are still weighing it, these head-to-head comparisons show how the BMO Ascend™ World Elite®* Mastercard®* stacks up against other strong options:
Savings this way:
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