Pros & cons
Pros
- 5% cash back on gas and groceries for the first 6 months.
- Up to 2% cash back on purchases.
- 8 types of insurance.
Cons
- High income requirements of $50,000 personal or $80,000 household.
Your rewards
Getting your welcome bonus
Based on $2,000 in monthly spending, you can get up to an estimated $81.◊
For all welcome bonus details click here.
How you earn rewards
Each card earns rewards differently. Part of choosing your card is deciding what type of rewards you want to get. With MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard, here's how you earn rewards:
- 2% cash back on gas and groceries , up to $500 in combined spend monthly
- 1% cash back on all other purchases
For all reward details click here.
How much your rewards are worth
The dollar value of your rewards depends on the specific rewards program ‒ and what you choose to redeem your points for. For MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard in particular, if you spend $2,000 per month, here's our estimated annual rewards earned depending on which reward you choose:
| Statement credits | $300 |
Calculating your annual rewards
$24,000 annual spending x 1.25% return on spending = $300 annual rewards
$300 annual rewards − $39.00 annual fee = $261 net annual rewards
Details and eligibility
- Estimated Credit Score
- 725 - 759
- Personal Income
- $50,000
- Household Income
- $80,000
- Annual Fee
- $39.00
- Extra Card Fee
- $0
- Card type
- Credit
- Purchase
- 21.99%
- Cash Advance
- 22.99%
- Balance Transfer
- 22.99%
Insurance coverage
- Extended Warranty
- 1 year
- Purchase Protection
- 90 days
- Price Protection
- Yes
- Travel Accident
- $1,000,000
- Trip Interruption
- $2,000
- Rental Car Theft & Damage
- Yes
- Rental Car Accident
- $200,000
- Rental Car Personal Effects
- $1,000
Please review your insurance certificate for details, exclusions and limitations of your coverage, terms and conditions apply.
Learn more about the value of credit card insurance coverage.
Genius Rating
MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard's 3.4 Genius Rating is based on the weighted average of the following scores:
Methodology
All scores are produced by our math-based rating algorithm that takes into account over 126 credit card features.
Top cards from MBNA
GC: $125 + $25
GC: $125 + $25
Our review
Want to earn more cash back but don't want to pay a large annual fee? The MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard is a rare cash back credit card with a low fee.
But what does this card offer? And how does it compare to its sibling, the MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus Mastercard?
Here are the details.
Cash back rewards with the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard
As a cash back credit card, you'll get a percentage of what you spent back on every purchase. Here's what this card has for earn rates:
- 2% cash back on gas and groceries, up to $500 in combined spend monthly
- 1% cash back on all other purchases
It covers a pair of basics and makes sure you never dip under 1% on anything. And as an added bonus, the grocery earn rate extends to Walmart Supercentres, which is not always the case on every credit card.
How do you get your cash back? You get a few choices.
Once you've accumulated $50 worth of cash back, you can request your rewards. And here are the choices you can pick from:
- applied as a statement credit,
- deposited to a bank account, or
- donation to a participating charity.
Seeing as most cash back credit cards only offer statement credits, it's a nice change to see a credit card give you some options.
3 benefits to the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard
We have in front of us a World Mastercard. And it offers more than just cash back when you're out shopping.
1. Easy-to-earn welcome bonus
There's a simple, but effective, welcome bonus at play. You'll earn 5% on your gas and groceries for the first 6 months, up to $500 in spend.
This does include what you would normally earn, so it's technically only 3% cash back. But that still comes out to an extra $90 over 6 months.
2. Excellent insurance
If you want some insurance coverage, you're covered with 8 types included. You can see the full details above.
In this list, 2 sets of insurance coverages stand out. First is rental car coverage. This card includes all 3 types of rental car insurance. It's rare to see all 3 types included on one card.
The other is price protection. An even rarer insurance, it can get you a refund if an eligible item goes on sale within 60 days after you bought it.
3. Redeem your rewards how you want
We've already discussed this, but it's worth saying again. Most cash back credit cards only dish out your rewards once per year, and only as a statement credit.
But here, you can redeem your rewards once you've got as little as $50 accumulated. And you're not just limited to a statement credit either – you can also redeem your cash back by depositing it into one of your chequing accounts or donate it to a participating charity.
2 downsides to the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard
There are 2 big things you'll want to keep in mind when considering this credit card, which are centred around the rewards.
1. Cap on gas and grocery rewards
It's unfortunate, but the 2% earn rate is capped at $500 in combined spending on gas and gorceries. The cap is pretty low and can seem even lower if you've got, say, a family of 4 to feed and drive around to soccer practices or Scouts.
If you exceed the $500 cap, you'll be earning only 1% cash back on gas and groceries. If you're a high spender in these categories, you may want to look elsewhere.
2. High income requirements
Since it's a World Mastercard, it's also paired with high income requirements of either $50,000 personal or $80,000 household.
This can put the card out of reach of some.
Comparison to the MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus Mastercard
There's another card in the MBNA Smart cash family – the MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus Mastercard.
Here's the comparison between these 2 cards.
| MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard | MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus Mastercard | |
|---|---|---|
| Earn Rates | * 2% cash back on gas and groceries, up to $500 in combined spend monthly * 1% cash back on all other purchases | * 2% cash back on gas and groceries, up to $500 in combined spend monthly * 0.5% cash back on all other purchases |
| Welcome Bonus | 5% cash back on gas and groceries for the first 6 months, up to $500 spent per month (terms) | 5% cash back on gas and groceries for the first 6 months, up to $500 spent per month (terms) |
| Average Earn Rate | 1.25% | 0.88% |
| Insurance Coverage | 8 types included | 7 types included |
| Annual Fee | $39 | $0 |
| Income Requirements | * $50K personal * $80K household | None |
What are you getting for your annual fee of $39?
It's essentially these 2 things:
- 1% cash back on all other purchases, and
- price protection insurance.
Otherwise, these cards are very similar.
Is that annual fee worth it? It really depends on you. The price protection alone can be worth the annual fee.
If not, you'll have to spend $650 on everything besides gas and groceries to offset the annual fee.
Leave a review
This is one opinion about the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard, but what are your thoughts?
If you have the card or have had it in the past, leave a user review so others can see what you think of it.
FAQ
What does the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard earn for rewards?
The MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard is a cash back credit card that earns the following for rewards:
- 2% cash back on gas and groceries, up to $500 in combined spend monthly
- 1% cash back on all other purchases
What other features does the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard come with?
The MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard comes with 8 types of insurance, including all 3 types of rental car coverage and rare price protection insurance.
What are the annual fee and income requirements of the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard?
The MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard has an annual fee of $39 and income requirements of either $50,000 personal or $80,000 household.
Key benefits
‡, ††, ††††, ✪, Terms and Conditions apply.
The Toronto-Dominion Bank is the issuer of this credit card. MBNA is a division of The Toronto-Dominion Bank. ®MBNA and other-trademarks are the property of The Toronto-Dominion Bank.
User reviews
Reviewed by 2 Canadians
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It is not what is advertised! Apparently groceries are supposed to yield 2% cash back. Upon checking, I found out that I've been getting 0.5%. As explained to me on a call, the two stores I buy groceries from are "not on the list" of eligible stores.
I really did not know about a cash back card that would pay less than 1%, until now. I was told, I need to make my decision on use of the card, and I have.
Even though I was spending around 5k every month, rewards seem to max out at $16.50/mth. I didn’t realize this for long time and feel cheated by mbna
