BMO · Mastercard
$79 for 3% on the first $500 of groceries each month and 0.5% on almost everything else. The bonus is worth about $180 a year against a $79 fee.
Rates and features verified 2026-08-18Full terms and conditionsHow we research cards
What we like, and what we don’t
Worth having
- 3% on groceries, which is a high headline rate
- 1% on recurring bill payments
- World Mastercard status sits above the free BMO CashBack Mastercard
- Cash back can be applied to the balance at any amount
Watch out for
- The 3% grocery rate covers only $500 of spending per statement cycle, so it is worth at most about $180 a year
- The base rate is 0.5%, half what a decent free card pays
- A $79 fee against roughly $180 of bonus earning leaves very little on the table
- Additional cards cost $35 each
- BMO does not publish the insurance for this card in any retrievable document
What this card earns
- Groceries
- 3%
- Recurring bills and subscriptions
- 1%
- Everything else
- 0.5%
- Bonus categories at once
- 3 you choose which
The earning fine print
BMO's terms page states 3% cash back on the first $500 of grocery purchases per statement cycle, 1% on the first $500 of recurring bill payments per statement cycle, and 0.5% on all other purchases, with an overall maximum monthly spend of $7,000. Conservative reading: the 3% and 1% rates are each capped at $500 of spend PER STATEMENT CYCLE (monthly), not annually, so the accelerated rates deliver at most about $180 of grocery cash back and $60 of bill-payment cash back per year. The caps reset every statement cycle. The $7,000 figure is a separate overall monthly spend ceiling on earning. Annual fee and additional card fee could not be read reliably. BMO's cost-of-borrowing insert groups this card with the BMO CashBack Mastercard and the reading was ambiguous.
The welcome offer
- Welcome bonus
- $125
- Offer ends
- 2026-10-31
What the offer actually requires
BMO's terms page shows an offer of up to $125 cash back, with an offer period running September 2, 2022 to October 31, 2026. The qualifying spend and time window for the $125 were not stated separately from the ongoing earn structure on the terms page. The card must remain open 90 days or the cash back is cancelled.
Fees and interest rates
- Annual fee
- $79
- Additional card
- $35
- Foreign transaction fee
- 2.5%
- Purchase APR
- 21.99%
- Cash advance APR
- 23.99%
- Balance transfer APR
- 23.99%
Who can get this card
- Minimum personal income
- Not published by the issuer
What the benefits really mean
Insurance coverages were not captured from a BMO-controlled product page during this pass. PARTIAL RECORD. Partial record: annual fee, additional card fee, welcome offer spend requirement and all insurance fields are unverified and left null. Do not publish without a fresh fetch of the dedicated product page. The 3% grocery rate is capped at $500 of spend PER STATEMENT CYCLE, not per year. The headline rate is worth at most roughly $180 a year. Base earn is only 0.5%, half the 1% typical of no-fee cash back cards. A separate overall $7,000 monthly spend ceiling limits total earning regardless of category. Easily confused with the BMO CashBack Mastercard ($0) and BMO CashBack World Elite ($120) already in the comparison list. Three distinct tiers share near-identical names.
Our verdict
The numbers do not work. 3% on $500 of groceries a month is $180 a year of bonus cash back, and the fee takes $79 of that straight back. Everything outside groceries and bills earns 0.5%, which is half of what several free cards in this comparison pay on everything.
BMO's own free CashBack Mastercard has the same $500 monthly grocery cap at the same 3% and costs nothing. Unless the World Mastercard benefits matter to you specifically, and BMO does not publish enough about them for us to say whether they should, the free version of this card is the better buy.
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Where this came from. BMO credit card terms and conditions popup (earn rates, per-cycle caps, $7,000 monthly spend ceiling, offer amount and offer period, 90-day account-open condition) and BMO cost-of-borrowing insert CC190-COB-EN (06-26) for the 21.99% purchase / 23.99% cash advance and balance transfer rates and the 2.50% FX markup. This is a distinct mid-tier card sitting between the BMO CashBack Mastercard and the BMO CashBack World Elite already in the comparison list. PARTIAL RECORD. Annual fee, additional card fee, welcome offer mechanics and insurance unverified.. We take every figure from the issuer’s own pages, never from another comparison site, and we leave a field blank rather than guess at it.