Clash of the Credit Cards!
BMO Ascend World Elite® Mastercard® vs.
TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card
Last Updated on January 26, 2023
Welcome to another Rewards Canada Clash! This time in our Clash of the Credit Cards we have two flag ship proprietary rewards cards battle it out! Those cards are the BMO AscendTM World Elite®* Mastercard®* and the TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card.
In this match up we look at over half a dozen criteria to compare the cards against one another along with a head to head detailed table comparison.
Annual Fees / Sign Up Bonus
In this first round there is a small difference between the cards for the primary card annual fee. BMO charges $150 per year while the TD card runs $139 per year. Supplementary or additional cards are equal between the two competitors at $50 per card. At the time of first posting this Clash (May 2024) both the BMO Ascend World Elite card and the TD First Class Visa card come with a first year annual fee waiver/rebate allowing people to try out either one at no cost as part of their limited time welcome offers.
Cardholders can also receive ongoing fee waivers for either of these cards with select banking packages at the respective banks.
In terms of minimum income requirements the TD card requires $60,000 personal or $100,000 household while the BMO card is higher at $80,000 personal or $150,000 household annual income
For the standard sign up bonus there are also some slight differences between the cards. The standard bonus on the BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard is 35,000 points which are worth $? towards travel. The standard bonus on the TD First Class Visa Infinite Card is 40,000 points and those points are worth $160.00 towards travel. However, over the past few years it has been very rare for either of these two cards to be offering only a standard bonus. For the most part they have limited time increased welcome offers in place.
That brings us to those current limited time welcome bonus offers! As of May 2024 the BMO card as an increased welcome bonus of up to 60,000 points plus an annual fee rebate in the fist year. They are offering 30,000 points when you spend $3,000 on the card in the first three months. An additional 2,500 bonus points are awarded when you spend $2,000 each month for the first 12 months. In the end those 60,000 points are worth $400 when redeemed for travel.
The TD First Class Visa Infinite card currently comes with its best ever increased welcome bonus of up to 135,000 points (it is actually marketed as 145,000 point but that includes the birthday bonus) You'll earn 20,000 points when make your first purchase on the card and 115,000 more points when you spend $5,000 in the first 180 days of having the card. The welcome offer also includes the aforementioned along with the annual fee rebate on the primary card and additional cards in the first year. This offer is in place until May 28, 2022. In the end those 100,000 points are worth $540 when redeemed for any travel or $650 if you redeem for travel via ExpediaForTD.
This first round easily goes to the TD First Class Visa Infinite Cards. It has a lower annual fee for the primary card and more importantly its welcome bonus is worth more and is much easier to achieve. With TD you need to spend $5,000 to get the entire bonus while the BMO card requires $24,000 in spending. And TD's is overall in the first 180 days - it doesn't matter if you spend $5,000 right away or spread it out across the entire six months. With BMO you have to ensure you spend $2,000 each and every month over the course of the first year otherwise you'll lose out in any month you don't spend that amount.
Rates
The TD First Class Visa Infinite Card has slightly lower interest rates when compared to the BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard for both purchases and cash advances and by slight we mean 1%. That is enough however to give this round to the TD card.
Bonus Features & Benefits
Both cards aren't chock full of benefits and features however there are some differences in the cards.
The only additional benefit that comes on the TD First Class Visa Infinite Card is an annual $100 travel credit for bookings made with Expedia For TD. This credit can be used on hotels or vacation packages with a value of $500 or more.
Meanwhile the BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard offers the Mastercard Travel Pass provided by DragonPass lounge access program. This is a standard benefit that all World Elite Mastercards carry however BMO takes it one step further by providing four annual free lounge access passes. At US$32 a pop those four passes provide roughly C$170 in value every year.
The BMO card also provides global Wi-Fi access via Boingo which includes free Wi-Fi access on select airlines including WestJet.
Picking a winner in this category is easy. It goes to the BMO Ascend card for providing more benefits with more value than the TD card.
Points Earning & Redemption
Points earning on the two cards may seem similar however when you combine them with redemption side of things there are some differences.
Looking at earning first, both cards offer several accelerated earn rates over and above their base earn rates.
The BMO card awards 5 points per dollar spent on any travel booked on the card up to a maximum of $15,000 annually. It then offers 3 points per dollar on dining, entertainment and recurring bills (up to $10,000 annually per category). All other spending on the BMO card earns 1 point per dollar.
