MBNA · Mastercard
10.99% on purchases for $39 a year, the lowest fixed purchase rate in this comparison. It earns nothing, which is the trade.
Rates and features verified 2026-08-18Full terms and conditionsHow we research cards
What We Like, and What We Don’t
Worth Having
- 10.99% on purchases, the lowest fixed rate of any card here
- No fee for additional cards
- Simple, with no rewards programme and nothing to track
- MBNA is a division of TD, so the card sits behind a major bank
Watch Out For
- It earns no rewards at all
- $39 a year with no first year waiver
- There is no promotional balance transfer offer on this card, unlike the free True Line version
- MBNA's own pages disagree on the balance transfer fee, showing 1% on one page and 3% on another
- MBNA does not publish a foreign transaction fee anywhere we could reach
- No travel insurance
What This Card Earns
- What we value a point at
- Not published by the issuer
The Earning Fine Print
No rewards program. This is a pure low interest product. 10.99% on purchases, described by MBNA as its lowest rate. All earn fields null because nothing is published, not because the value is zero.
What the Offer Actually Requires
No welcome offer and no promotional balance transfer rate on this card. MBNA's balance transfer landing page confirms the 0% for 12 months promo belongs to the True Line Mastercard (the $0 fee sibling), NOT to True Line Gold. True Line Gold is shown there at its ongoing 13.99% BT rate.
Fees and Interest Rates
- Annual fee
- $39
- Additional card
- Free
- Foreign transaction fee
- Not published by the issuer
- Purchase APR
- 10.99%
- Cash advance APR
- 24.99%
- Balance transfer APR
- 13.99%
- Balance transfer fee
- 1%
Who Can Get This Card
- Minimum personal income
- Not published by the issuer
Insurance and Benefits
- Purchase protection
- Included
- Extended warranty
- Included
What the Benefits Really Mean
Purchase Assurance covering eligible purchases for 90 days, with a $60,000 lifetime limit. Extended Warranty adding up to one additional year to the manufacturer's warranty. Trip and legal assistance referral services (assistance only, not insurance coverage). Mastercard Zero Liability, contactless, chip and PIN. Avis/Budget car rental discounts of 10% in Canada and the US and 5% internationally. No travel medical, no rental car CDW, no mobile device insurance. Up to 9 authorized users at no additional annual fee. CONFLICTING ISSUER FIGURES on balance transfer fee: the True Line Gold product page states 'a transaction fee equal to 1.00% of the dollar amount of each balance transfer, minimum $3.50', while MBNA's balance transfer landing page shows a 3.00% transfer fee against the same card. Recorded 1.00% from the card's own page; treat as unresolved and re-verify before publishing. Easily confused with the MBNA True Line Mastercard ($0 fee, 12.99% purchases, 0% BT for 12 months, 3.00% BT fee). The Gold is the $39 / 10.99% card with NO promo BT rate. The attractive 10.99% applies to purchases only. Cash advances are 24.99%. More than double, and higher than many standard rate cards. MBNA publishes no foreign currency conversion fee on the accessible product pages; recorded as null rather than assumed to be the industry standard 2.5%. No minimum income published. Do not infer one. Card is available to Quebec residents, but Quebec cardholders receive different insurance and disclosure documentation; excluded_provinces left empty as MBNA states no provincial exclusion.
Our Verdict
If you carry a balance and want a fixed rate rather than one tied to prime, this is the cheapest option in the comparison. 10.99% against a standard 21.99% saves about $220 a year on $2,000 of revolving debt, which more than covers the $39 fee several times over.
Do not confuse it with MBNA's free True Line Mastercard, which is a different card at 12.99% with a 0% balance transfer promotion the Gold does not have. If you are consolidating a balance, the free version and its promotion is probably the better entry point. If you are carrying one indefinitely, two points of rate difference on an ongoing basis is worth more than the promotion. MBNA's own pages also disagree about the balance transfer fee, so check that figure before you move anything.
Cards Worth Comparing This Against
Compare this against every card we track
Where this came from. MBNA True Line Gold Mastercard product page (rates and fees disclosure and legal footnotes); MBNA balance transfer landing page. 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.
The Question This Usually Raises Next
- What a transfer on this card would costPut in the balance and the fee and see the total, not the headline rate.
- Why the transfer fee is the real rateOnly 28 of 98 personal cards publish one, and it is usually the larger cost.
- What this annual fee has to earn backMeasured against the best free card rather than against zero.
- What a balance on this card costsThe daily arithmetic behind the minimum payment.