RBC Cash Back Preferred World Elite MasterCard

Last Updated on September 14, 2023

Rewards Canada's unbiased review of RBC's premium cash back rewards credit card

Overshadowed by the bank's proprietary Avion Rewards card products the often overlooked RBC Cash Back Preferred World Elite MasterCard is a card that holds its own in the cash back rewards market. It has relatively strong cash back earn rates and a lower annual fee compared to most World Elite Mastercards in Canada.

The review of the RBC Cash Back Preferred World Elite MasterCard is broken down into the following sections:

Overview
Costs & Sign Up Features
Earning
Redeeming
Features & Benefits

Insurance
What is good about this card
What is not so good about this card
Who should get this card
Conclusion

Overview

The RBC Cash Back Preferred World Elite Mastercard features a flat earn rate of 1.5% on all purchases up to $25,000 annually and then 1% cash back on all subsequent spending. RBC has an easy cash back redemption model allowing cardholders to cash out anytime their rewards balance reaches $25. The card also offers airport lounge access membership and free Boingo global Wi-Fi access.

Costs & Sign up Features

The RBC Cash Back Preferred World Elite Mastercard has an annual fee of $99. This is the lowest out of all fee based World Elite Mastercards. Most other World Elite and other competitor cards have fees ranging from $120 to $150. Additional (supplementary) cards are $0 each annually which is better than the $50 seen on many other cards.

Unfortunately, there is no welcome bonus provided to new cardmembers.

As it is a World Elite Mastercard it does have minimum income requirements of $80,000 (individual) or $150,000 (household)

Earning

The RBC Cash Back Preferred World Elite Mastercard card earns cash back as follows:

1.5% cash back on all purchases up to a maximum of $25,000 in spending annually
1% cash back on all spending after reaching the $25,000 annual cap.

Redeeming

As with most cash back cards there is only one redemption option with RBC Cash Back Preferred World Elite Mastercard and that is to redeem for cash back! The Cash Back World Elite card has a very simple and easy cash back redemption process. Anytime your cash back rewards balance reaches at least $25 you can redeem it as a credit towards purchases you made on the card.

Features and Benefits

The primary benefits this card provides are airport lounge access membership and RBC partner benefits. It also has the standard benefits that are offered on all Canadian World Elite Mastercards.

Airport Lounge Access

The RBC Cash Back Preferred World Elite Mastercard offers an annual Mastercard Travel Pass provided by DragonPass membership which normally costs up to US$99 per year. The membership provides discounted access to over 1,300 lounges worldwide.

World Elite Mastercard benefits

Boingo Wi-Fi Boingo Wi-Fi for Mastercard Cardholders provides access to more than 1 million premium Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide at no charge. This also covers Wi-Fi on several airlines including WestJet.

Partner benefits

RBC offers some exclusive benefits for all their credit cardholders with select retail partners in Canada. For the RBC ION+ Visa Card those benefits are:

Link your Petro-Points card to your new RBC credit or debit card and use it to pay for purchases at Petro-Canada to always:

Save 3 ¢/L on gas with every fill-up
Earn 20% more Petro-Points

Earn more Be Well points at Rexall

Get 50 Be Well points for every $1 spent on eligible purchases when you shop at Rexall with your linked RBC® card

Enjoy $0 delivery fees with DoorDash

Get a complimentary DashPass subscription for 12 months – a value of almost $120

Insurance

The RBC Cash Back Preferred World Elite Mastercard offers a basic insurance package that includes the following:

Car Rental Theft and Damage Insurance
Purchase Protection Plan
Extended Warranty Plan

Of note the Purchase Protection Plan is good for 120 days whereas most cards only offer 90 days and the Extended Warranty adds up to two extra years of coverage versus the one extra year provided on most other cards.

What is good about this card

The 1.5% cash back earn rate is the best thing about this card if you only spend up to $25,000 annually. This is great for those who shop at places like Costco where other cards tend not to have any accelerators.

The purchase protection coverage of 120 days and extended warranty coverage of two extra years are a great feature.

The lounge access membership and RBC Partner benefits are also good features of this card.

What is not so good about this card

Having no welcome bonus is not such a good thing. Almost all of this card's competitors offer some sort of bonus for getting their cards - whether its $25 cash back or accelerated 10% cash back earn rates on a set amount of spending.

The $25,000 annual cap is definitely limiting if you spend more than that each year. If you do you could get yourself the Rogers World Elite Mastercard which also earns 1.5% cash back on all purchases with no annual cap and charges no annual fee.

Limited insurance coverage. While the purchase protection and extended warranty are great this card only has one other coverage and that is car rental CDW insurance. Many of this card's competitors offer even more coverage including the aforementioned Rogers World Elite Mastercard.

Who should get this card

Consumers who want easy on-demand access to their cash back rewards
Consumers who have a card such as the American Express Cobalt® Card as their daily driver and want a secondary card for Costco purchases and at other stores where Amex isn't accepted.
Consumers who bank at RBC and want to keep all financial products with one bank (especially if your bank account(s) cover credit card annual fees)

Conclusion

The RBC Cash Back World Elite Mastercard is the bank's premium cash back offering that offers a really good base cash back earn rate of 1.5% for up to $25,000 in purchases annually. On top of this is has good purchase insurance coverage and airport lounge access membership. Outside of that however the card does lack some of the extras that some of its direct competitors offer. I can't say it is a great card but its not a bad card either - it ends up roughly in the middle of the pack of cash back card options in Canada thanks to that 1.5% earn rate.

Apply for this card here

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