The BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege lets you earn valuable and flexible BMO Rewards on all of your spending, with 5x points on groceries, gas, dining, travel, and drugstore purchases.

On top of this, you'll get some premium travel benefits and other goodies, but are these worth the exceptionally high annual fee?

And what are these rewards points really worth? As a rewards credit card rather than a cash back card, it can be a bit harder to figure out exactly what you're getting for your rewards, and what your actual return on spending might look like.

BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege rewards

Like its little brother, the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege credit card earns BMO Rewards, which is the Bank of Montreal's own flexible rewards program.

Earning BMO Rewards

You'll kick off your BMO Rewards collecting with a generous welcome bonus of up to 120,000 points, after which you'll earn:

• 5x BMO Rewards points for eligible travel, dining, gas, groceries, and drugstore purchases, and
• 1 point per $1 spent on all other eligible purchases.

One interesting new feature of this credit card is the rewards boost you get when you add an authorized user to your account.

While you'll have to pay an annual fee of $99 each time, adding an authorized user will increase your rewards earn rate by 25%.

This is a rewards earn rate bonus, which you get on top of having a second user helping you rack up those rewards more quickly in the first place.

Redeeming BMO Rewards

The value of BMO Rewards points depends on how you're redeeming them. There are a number of redemption options available, giving you some good flexibility in how you ultimately use your rewards.

Here's the estimated value of BMO rewards for the various redemption options available.

As with many rewards programs in Canada, redeeming your points for travel will give you the best value for your points, but even the least valuable option – statement credits – still gives you some decent value.

If you're earning 5x points for groceries, gas, or travel purchases, for example, the estimated rate of return for each of these options would be roughly:

• Any travel: 3.35%
• Investments: 3.35%
• Experiences: 3.25%
• Gift cards: 2.8%
• Merchandise: 2.7%
• Statement credits: 2.5%

If you redeem your BMO Rewards for statement credits, that's essentially like getting cash back, since you can use them to pay off eligible purchases you've made with your credit card.

And while these earn rates look pretty good, you have to remember that you're only getting 5x points on a handful of categories. For most purchases you'll only earn 1 point per $1 spent, which lowers your rate of return significantly.

At a 1 point per $1 earn rate, the estimated rate of return for this credit card drops to a mere 0.5% to 0.67%.

Maximizing your BMO Rewards

Maximizing your BMO Rewards value can be tricky, but we've written an extensive and detailed guide to this flexible rewards program. We dig into the details, do the calculations, and help you maximize your BMO Rewards.

7 BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege benefits

There are 7 primary reasons to take a look at the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege.

1. 120,000 point welcome bonus

You start off with a welcome bonus of up to 120,000 points, earning:

• 50,000 BMO Rewards points after spending $6,000 in the first 3 months,
• 30,000 point after spending $30,000 in the first 6 months, and
• another 40,000 points after spending $75,000 in the first year.

The most valuable way to redeem BMO Rewards is for travel, of course, and 120,000 points would be worth approximately $804 if redeemed in that fashion.

2. 25% bonus rewards with an authorized user

If you add an authorized user to your account, you will both get a 25% boost to the rewards you earn, on top of just earning rewards more quickly by having 2 people participating.

And while this is a nice bonus, each additional card you add to your account costs another $99 per year. It's up to you to figure out if that makes sense for you or not.

3. $200 annual lifestyle credit

One thing that does offset the high annual fee a little bit is the automatic $200 lifestyle credit you'll receive every year.

All you have to do to get this credit is to make any purchase of $200 or higher in any year you have the card. The lifestyle credit will automatically be applied to your statement some time after you make the first eligible purchase in a given year.

What could be easier?

4. Premium travel benefits

This credit card comes with a complimentary Priority Pass membership, and 6 annual lounge visits. This is something you'll have to enroll in separately, but once you have your Priority Pass card, you'll be able to access any Priority Pass lounge.

A Priority Pass membership normally costs US$99 per year, and each visit normally costs US$32, making those 6 complimentary passes worth $192 alone.

