I’ve written in the past about the ongoing battle between two main credit cards fighting for my purchases – the Tangerine Money-Back MasterCard Cash back card and the Scotiabank Momentum VISA Infinite card. The Scotiabank Momentum VISA Infinite card was the previous winner, but with implemented changes, and a new challenger, the Scotiabank Gold American Express, things look different as of October 2019. Let’s take a look at which card is the best reward credit card.
Scotiabank Momentum VISA Infinite Changes
During 2019, Scotiabank made some changes to their premium cash back credit card, the Scotiabank Momentum VISA Infinite card:
- Lowered the 4% cashback on gas to 2%
- Lowered the 2% cashback on pharmacy to 1%
- Raised the 2% cashback on bills to 4%
- Raised the 1% cashback on daily transit to 2%
- Continued to offer 1% cash back on all other purchases
- Raised the annual fee from $99 to $120
These are somewhat minor changes, but affect the overall cashback you make in a year.
For new customers, they offer a bonus of waiving the $120 fee for the first year.
Tangerine Money-Back MasterCard
The Tangerine Money-Back MasterCard has stayed pretty consistent over the last year, continuing to provide 2% cashback on a variety of spending categories that you get to choose. You can choose 2% back on 3 categories if you bank with Tangerine (and deposit rewards to your savings) or 2% back on 2 categories otherwise. For everything else, Tangerine offers 0.5% cash back, and there is no annual fee for the card.
A new challenger: Scotiabank Gold American Express Card
A new contender for best rewards card is the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card. It offers the following rewards:
- 5% on groceries and restaurants
- 3% on gas and streaming services
- 1% on everything else
The caveat here is that to receive the maximum rewards, points need to be redeemed on travel. The plus side is that they can be redeemed for any travel that has been purchased with the credit card (not booked through a specific services). The Scotiabank Gold American Express card also has a $120 annual fee.
For new customers, they offer a bonus of $300 worth of travel reward points if you meet the spending thresholds (which are pretty easy to attain).
How do these rewards compare in the real world
With all of these different numbers, it can be hard to determine what this means for annual rewards, and which card really is the best reward credit card. To do this, I’ve categorized and analyzed my credit card spending over the last 8 months, and looked at where I get the greatest rewards.
Spending
First, let’s start with monthly spending averages:
| Category | Monthly |
| Gas | $92.42 |
| Grocery | $366.09 |
| Eat Out | $525.65 |
| Bills | $169.89 |
| Streaming | $16.99 |
| Daily Transit | $0 |
| Pharmacy | $10.64 |
| Everything else | $823.20 |
My spending, like everyone else, varies from month to month, but this gives a fairly good estimate of how I spend my money (don’t judge, I know I eat out a lot). It doesn’t include any major purchases or major travel (as I haven’t done in any the past 8 months) which would skew the data a bit.
Rewards
Now let’s look at a summary for the rewards for each of the cards:
| Category | Tangerine Mastercard | Momentum VISA Infinite | Gold American Express |
| Gas | 0.5% | 2% | 3% |
| Grocery | 2% | 4% | 5% |
| Eat Out | 2% | 1% | 5% |
| Bills | 2% | 4% | 1% |
| Streaming | 0.5% | 4% | 3% |
| Daily Transit | 0.5% | 1% | 1% |
| Pharmacy | 0.5% | 1% | 1% |
| Everything else | 0.5% | 1% | 1% |
Fees
Fee’s play a big part in determining which card is best, and the Tangerine Money-Back Mastercard is still the only no-fee credit card that can compete with the rewards of annual fee cards:
| Card | Annual Fee |
| Scotiabank Momentum VISA Infinite | $120 |
| Tangerine MasterCard | $0 |
| Scotiabank Gold American Express | $120 |
Bonuses
Unfortunately for myself, as I’m already a customer with Tangerine and Scotiabank credit cards, I’m no longer eligible for any of the new sign-up bonuses. However, if you are a new customer, make sure you take these bonuses into account:
| Card | Bonus |
| Scotiabank Momentum VISA Infinite | $120 annual fee waived first year |
| Tangerine MasterCard | 4% cashback instead of 2% cashback on bonus categories for 3 months |
| Scotiabank Gold American Express | $300 worth of travel points after spending thresholds have been met |
Adding Up All of the Credit Card Rewards
Now to add up all of the rewards based on my spending estimates over 12 months, here is how it looks:
| Category | Momentum VISA Infinite Annual Reward | Tangerine MasterCard Annual Reward | Gold American Express Annual Reward |
| Gas | $22.18 | $5.55 | $33.27 |
| Grocery | $175.72 | $87.86 | $219.65 |
| Eat Out | $63.08 | $126.16 | $315.39 |
| Bills | $81.55 | $40.77 | $20.39 |
| Streaming | $8.16 | $4.08 | $6.12 |
| Daily Transit | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Pharmacy | $1.28 | $0.64 | $1.28 |
| Other | $98.78 | $49.39 | $98.78 |
And based on those rewards, here is the total net rewards I would receive using the card over the year, both with first time sign up bonuses, and without:
| Card | Annual Reward | Sign-up bonus | Annual Fee |
| Scotiabank Momentum VISA Infinite | $450.74 | $120 | $120 |
| Tangerine MasterCard | $314.44 | $0 | $0 |
| Scotiabank Gold American Express | $694.88 | $300 | $120 |
| Card | Total Rewards without sign-up bonus | Total Rewards with sign-up bonus |
| Scotiabank Momentum VISA Infinite | $330.74 | $450.74 |
| Tangerine MasterCard (Updated Feb 1, 2020) | $314.44 | $314.44 |
| Scotiabank Gold American Express | $574.88 | $874.88 |
Which Credit Card is the Best Reward Credit Card?
From this analysis, we can see that all 3 cards provide rewards that benefit the user, but 1 stands out based on my usage as being the best reward credit card. This is not to say that this card is the best for every person, they all have pros and cons that depends on the person and how they use it:
1. Scotiabank Gold American Express
With $574.88 net rewards, the Scotiabank Gold American Express comes out on top for me.
Sign-up for the Scotiabank Gold American Express Credit Card
Pros:
- Substantial rewards compared to it’s competitors
- Travel reward redemption can be used on any travel charged to the card
Cons:
- Reward potential only maximized if used on redeeming travel (losing the flexibility of a purely cash back card)
- American Express is not as widely accepted as VISA or MasterCard. To remedy this, I keep my Tangerine No Fee Mastercard for my backup for any place that does not accept American Express
2. Scotiabank Momentum VISA Infinite
Even with the changes and the increased annual fee, the $330.74 net cash back reward slightly tops that offered by the Tangerine MasterCard when not including sign up bonuses.
Sign-up for the Scotiabank Momentum VISA Infinite Credit Card
Pros:
- Cashback rewards provides flexibility of where you can spend rewards
- Rewards provide better cash back then most other cards on the market
Cons:
- Increased annual fee brings the rewards closer in line with Tangerine MasterCard
- Rewards only paid out once annually
3. Tangerine MasterCard
The net rewards of $314.44 make the Tangerine Money-Back MasterCard a valuable, with it’s flexibility of reward categories and no annual fee. It’s a great backup card for anyone who decides to go with the Scotiabank Gold American Express
Sign-up for the Tangerine Money-Back MasterCard
Pros:
- Cashback rewards provides flexibility of where you can spend rewards
- Monthly cashback provides easier and quicker access to rewards
- Flexible money back categories allow you to tweak your card to best suite your needs
- No annual fee
Cons:
- Need a Tangerine savings account to maximize rewards
- Net rewards don’t quite reach those offered by the annual fee cards