RBC ION+ Visa Card Review

Released in fall of 2022, the RBC ION+ Visa Card replaced the RBC Signature card as the bank's primary lower fee rewards card. The release of the card was timed with the relaunching and renaming of their program from RBC Rewards to Avion Rewards. This card, along with its no fee sibling, the RBC ION Visa Card, marked RBC's first foray into accelerated category earn rates for many everyday spending categories outside of travel.

The review of the RBC ION+ Visa Card review is broken down into the following sections:

Overview

The RBC ION+ Visa Card is an entry level low fee hybrid rewards credit card. Much like many newer entrants in the market is being marketed as a lifestyle card rather than as a travel rewards card. However, travel rewards are an integral part of Avion Rewards and this card does offer the several options to redeem for travel. The card has some impressive accelerated earn rates however on the redemption side things the card can only be considered average outside of it conversion option to WestJet Rewards. There is however a technique you can employ to extract more value from the points earned on the card which we'll outline further below.

Costs & Sign up Features

The RBC ION+ Visa Card has a monthly fee of $4 ($48 annually) which is a reasonable fee for what this card provides.

Right now the RBC ION+ Visa Card has an increased welcome bonus offer of 12,000 Avion Rewards points! As is common with many RBC offers the points are awarded upon approval - no minimum spend requirement, not even a first purchase requirement!

The interest rate on the card is 20.99% and there is not set annual income requirements to apply for the card.

Earning

The card earns Avion Rewards points as follows:

• 3 Points per dollar spent on Grocery, Dining & Food Delivery 
• 3 Points per dollar spent on Rides (transit, ride sharing etc.), Gas & EV Charging
• 3 Points per dollar spent on Streaming, Digital Gaming & Subscriptions
• 1 Point per dollar spent on all other eligible purchases
  

Point Valuation Chart

Spending Category	Points earned per dollar spent	Rate of return when booking any travel via RBC Rewards	Rate of return redeeming for gift cards	Rate of return Cash Back
Grocery, dining, food delivery, rides, gas, EV charging, streaming, digital gaming, subscriptions	3	1.74%	2.14%	1.74%
All other spending	1	0.58%	0.71%	0.58%

Redeeming

The RBC ION+ Visa card participates in the RBC Avion Rewards program and this card falls into the middle tier of the program called Avion Premium.

Avion Premium members can redeem points for travel booked via Avion Rewards, for purchases made on the card, RBC financial products, merchandise, gift cards and it provides an option to convert points to WestJet Rewards.

What Avion Premium does not receive access to is the Avion airline award chart which is properly known as the Avion Air Travel Redemption Schedule, nor does it offer conversion options to their other airline partners such as British Airways Executive Club. Those conversion options and the airline award chart are reserved for the Avion Elite level which is provided on cards such as the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card.

Travel

With the RBC ION+ Plus Visa Card you can redeem points for any travel you book via Avion Rewards. You simply go online or call up Avion Rewards travel and book flights, hotels, car rentals and other travel and redeem towards that travel purchase at a rate of 172 points to $1.

Converting points to WestJet

The next redemption option that also falls under travel is the ability to convert these points to WestJet dollars. This is quite a valuable option as the points convert at a rate 100 points to 1 WestJet dollar. This means you earn up to 3% back on your spending in WestJet dollars. That 3% is double what the actual WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard earns in those accelerated spend categories!

You can push the return even higher if you convert points during select times of the year when Avion Rewards adds a bonus to your transfer. For example, the latest bonus ran in June and July of 2023 and offered 15% extra WestJet dollars. That meant members received 1.15 WestJet dollars for every 100 points or an effective return of up to 3.45% for the 3 points per dollar earning.

Gift Cards

Redeeming for gift cards is a great redemption option for holders of the ION+ card who do not have a need to convert to WestJet or don't have Avion card in their wallet as well. RBC provides over 100 options for gift card rewards and ION+ cardholders can redeem for them at a rate of 140 points towards $1. That redemption rate provides a 0.71 cents per point value and if we multiply that by the 1x to 3x points earn rates you are looking at a rate of return of 0.71% to 2.14%.

Other redemption options

After travel and gift cards you have several other redemption options via Avion Rewards. One of the more popular ones is to redeem points for RBC Financial Products at a rate of 12,000 points to $100 for RRSP contributions, TFSA contributions or other financial options. You can also choose to pay your credit card with points (this is basically a cash back option) which requires 17,200 points for a $100 statement credit.

You can also redeem points for merchandise via Avion Rewards' merchandise catalog as well as use them for online purchases made directly with Apple or Best Buy.