The TD card awards 8 points per dollar spent on travel however that is only for travel booked through ExpediaForTD. If you book other travel on the card outside of ExpediaForTD you'll only earn the 2 base points per dollar. It also earns 6 points per dollar on groceries and dining and then 4 points per dollar on recurring bills. All other spending earns the base rate of 2 points per dollar.
Now we have to look at the redemption side of things to see how those earn rates really compare to one another.
Both of these cards strongest redemption options are for travel rewards. We'll first compare the most popular option and that is the book travel via any provider (IE Air Canada, WestJet, Hilton, Travel Agency etc.) and then redeem points against the charge. With the BMO Ascend World Elite Card this is now their primary travel redemption option as they moved away from having to book via BMO Rewards. The any travel redemption option requires 150 points for a $1 credit, or the equivalent of 0.67 cents credit for each point redeemed. That makes the 5x points earned on travel purchases worth 3.33 cents each, the 3x points earning worth 2 cents and 1x points earning worth 0.67 cents.
For the same redemption option on the TD Card you redeem points at a rate of 250 points to $1 or a 0.4 cents credit per point. That makes the 8 points per dollar earned from Expedia For TD purchases worth 3.2 cents each, the 6x points worth 2.4 cents, 4x points are worth 1.6 cents and the remainder of spending at 2 points per dollar worth 0.8 cents each. These values do not include the 10% birthday bonus points. Outside of travel purchases and recurring bills the TD card provides better overall value than the BMO card and seeing that TD does better for a lot of everyday spending it is the better option for any travel any time bookings.
TD has one more option that can fall into any travel and that's option to book and redeem points via Expedia For TD. With this option you can book any travel through Expedia For TD and redeem 200 points for $1 credit. That gives a value of 0.5 cents per point making the 8 points per dollar earned worth 4 cents, the 6x points worth 3 cents, 4x points are worth 2 cents and the remainder of spending at 2 points per dollar worth 1 cent each. Once again these values do not take into account the birthday bonus points. With this redemption option the TD card moves even further ahead of the BMO card in this round.
Both cards also offer cash back redemption options. The BMO card's statement credit option lets you redeem 200 points for a $1 credit which translates to a 0.5% to 2.85% return. The TD card allows you to redeem 400 points for $1 statement credit which works out to a 0.75% to 2.25% return on your spending not including the birthday bonus.
With a better overall earn to burn value for travel redemptions (and cash back outside of travel purchases) the TD First Class Visa Infinite Card takes the most important round of the Clash!
Insurance
This is another category where the cards give each other a run for the money as they are very similar. Both cards offers really decent insurance benefits and coverage but we'd give the edge to the TD card as it has better flight and baggage delay coverage, slightly better out of province medical insurance and provides hotel/motel burglary insurance coverage. The primary advantage the BMO card has is that their insurance will cover award tickets from other programs as they don't have the typical stipulation of requiring 75% of the travel costs being charged to a card. Even with that though the BMO drops this round to TD as for the majority of Canadians the 'other loyalty program' coverage isn't as much of a driver than the overall coverage a card offers. On top of that most will be using the points from the card (in this case the TD card) that they are using to pay for the rest of a trip so there is no worry about not being covered.
Conclusion
In the end these cards are closely matched. In fact, in our 2023 Top Travel Credit Card rankings the TD card ranks 5th in the Travel Points Card with Annual Fee category which is just one spot ahead of the BMO Ascend card. There is no knock out punch being delivered here in this Clash, both cards go the distance however with slightly better earn-redeem value, a larger welcome bonus and overall better insurance, the TD First Class Visa Infinite Card is the winner.
Winner: TD First Class Visa Infinite Card
Key factors in TD's win:
- Overall better earn and redemption rates
- An easier to achieve and higher value welcome bonus
- Lower income requirements
- Better insurance coverage
If you would like to see any cards go head to head against each please do not hesitate to reach out to us in the comments, on social media or via email.
Here is a direct side by side comparison of the two cards in this clash!
