Best Cash Back Credit Cards

While travel points are still the most popular reward credit cards in Canada, lately there has been a push in favour of cash back credit cards.

For people like me, collecting travel rewards is not the best value for my spending habits and lifestyle.  I like to put cold-hard cash back in my wallet every month to help supplement my everyday spending.

In the latest MoneySense Magazine they ranked the best cash back credit cards on the market.  Here’s a look at the overall top 10:

Best Cash Back Credit Cards

1. MBNA Smart Cash MasterCard
2. Capital One Aspire Travel World MasterCard
3. Capital One Aspire Cash Platinum MasterCard
4. Capital One Aspire Cash World MasterCard
5. Scotiabank Momentum Visa
6. Scotiabank Momentum Visa Infinite
7. MBNA Premier Rewards Platinum Plus MasterCard
8. CIBC Dividend One MasterCard
9. CIBC Dividend Unlimited World MasterCard
10. CIBC Dividend Visa Infinite

Note that some of these are not marketed as cash back credit cards but your travel points can be converted to cash.

In order to determine the best rewards card for your own situation, you need to analyze your spending habits and figure out how much money you spend each month.  There is no point getting a top cash back card with an annual fee if you only spend $1,000 a month.

With that in mind, MoneySense worked out a few scenarios to determine which credit card comes out on top based on your monthly spending.

Annual cash back if you spend $1,000/month

• MBNA Smart Cash MasterCard – $199.20
• Capital One Aspire Travel World MasterCard – $172.50
• Capital One Aspire Cash Platinum MasterCard – $154.00
• Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite – $141.00
• Scotia Momentum Visa – $129.00

Annual cash back if you spend $4,000/month

• Capital One Aspire Cash World MasterCard – $764.00
• Capital One Aspire Travel World MasterCard – $712.50
• MBNA Smart Cash MasterCard – $638.40
• Scotia Momentum Visa – $633.00
• CIBC Dividend Visa Infinite – $616.00

Apparently the methodology used to rank the best cash back credit cards in Canada took into account the annualized amount of cash back you would receive in the first 5 years after paying any annual fees.  Any sign-up bonuses were also included in the rankings.

I was pretty happy to see who came out on top of this list, since I just switched to the Smart Cash MasterCard a few weeks ago.  It wasn’t a surprise to me though; I did my research based on my spending habits and came to the same conclusion when I looked for the best cash back credit cards.

What do you think of the best cash back credit cards list?