Is the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege card worth it?

Read Time:3 Min, 13 Sec

Bank of Montreal`s VIP card is not for everyone, I have utilized this card for a few months and one thing that I fancy the most is the visual aesthetic but more on that later.

Do you have high spending on categories such as groceries, drugstores, or travel? Do you pay tons of fees on other payment processors such as AMEX Platinum card yet travel abroad where American Express either is not accessible or not preferred by merchants? If you answered YES to either of those questions, this card might be right for you. More below

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Let’s dive deeper

The BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege Card lets you earn flexible BMO Rewards on all your everyday spending, and 5x points on travel, dining, gas, groceries, and drugstore purchases. BMO offers a $200 annual lifestyle credit for this card, watch your BMO Rewards points accelerate to 25% more points when you add an authorized user.

Most BMO clients with a premium chequing account obtain a $150 waiver. This premium card annual fee effectively plunges to $149, but that’s not all, if you can hit the welcome bonus minimum spend which is ridiculous coming in at $100,000 for your first year, you get rewarded 90,000 points ($600) when you liquidate it to your investment or savings account.

The good news is that the first portion of the welcome bonus only requires a spend of CAD $6000 in the first three months to earn 50,000 BMO Rewards points. Net profit for year one comes down to $451 based on my analysis.

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Is the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege card metal?

Yes, the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege* card is metal. The lower tier BMO eclipse Visa Infinite is plastic, both reveal only your first name with modern designed aesthetics, possibly the best-looking credit card in Canada.

How much are BMO Reward Points worth?

15,000 BMO points are equivalent to $100 to your investor line or savings account. While you could always redeem for statement credit, I would highly advise against it. Redeeming for investments is on a 1:1 ratio with travel-related transactions for the maximum value.

Welcome Offer: Earn 90,000 points plus 25% more points with Auth/Users

Make every moment more luxurious with BMO`s most exclusive rewarding card geared to benefit your premium accounts! ^{Learn more}

Earn Rates
5x Groceries, Gas/EV, travel, dining, food delivery, drugstore
Plus, earn 1 point for every $1 spent on everything else plus 25% on all purchases when you add an authorized user to your account.

Recommended credit score: (ERS 2.0: 760+) learn more about Equifax`s Risk Score 2.0
Annual Fee: $499
Get a $200 annual lifestyle credit
Priority Pass^TM membership and 6 airport lounge visits per year
Visa Infinite Privilege Concierge – Personal assistant on call
All other VIP perks +

Minimum income required
$150,000 ($200,000 HHI)

Conclusions

It is rare to see banks in Canada offer such competitive rates compared to Americans let alone on the visa network. Kudos to the Bank of Montreal! I`d probably stop using AMEX completely if BMO bumps up the return on all other purchases at 2.75X points per dollar spent everywhere else as long as they don’t devalue the points further. Mobile device insurance seems too low for a VIP card, $1900 at minimum would’ve made sense. A Surface Duo 2 alone costs $1,899.99 CAD.

Disclaimer: Some content here may contain referral links, and credit score estimates are subject to lenders’ internal risk assessments. Take every precaution before submitting an application.
You should know that in Canada we have two credit bureaus, Equifax and TransUnion. Some lenders may still approve or reject your application based on other factors. Use this information for educational purposes.

Last Updated on 07/31/2022 by Emmanuel Motelin