Basics |
 BMO AscendTM World Elite®* Mastercard®* |
TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card |
|---|---|---|
| Card Type | Travel Points | Travel Points |
| Annual Fee | $150 | $139 |
| Limited Time Annual Fee Offer | $0 in the first year | $0 in the first year |
| Additional Card Fee | $50 | $50 |
| Interest Rate | 20.99% Purchase † 23.99% Cash Advance † |
19.99% Purchase † 22.99% Cash Advance † |
| Foreign Transaction Fee | 2.5% | 2.5% |
| Income Requirements | $80,000 personal or $150,000 household annual income | $60,000 personal or $100,000 household annual income |
Points Earning |
BMO AscendTM World Elite®* Mastercard®* |
TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Welcome Bonus | 35,000 | 40,000 |
| Welcome Bonus Value* | ~$235* | $160* |
| Limited Time Welcome Bonus | 60,000 | 135,000 |
| Limited Time Welcome Bonus Value* | $400* | $540* |
| Renewal or Additional Bonus | None | 10% extra points awarded on your birthday for your spending over the previous 12 months (Capped at 10,000 points) |
| Travel Purchases | 5 points per dollar spent^ | 8 points per dollar spent (ExpediaForTD only) 2 points per dollar spent (all other travel) |
| Grocery Purchases | 1 point per dollar spent | 6 points per dollar spent |
| Dining Purchases | 3 points per dollar spent^ | 6 points per dollar spent |
| Entertainment Purchases | 3 points per dollar spent^ | 2 points per dollar spent |
| Recurring Bills | 3 points per dollar spent^ | 4 points per dollar spent |
| All Other Purchases | 1 point per dollar spent | 2 points per dollar spent |
| ^ Annual cap on bonus category spending | $15,000 on travel $10,000 each for dining, entertainment & recurring bills |
N/A |
| Value of points per $1 spent* | 0.67 to 3.34 cents | Expedia for TD travel bookings: 1 to 4 cents (1.1 to 4.4 cents with birthday bonus) Any other travel bookings: 0.8 to 3.2 cents (0.88 to 3.52 cents with birthday bonus) |
| *Valuations are based upon redeeming the points for any travel with any provider - see the next section for cash back and other redemption options | ||
Redemption/Exchange Options |
BMO AscendTM World Elite®* Mastercard®* |
TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card |
|---|---|---|
| Miles/Points deposited to | BMO Rewards | TD Rewards |
| Travel Redemption Value | 1,000 points = $6.67 (Any travel redemption) | 1,000 points = $4 (Any travel redemption) 1,000 points = $5 (ExpediaForTD redemption) |
| Exchange Options | N/A | N/A |
| Cash Back Redemption option | 200 points = $1 statement credit | 400 points = $1 statement credit |
| Value of points for cash back redemptions | 0.5% to 2.5% | 0.75% to 2.25% (0.825 to 2.48% with birthday bonus) |
Benefits |
BMO AscendTM World Elite®* Mastercard®* |
TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card |
|---|---|---|
| Annual credit | N/A | $100 (Towards select travel bookings of $500 or more with Expedia for TD) |
| Business Class Lounge Access | Mastercard Travel Pass provided by DragonPass + 4 annual lounge passes | N/A |
| Global Wi-Fi | Boingo Wi-Fi | N/A |
Insurance |
BMO AscendTM World Elite®* Mastercard®* |
TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card |
|---|---|---|
| Common Carrier Travel Accident Insurance | $500,000 | $500,000 |
| Flight Delay Insurance | 6 hours $500 in total |
4 hours $500 per person |
| Delayed Baggage Insurance | 12 hours $200 per trip |
6 hours up to $1,000 per person |
| Lost / Stolen Baggage Insurance | Yes up to $750 per person / $2,000 max per trip |
Yes up to $1,000 per person |
| Damaged Baggage Insurance | Yes up to $750 per person / $2,000 max per trip |
None |
| Trip Cancellation Insurance | Yes $2,500 per person (max $5,000) |
Yes $1,500 per person (max $5,000) |
| Trip Interruption Insurance | Yes $2,000 per person |
Yes $5,000 per person (max $25,000) |
| Travel Medical Insurance up to 64 years old | 21 days | 21 days |
| Travel Medical Insurance 65+ | None | 4 days |
| Auto Rental/Loss Damage Insurance | 48 Days Up to $65,000 MSRP |
48 Days Up to $65,000 MSRP |
| Hotel / Motel Burglary Insurance | None | Yes Up to $2,500 per occurrence |
| Purchase Protection | 90 Days Up to $60,000 lifetime |
90 Days Up to $60,000 lifetime |
| Price Protection | No | No |
| Extended Warranty Plan | Yes Up to 1 extra year |
Yes Up to 1 extra year |
| Mobile Device Insurance | None | Yes Up to $1,000 |
| Link to Apply |  |
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* Terms and Conditions apply
®/TM Mastercard and World Elite are registered trademarks, and the circles design is a trademark of Mastercard International Incorporated. Used pursuant to license