Of course as a Visa Infinite Privilege card, you'll also get access to all those sweet Visa Infinite perks, including:

• Visa Infinite Dining,
• Visa Infinite Wine Country,
• Visa Infinite Luxury Hotels,
• Visa Infinite Privilege concierge service, and
• Visa Infinite Troon Golf Benefits.

5. 12 types of complimentary insurance coverage

Of course, as a premium travel rewards credit card, the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege card comes with a premium package of complimentary travel insurance and purchase protection.

The card includes the following, at no extra cost to you:

6. Free credit score monitoring

Any BMO customer gets access to free credit score monitoring through the CreditView service. Simply log into your BMO account on the web or through the BMO mobile app, and you'll have 24/7 access to your current credit score.

7. Enhanced security features

With credit card theft and fraud often in the news, being concerned about the safety and security of your card is only natural.

BMO gives you some added peace of mind with their enhanced credit card security features that let you lock, unlock, or report your credit card lost or stolen at any time, whether you're at home or on the road.

5 BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege downsides

The BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege has a lot going for it, but you'll have to stomach an exceptionally high annual fee and high interest rates, among other things.

1. Extremely high annual fee

Where there are premium perks and benefits, there is often a high annual fee close behind.

The BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege offers some excellent value in terms of rewards, benefits, travel perks, welcome bonus, and insurance...but you're going to pay for it.

This credit card has an annual fee of:

• $599 for the primary cardholder, and
• $99 for each additional cardholder.

If you can make full use of this credit card's features, and maximize the value of the rewards you collect, you might be able to justify paying this high a fee, but it's definitely out of sensible range for the majority of Canadians.

2. Annual fee is not waived for the first year

And adding insult to injury is the fact that the annual fee is not waived for the first year you have this card. You have to commit to paying that exceptionally high annual fee before having a chance to take the card for a test drive to see if it's worth it for you and your family.

That's a bit of a shame, really, because it's easy to see the potential value in this card, but harder to really sort out if it would make sense on a day to day basis.

3. High interest rates

While most credit cards have high interest rates hovering in and around the 20% mark, the BMO eclipse Visa cards have interest rates that are slightly higher than average across the board. Both this and the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite card have the following interest rates:

• Purchases: 21.99%
• Cash advances: 23.99%
• Balance transfers: 23.99%

4. Very high income requirements

The income requirements for this credit card are also very high, coming in at:

• $150,000 personal, or
• $200,000 household.

This isn't unusual for Visa Infinite Privilege cards, but it is something you need to be aware of before applying for this credit card.

And this income requirement is in addition to any credit score requirements, which are likely to also be very high.

5. Expensive additional cards

And finally, if you want to add an authorized user to your account, you'll pay $99 per added user, per year for the privilege.

Now, this does give you the 25% bonus earn rate on your BMO rewards, so it may make sense for you to do this, but that's something you'll have to sort out based on your personal spending and rewards utilization.

BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege vs. the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite

If you're not interested in paying a $599 annual fee, the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege has a little brother that is less expensive (and it also waives that annual fee for the first year you have the card).

These 2 credit cards have similar rewards earn rates, but the Visa Infinite Privilege has the additional bonus earn rate for travel and drugstore purchases. And the less expensive card also lacks the premium travel benefits, has fewer types of included insurance coverage, and additional users only add a 10% bonus to your rewards earn rate.

Bottom line

In the end, this is an expensive credit card to keep in your wallet, but if you're a frequent traveller who can make full use of this card's perks and benefits, it might just be worth it to you.

FAQ

Does the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege include any travel perks?

It does. You will receive a complimentary annual Priority Pass membership, that is valued at US$99. On top of that, you'll get 6 complimentary lounge passes every year. As these normally cost US$32 each, that's another $197 value.

What is the annual fee for the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege?

This credit card has an exceptionally high annual fee of $599 for the primary cardholder, and $99 annually for each additional authorized user. Its little brother, the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite has a $120 annual fee, and $50 annually for each additional authorized user.

Will I earn rewards with the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege card?

You will earn flexible BMO Rewards with this credit card. We talk more about what these rewards are worth and what you can redeem them for here. Read more about both of the BMO eclipse credit cards.