Capital One has launched two new money again playing cards in Canada, the Quicksilver World Elite Mastercard® and the Quicksilver World Mastercard®. Each earn limitless 3% money again on groceries and gasoline, cost no annual payment, and waive overseas transaction charges solely.
On high of that, Capital One will match each greenback of money again you earn in your first 12 months, which successfully doubles the incomes charges for brand new cardholders.
I utilized for the World Elite model as quickly as I noticed it and was authorised on the spot. Let me stroll via what the playing cards supply, how the first-year match works, and the place they match amongst Canada’s no overseas transaction payment playing cards.
Two Playing cards with the Similar Incomes Charges
Each Quicksilver playing cards earn money again on the identical charges, with no caps on any class:
- 3% money again at eligible grocery shops, excluding superstores like Walmart and Costco
- 3% money again at eligible gasoline stations and EV charging stations
- 1% money again on all different purchases
Your money again does not expire so long as your account stays open. You possibly can redeem it as an announcement credit score via on-line banking or the Capital One app, with every $1 of money again taking $1 off your stability.
The 2 playing cards differ primarily on revenue necessities and rates of interest:
| Quicksilver World Elite Mastercard® | Quicksilver World Mastercard® | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual payment | $0 | $0 |
| International transaction payment | None | None |
| Incomes charges | 3% on groceries and gasoline/EV charging, 1% on all the things else | 3% on groceries and gasoline/EV charging, 1% on all the things else |
| Buy, stability switch, and money advance fee | 20.9% | 21.9%–29.9% |
| Minimal revenue | $80,000 private or $150,000 family | $50,000 private or $80,000 family |
Curiously, the World Elite model carries a decrease rate of interest than its entry-level sibling. When you pay your stability in full each month, the speed will not matter, so the selection actually comes all the way down to which revenue requirement you meet.
The First-12 months Money Again Match
As a brand new cardholder, Capital One will match all of the money again you earn in your first one year, greenback for greenback, with no restrict on how a lot it’s going to match.
That successfully turns the incomes charges into 6% on groceries and gasoline and a pair of% on all the things else to your first 12 months. The match is calculated on the finish of these one year and credited inside two billing intervals, so you will be ready a little bit over a 12 months to see it.
To place some numbers on it, say you spend $500 per thirty days on groceries and gasoline and one other $1,000 per thirty days on all the things else. Over a 12 months, that earns $180 at 3% and $120 at 1%, for a complete of $300 in money again.
With the match, you’d find yourself with $600 for the 12 months, which is great for a card with no annual payment.
Capital One notes that the supply is just obtainable when it is displayed on its web site, so I would not rely on it sticking round indefinitely.
Insurance coverage and Advantages
For a no-fee card, the insurance coverage package deal is superb. Each playing cards include the identical protection:
- Flight delay: As much as $250 per 24 hours for delays of 4 hours or extra, to a most of $1,000 per journey
- Baggage delay: As much as $100 per day for as much as three days, to a most of $300
- Misplaced baggage: As much as $1,000 per journey
- Frequent provider journey accident: As much as $500,000
- Automotive rental collision/loss injury: Leases of as much as 31 days, on autos value as much as $65,000
- Buy assurance and prolonged guarantee: 90 days of buy protection, plus as much as one additional 12 months on the producer’s guarantee
- Value safety: As much as $100 per merchandise and $500 per 12 months if an merchandise’s worth drops inside 30 days
The flight delay and baggage protection stand out probably the most. Among the many no-fee playing cards we observe, hardly any embody both one. To be coated, you will have to cost the complete price of your ticket to the cardboard.
That guidelines out most award bookings. The certificates says the complete price doesn’t embody any diminished price from redeeming reward applications, present playing cards, or credit, so an award ticket the place you solely put the taxes and costs on the cardboard doesn’t seem to qualify. The identical definition applies to the automotive rental protection.
Value safety is one other good shock, because it’s change into unusual on Canadian bank cards. The automotive rental protection is useful too, letting you decline the rental counter’s injury waiver on leases of as much as a month.
