Rogers Red Mastercard® Review

The Rogers Red Mastercard® is one of the newer reward card offerings in Canada having only been released in late 2022. In its short lifespan it has already undergone several revamps and unlike most card revamps, these change have made this card even better than when it launched as the Rogers Connections Mastercard.

The review of the Rogers Red Mastercard is broken down into the following sections:

Overview

The Rogers Red Mastercard® is a strong no annual fee cash back card that is targeted, but not limited to Rogers customers. It offers a great welcome bonus for a no fee card, very good everyday cash back earn rates and benefits for Rogers customers designed to save them some extra money.

Costs & Sign up Features

Since it is a no annual fee card, the Rogers Red Mastercard® has no monthly or annual costs associated with it!

Right now the card has a limited time welcome bonus of $60 cash back when you make a mobile wallet purchase within the first 90 days and 6 automatic payments within the first 8 months for your Rogers, Fido or Shaw postpaid service ⁴

The purchase interest rate on the card is 19.99% while cash advances are charged 22.99%.

Earning

The card has two cash back earn rate structures. One for Rogers customers and one for those who are not customers. The former being the better of the two seeing as how this card is targeted towards Rogers clients.

Earn rates for customers who have one eligible service* with Rogers:

• 2% unlimited cash back on all eligible purchases
  

Earn rates for all other cardholders:

• 2% unlimited cash back on U.S. dollar purchases
• 1% unlimited cash back on all other eligible purchases

* Eligible services:

• Postpaid Rogers-branded consumer mobile plans (which includes wireless home phone and tablet data plans). For these plans, users who have permission to make changes (i.e. a Level 1 Authorized User) are also eligible.
• Postpaid Fido-branded consumer mobile plans – primary account holders only (which includes wireless home phone and tablet data plans)
• Any Rogers, Shaw or Fido-branded internet, TV, home phone, home monitoring or satellite service – primary account holders only

Redeeming

As with most cash back cards there is only one redemption option with the Rogers Red Mastercard and that is to redeem for cash back! The Rogers card has a very simple and easy cash back redemption process. Once your cash back rewards balance reaches $10 you can redeem towards purchases you made that have a value of $10 or more.

50% bonus when redeeming cash back towards any Rogers product or service (including your bill):

There is an additional bonus to the card's cash back redemption option if you use your cash back rewards towards a Rogers purchase. The bonus is 50% and it will be awarded when you apply your cash back against eligible Rogers purchases, including new phones, bill payments and accessories. Just like the standard cash back option, the minimum redemption amount is $10 however when you do apply it towards your Rogers purchase the credit will be 50% higher. For example, if you redeem $20 in cash back rewards towards your Rogers purchase your account will be credited with $30.

Features and Benefits

Like most no fee cash back cards there are not a lot of extra features or benefits on the Rogers Red Mastercard. It does have one benefit though that will stand out for Rogers mobile customers who travel and that is a Roam Like Home benefit.

5 Roam Like Home days every year

Rogers Red Mastercard cardholders who are also Rogers mobile customers will receive 5 Roam Like Home days at no cost every year (up to $75 value).

Insurance

The Rogers Red Mastercard does not offer any insurance coverage.

What is good about this card

The cash back earn rates are good! The flat 2% earn rate for Rogers customers translates to the highest base cash back earn rate in Canada for a no annual fee cash back card. Even if you are not a Rogers customer the 1% base earn rate and 2% on U.S. purchases is better than most competing no fee cash back cards.

The 50% bonus when using the rewards to Rogers purchases boosts the cash back return to 3% for Rogers customers. This is simply an unheard of cash back value for a no annual fee card!

What is not so good about this card

No insurance coverage is not so good. At the very least it would be nice if they offered purchase protection and extended warranty coverage that are provided on the majority of rewards cards (fee or no fee) in Canada.

The lack of additional benefits could be seen as a drawback as not all cardholders, including some Rogers customers who will not have a use for the 5 Roam Like Home days.

Who should get this card

• Consumers who are Rogers customers
• Consumers who want an easy to use and rewarding no fee cash back card
• Consumers who are Rogers customers that frequent Costco and want to maximize their cash back returns at Costco warehouses
• Rogers customers who travel out of the country and utilize Roam Like Home
• Consumers who want a good cash back card to supplement their Visa/American Express cards in their wallet and do not want to pay an annual fee on it
  
  

Conclusion

The updated Rogers Red Mastercard has come out guns a'blazing with amazing cash back earn rates for Rogers customers. An elevated 2% earn rate on all purchases is the highest base earn rate out of any no fee cash back card in Canada. That rate is even higher than the base earn rate on the majority of fee based cash back cards! Add in the 50% bonus for using the rewards towards Rogers purchases and you have a card offering 3% cash back on all purchases. For Rogers customers this card is a cash back earning machine!

Even if you are not a Rogers customer this card is still one of the best earning cards in the no annual fee market with its 1% base earn rate and 2% on purchases in U.S. dollars. Compare this to many competing no annual fee cash back cards that only offer 0.5% to 1% cash back and you have a card that should be on your radar if you are looking for a no annual fee cash back Mastercard.

Latest card details:

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

• SimplyCash® Card from American Express
• BMO CashBack® MasterCard®*
  
• CIBC Dividend® Visa* Card
  
• MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus® Mastercard®
  
• Neo Financial Mastercard
  
• Rogers World Elite MasterCard
  
• Scotia Momentum® Mastercard
• Simplii Financial™ Cash Back Visa* Card
• Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card
  
  This review was first posted on October 16, 2023 and is updated on a regular basis.

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