Features and Benefits

The RBC ION+ Visa Card does not have features or benefits that are specific to it. However, the card does come with the standard features and benefits that RBC provides on most of their cards:

Avion offers

As with all RBC cards the RBC ION+ Visa Card receives Avion Offers. These exclusive limited time offers are sent out to cardmembers to receive statement credits, discounts or bonus points for using their card at select merchants. Depending on your shopping habits these offers alone can provide enough savings in a year to cover the annual fee on the card if not more! You can learn more about this feature in Rewards Canada's Guide to RBC Royal Bank 'RBC Offers'

Exclusive savings and rewards

Automatically become an Avion Rewards Premium member when you get the RBC ION+ Visa. Download the Avion Rewards app to access points, cash back deals, and savings all in one program. Plus, download the Avion Rewards ShopPlus browser extension to save with cash back deals right where you shop online from 1,900+ retailers.

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 20% more Avion 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 3 months – a value of almost $30

Connect to an Avion Elite level card for additional rewards and more value

As mentioned earlier in the review, there is a technique you can employ to access the better travel reward options seen on the highest Avion Rewards elite level and to extract more value from the points earned on your ION+ card. That technique is to have the ION+ card in addition to one of the RBC Avion Cards such as the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card. RBC allows for unlimited transfers between the two levels (Avion Premium Avion Elite) which means you can utilize the stronger points earning found on the ION+ card and then transfer those for the better travel redemption options found on the Avion Card.

If you don't have either of these cards it is best to start with an Avion card as they come with much higher welcome bonus points offers than the ION+ card and RBC only allows you to earn the bonus from one card.

Learn more about this technique in our Loyalty Lesson: How to extract more value from Avion Rewards

Insurance

The RBC ION+ Visa Card comes with basic purchase insurance that includes the following:

• Purchase Security Insurance
• Extended Warranty Insurance
• Mobile Device Insurance

What is good about this card

The accelerated earn rate of 3 points per dollar for grocery, dining, food delivery, rides, gas, EV Charging, streaming, digital gaming and subscriptions spending. This is the highest earn rate found on any card that is issued by RBC but we do have to take into account what those points are worth (see: What is not so good about this card)

The points conversion option to WestJet is amazing. The 3 points per dollar equates to 3 per cent in WestJet dollars. This is the higher earn rate out of all cards in Canada when it comes to earning WestJet dollars

The ability to use it along side an Avion ciredt card to maximize the value of the entire Avion Rewards program.

The additional partner benefits, if you can utilize them, are great. The savings and extra points at Petro-Canada, the free Door Dash membership and extra Be Well points are welcome benefits with this card.

What is not so good about this card

The redemption rates aren't the greatest and RBC also makes calculating your point value somewhat difficult. It's not the simple 100 points equals 1 dollar (or 1 point = 1 cent) that most Canadians are accustomed to. No, they took the same path as BMO and TD and chose to make it more complex. Instead of 100 to 1 they went with 140 points to $1 and 172 points to $1. With those ratios the 1 point per dollar base earn rate seen on the ION+ card provides a low 0.58 to 0.71% return on spending. With no fee cards in our market providing 1% or even up to 1.5% returns for base spending you can see how these redemption rates are not the best. The saving grace are the card's 3 points per dollar accelerated earn rates which provide a decent real world return of 1.74% to 2.14%.

No additional features or benefits beyond the standard RBC offers for Petro-Canada, Rexall and DoorDash.

Relatively weak insurance benefits. The purchase coverage provided is good but there are comparable cards that provide additional insurance such as car rental CDW and other travel coverage.

Who should get this card

• Consumers who have an RBC Avion Visa card and want a card that will provide better earn rates
• Consumers who bank at RBC and want to keep all financial products with one bank (especially if your bank account provides a discount on your card)
• Consumers who like to redeem for gift cards
• Consumers who like having multiple redemption options with their points
• Consumers looking to earn WestJet dollars at an accelerated rate.
  

Conclusion

The RBC ION+ Visa Card is RBC's strongest points earning card and is an excellent one to have if you are looking to earn more WestJet dollars or can pair it with an Avion card to extract the most possible value. If those two aspects aren't your cup of tea, then the ION+ card, in our opinion, is just an average rewards card. You'll do OK with it if you limit your spending to the 3x points accelerated earn rate categories but if you know you'll have lots of spending in categories where you only earn 1 point per dollar, you'll be better off with a different card.

 

Latest card details:

Other cards to consider if you are looking at this card:

• American Express Green Card
• BMO AIR MILES Mastercard
• CIBC Aventura Visa Card
• HSBC +Rewards Mastercard
• Neo Credit
• Scotiabank American Express Card
• Scotiabank Scene+ Visa Card
• TD Platinum Travel Visa Card
  
  

This review was first posted on August 8, 2023 and is updated on a regular basis

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