What you will not discover is journey medical insurance coverage, journey cancellation protection, or lounge entry. When you depend on a bank card for journey medical protection, you will nonetheless need one other card or a separate coverage to your journeys.
To be clear, it is a excellent insurance coverage package deal for a no-fee card, however it’s not on the extent of the premium playing cards we frequently maintain and speak about. Most playing cards with an annual payment embody journey medical and journey cancellation protection, they usually have a tendency to supply greater baggage delay limits and longer automotive rental protection than the Quicksilver’s $300 and 31 days.
Making use of with Pre-Approval
One good contact is that Capital One allows you to see whether or not you will be pre-approved earlier than you submit the complete software, which takes a lot of the guesswork out of making use of.
I went via the pre-approval examine for the World Elite card, utilized, and was authorised immediately. Capital One additionally gave me the choice to arrange my PIN on the spot relatively than ready for one within the mail, and the cardboard is on its approach in 7–10 enterprise days.
Capital One additionally runs a few procuring instruments alongside its playing cards. Capital One Procuring is a free browser extension and app that appears for coupon codes, compares costs throughout retailers, and earns Procuring Rewards you could redeem for present playing cards.
Anybody can use it, whether or not or not you maintain a Capital One card. The Canadian model is extra restricted than the US one, with fewer taking part retailers and provides, however it’s value putting in if you happen to do plenty of on-line procuring.
Capital One Presents is the corporate’s portal of service provider offers for cardholders, and it’s already dwell in my Canadian account. The lineup leans closely towards journey, with money again at lodge chains, reserving websites, and tour platforms:
- GetYourGuide: 20% again
- Tripadvisor: 10% again
- Etsy: As much as 8% again
- IHG Resorts & Resorts: 6% again
- Marriott Bonvoy: As much as 5% again
- Reserving.com: As much as 5% again
- Hilton: 4% again
- Vrbo: 2% again
- Priceline: As much as 2% again
The 20% again at GetYourGuide is the one which caught my eye. When you’re already planning to e book a tour or day journey in your subsequent trip, that’s a considerable low cost for merely beginning your buy via the portal.
Presents can change and each comes with its personal phrases, so it’s value checking the main points earlier than you e book.
A Uncommon No-Charge, No-FX Mixture
The shortage of overseas transaction charges is probably the most attention-grabbing a part of this launch. Most Canadian bank cards add a 2.5% payment to purchases in foreign currency, and the playing cards that waive it often include an annual payment.
For context, that is how the Quicksilver playing cards stack up in opposition to just a few of the no-FX playing cards already available on the market, plus one fashionable no-fee card that offsets the FX payment as a substitute:
The House Belief Most popular Visa Card has lengthy been one of many few no-fee playing cards with out FX charges, however it solely earns 1% money again. The Quicksilver playing cards beat it handily at residence, and doubtlessly overseas too.
That’s as a result of the three% classes are based mostly on service provider class codes relatively than the place you store. Capital One’s phrases don’t restrict them to Canada, so groceries and gasoline overseas also needs to earn 3% (or 6% within the first 12 months), with no FX payment on high.
Simply understand that Capital One can’t assure how a service provider codes its transactions, and that’s very true of shops exterior Canada.
The Rogers Purple World Elite® Mastercard usually comes up as a no-fee journey card too, however it isn’t a real no-FX card. It nonetheless expenses the usual 2.5% payment, and as a substitute earns 3% money again on US greenback purchases to offset it.
That nets out to roughly 0.5% again on US greenback spending, whereas purchases in different foreign currency earn 1.5% and go away you about 1% behind after the payment. The Quicksilver playing cards come out forward on each, with 1% again (or 2% within the first 12 months) on overseas purchases and no payment in any respect.
Rogers can be altering how the Rogers Purple playing cards earn and redeem beginning November 18, 2026, although the introduced modifications don’t contact the US greenback fee.
The Scotiabank playing cards nonetheless supply extra in different areas, like journey medical insurance coverage and stronger incomes of their bonus classes. For extra choices, see our information on which bank cards haven’t any overseas transaction charges.
