Simplii Financial™ Cash Back Visa* Card Review

The Simplii Financial™ Cash Back Visa* Card is a no annual fee cash back credit card from CIBC subsidiary Simplii Financial. The card offers up to 4% cash back rewards and offers some purchase insurance coverage.

The review of the Simplii Financial™ Cash Back Visa* Card is broken down into the following sections:

Overview

The Simplii Financial Cash Back Visa Card is an entry level no fee cash back rewards credit card. It comes with some really good cash back rewards for purchases made in select categories along with an average base earn rate. All cash back rewards earned on the card are awarded once per year.

Costs & Sign up Features

As it is a no fee card, the Simplii Financial™ Cash Back Visa* Card has no monthly or annual costs associated with it!

The current welcome bonus for the card allows new cardholders to earn up to 10% cash back† for your first 3 months up to $1,000 eligible spend.

The minimum annual income requirement for the card is $15,000. Purchase interest rate is 20.99% ‡, Cash interest Rate is 22.99% ‡ and Balance Transfer interest Rate is 22.99% ‡

Earning

The Simplii Financial Cash Back Visa Card earns cash back as follows:

• 4% cash back on eligible restaurant, bar and coffee shop purchases, up to $5,000 per year†
• 1.5% cash back on eligible gas, groceries, drugstore purchases and pre-authorized payments, up to $15,000 per year†
• 0.5% cash back on all other credit card purchases with no limit on how much you can earn†
  

Redeeming

The beauty of cash back credit cards is the simplicity in redemption - no worries about calculating value in travel or merchandise rewards. The cash back rewards are right there in front of you, no guess work involved and for many cash is king. With the Simplii Financial Cash Back Visa Card the cash back reward is issued awarded on an annual basis as a statement credit to your credit card account.

Features and Benefits

The Simplii Financial Cash Back Visa Card does not come with any additional features or benefits.

Insurance

The Simplii Financial Cash Back Visa Card provides basic insurance for the purchases made on the card. The coverage is as follows:

• Purchase Protection Plan†
• Buyer’s Assurance Protection Plan†

What is good about this card

The welcome bonus of 10% cash back on $1,000 in spending in the first three months is great!

The 4% earn rate on restaurants, bars and coffee shops is amazing for a no fee card! Sure, it is limited to only $5,000 of spending in this category per year but given this an entry level card that typically won't see huge amounts of spend on it, we're not complaining!

The 1.5% earn rate on gas, groceries, drugstore purchases and pre-authorized payments is also really good. There are very few competing no fee cards that match or exceed this rate.

What is not so good about this card

The base earn rate of 0.5%, while on par with a many entry level cash back and travel rewards cards, is on the low end. There are cards in the market that have no annual fee and will earn 1% cash back with their base earn rate. If you are someone who makes a lot of varied purchases, that is, if you have a lot of spending outside of the categories that earn 1.5% or 4% you may be better off going for one of those other cards. To determine this you would have to do some calculations on your average spending to work out if 1% across the board will provide a better return than a mix of 0.5%, 1.5% and 4% (and don't forget to take into account the spending caps on those accelerated earn rates in your calculations).

The cash back earned only being rewarded once per year. Most cards in Canada have moved away from this model and offer monthly or even anytime on demand redemption of cash back rewards.

No additional features or benefits and limited insurance coverage. Granted, the majority of entry level no fee cards don't have much to offer in terms of additional features or benefits but some do offer more on the insurance side of things such as car rental CDW and mobile device insurance.

Who should get this card

• Consumers who know the majority of their purchases will be made in the accelerated earn rate categories and won't reach (or at least excessively exceed) the annual spending caps
• Consumers who are looking for a no fee Visa card to add to their wallet to supplement American Express and/or Mastercard cards they have as their primary payment methods

Conclusion

The Simplii Financial Cash Back Visa Card is an excellent option for anyone looking for a basic no fee card that comes with great cash back rewards. The 1.5% and 4% cash back on select spending categories are some of the best in market for no fee cash back cards, just be aware of those annual spending caps!

 

Latest card details:

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

• SimplyCash® Card from American Express
• BMO CashBack® MasterCard®*
• Brim Mastercard
• CIBC Dividend® Visa* Card
• Desjardins Cash Back Mastercard
• HSBC Cash Rewards Mastercard®
• MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus® Mastercard®
• Neo Card™
• Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card
  

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†Terms and conditions apply. Click ‘Apply Now’ for complete details.This offer is not available for residents of Quebec
‡ "Purchase" means any Transaction other than a Cash Advance, Balance Transfer or Convenience Cheque. "Cash" means a Cash Advance, Balance Transfer and Convenience Cheque. Interest rates may change from time to time.