To be truthful, there’s one quirk value figuring out. Costco solely accepts Mastercard bank cards in Canada, however the 3% grocery fee excludes superstores like Costco and Walmart, so your Costco runs will earn simply 1%.
Might Capital One Miles Come to Canada Subsequent?
It’s value remembering how a lot greater Capital One’s rewards ecosystem is south of the border. Within the US, the Enterprise playing cards earn Capital One Miles, which switch to 18 airline and 4 lodge applications, together with Air Canada Aeroplan, British Airways Membership, and Singapore Airways KrisFlyer.
On the lodge facet, Capital One Miles additionally switch to Accor Stay Limitless, Alternative Privileges, I Choose, and Wyndham Rewards.
The US Quicksilver playing cards plug into that ecosystem as nicely. They earn a flat 1.5% money again, however if you happen to additionally maintain a miles-earning Enterprise card, you’ll be able to convert that money again into Capital One Miles and ship it to these companions.
In Canada, none of that exists but. Capital One’s Canadian lineup has leaned closely towards constructing credit score, with the Assured Mastercard® and Assured Secured Mastercard® alongside the newer Sensible Rewards™ Mastercard®.
Capital One has additionally pulled again from Canadian rewards earlier than. It stopped providing the Capital One® Aspire Journey™ World Elite Mastercard® to new candidates and reduce its earn fee from 2% to 1.5% in 2020, citing interchange economics. Its run because the Costco Mastercard issuer ended when CIBC took over in 2022.
So I’d mood expectations. Nonetheless, a World Elite card with no annual payment and no FX charges is a really completely different product from a secured card, and it’s laborious to not learn it as an indication that Capital One needs a much bigger piece of the Canadian rewards market.
For now, transferable factors are solely one thing to hope for. But when Capital One ever brings its switch companions north, the upside can be important, particularly for applications that Canadians can barely attain at the moment.
Japan Airways Mileage Financial institution is the perfect instance. Not one of the main Canadian financial institution factors applications switch to it, so the principle approach in is changing Marriott Bonvoy factors at a 3:1 ratio.
A direct path would unlock a complete new set of redemptions. The spotlight is JAL’s personal enterprise class, which JAL Mileage Financial institution costs from 55,000 miles one-way between North America and Japan.
Saver seats at that worth are laborious to seek out, however even the extra widespread 75,000 to 80,000 miles is a robust worth for the most effective enterprise class merchandise within the sky. JAL additionally tends to launch extra award seats, together with in top notch, to its personal members than to companion applications.
Its distance-based companion chart, which permits as much as three free stopovers on companion awards, can be the most effective methods to e book oneworld airways and Emirates.
Taxes and surcharges on JAL’s personal flights are additionally modest in comparison with carriers like British Airways, although they run greater on flights departing Japan. Add in JAL’s continuous flights between Vancouver and Tokyo, and the worth for Canadians can be very actual.
Let me plant a flag. If the Quicksilver playing cards catch on, I wouldn’t be shocked to see a Enterprise-style card with transferable factors arrive in Canada down the street, particularly since Aeroplan and JAL Mileage Financial institution are each already Capital One switch companions within the US. That’s hypothesis on my half, however it’s the transfer I’ll be waiting for.
Conclusion
Capital One has launched with a robust pitch. A no-fee card that earns 3% on two of the largest on a regular basis classes and does not penalize you for spending overseas fills an actual hole within the Canadian market.
My plan is to place groceries and gasoline on the World Elite card, and to make use of it for each overseas forex buy in its first 12 months, when all the things earns double.
When you already maintain a robust grocery card just like the Scotiabank Gold American Categorical® Card, the Quicksilver nonetheless earns a spot as a no-fee journey companion. And if you happen to have been about to choose up a card purely for the FX financial savings, that is the one I would take a look at first.
No annual payment and no FX charges used to imply settling for 1% again. With the Quicksilver playing cards, that compromise is so much smaller.
