Tangerine, a mainly online-only bank in Canada, offers two credit cards that are particularly attractive for Canadians as they both have no annual fee and offer customizable bonus categories while earning cash back.
Let’s take a look at both of Tangerine’s credit cards, the Tangerine World Mastercard and the Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card to see if either of them are worth adding to your wallet.
Overview
Welcome Bonus
The Tangerine World Mastercard and Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card both currently have a welcome bonus in which new cardholders can earn $100 Cash Back:
- Earn 10% cash back on all purchases for the first 2 months (up to $100 in cash back)
- Plus: You can earn an additional $150 FlyerFunds Rebate on the Tangerine World Mastercard or a $150 FlyerFunds Rebate on the Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card when you apply through Frugal Flyer Rebates!
The Tangerine World Mastercard earns cash back and allows cardholders to choose three accelerated spending categories to increase their cash back earnings. In 2024, we awarded this card as the Best No Annual Fee Cash Back Credit Card.
Check out our Tangerine World Mastercard review for more details.
$100 cash back
$1,000
$100+
$0
Yes
Apr 30, 2024
The Tangerine Money-Back credit card earns cash back and allows cardholders to choose three accelerated spending categories to increase their cash back earnings.
Check out our Tangerine Money-Back credit card review for more details.
$100 cash back
$1,000
$100+
$0
Yes
Apr 30, 2024
Earning Rates
The Tangerine World Mastercard and Tangerine Money-Back credit card accrue cash back for all purchases made on these cards:
- 2% cash back on three money-back categories of your choice.
- 0.5% cash back on all other purchases.
Cardholders are able to select three categories in which they will receive the elevated 2% cash back. These categories include grocery, furniture, restaurants, hotel/motel, gas, recurring bill payments, drug store, home improvement, entertainment, and public transport/parking.
Cardholders are able to adjust their elevated 2% cash back categories whenever desired, however, it will take one billing cycle for the change to take effect.
Annual Fee
Both the Tangerine World Mastercard and the Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card have no annual fee, making both cards a low-risk choice to add to your wallet.
The Main Benefit of the Tangerine Credit Cards
The unique feature of the Tangerine credit cards is their flexible bonus spending categories. You can earn an above-average 2% cash back on 2-3 categories of your choice. Tangerine is the only credit card in Canada that lets you choose your own bonus categories. This means you can align the Tangerine credit card very closely with your particular spending habits.
From my personal experience with Tangerine, I also find the ease of use of the online dashboard to be a huge plus, as well as the customer support, particularly online chat and phone support. As an online-only bank, Tangerine takes the money saved from not having brick-and-mortar branches and invests it into their customer service. And it shows.
Benefits
The Tangerine World Mastercard and Tangerine Money-Back Credit Cards both offer a number of benefits for cardholders. While we have outlined them all below, we have also specified which card each benefit is available for.
Complimentary Boingo Wi-Fi Membership
The Tangerine World Mastercard (not the Money-Back credit card) comes with a Boingo Wi-Fi complimentary membership. This connects to 1 million Wi-Fi hotspots around the world and can be used in-flight on certain airlines, such as accessing WestJet in-flight WiFi for free.
Insurance Benefits
The Tangerine World Mastercard and Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card both come with Purchase Assurance and Extended Warranty on purchases charged to the cards (to a maximum of $60,000 lifetime):
- Purchase Assurance: automatically covers loss, theft, or damage on most new insured items for 90 days from the date of purchase
- Extended warranty: double the period of repair services to a maximum of one year
In addition, the Tangerine World Mastercard comes with additional insurance coverage:
- Collision, loss, and damage insurance on rental cars, up to a maximum of 31 days. Must charge the full cost of the rental to your card.
- Mobile device insurance on new cell phones, smartphones, or tablets. Covers up to $1,000 if your mobile device is lost, stolen, accidentally damaged, or experiences mechanical failure. Must charge full phone cost to your card, or charge all wireless bill payments to your card if purchased through a plan.
(Decent) Intro Balance Transfer Offer
Both Tangerine cards come with a promotional balance transfer rate of 1.95% for 6 months. A balance transfer request fee of 1% does apply. If you’re really in need of a balance transfer, there are more competitive balance transfer offers available, with as low as a 0% rate with a 1% fee (and vice versa). Read our guide to balance transfers to learn more.
Redeeming Cash Back Earned on Tangerine Credit Cards
Cash back rewards that are earned on the Tangerine World Mastercard and Tangerine Money-Back credit card are paid monthly. The cash back will be issued either as a statement credit on the credit card account or as a deposit to a Tangerine savings account, depending on the cardholder’s preference.
Should I Get the Tangerine Money-Back Card or the Tangerine World Mastercard?
In general, you should apply for the Tangerine World Mastercard, as it has no annual fee and a few extra benefits over the Money-Back card. However, if you make less than the minimum income requirements ($60,000 personal income or $100,000 household income), you will only be eligible for the Tangerine Money-Back card.
See the table below for a comparison of the key features and differences between the two cards.
| Card Features | Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card | Tangerine World Mastercard |
|---|---|---|
| Number of 2% Earning Categories | 2 (increases to 3 with Tangerine Savings account) | 3 |
| Base Earn Rate | 0.5% | 0.5% |
| Annual Fee | $0 | $0 |
| Purchase Assurance + Extended Warranty | Yes | Yes |
| Collision, Loss, and Damage Insurance | No | Yes |
| Mobile Device Insurance | No | Yes |
| Complimentary Boingo Wi-Fi Membership | No | Yes |
Comparable Credit Cards
There are a couple of credit cards in Canada that have no annual fee while still earning cash back that should be considered if you are looking for alternatives to the Tangerine credit cards.
Simplii Financial Cash Back Visa Card
The Simplii Financial Cash Back Visa card has no annual fee and offers 4% cash back on all purchases made at restaurants, bars, and coffee shops (up to $5,000 spend per calendar year).
The Simplii Financial Cash Back Visa card earns cash back and gives cardholders the opportunity to earn up to 4% cash back on purchases at restaurants, bars, and coffee shops.
Check out our Simplii Financial Cash Back card review for more details.
$100 cash back
$500
$100+
$0
Yes
–
The card also earns 1.5% cash back on all purchases made at grocery stores, gas stations, drug stores, and on pre-authorized purchases (up to $15,000 spend per calendar year) and 0.5% cash back on all other purchases (with no limit on spend per calendar year).
Rogers Red World Elite Mastercard
The Rogers Red World Elite Mastercard is another credit card with no annual fee that earns cash back on all purchases. The card earns 3% cash back on all purchases made in US dollars, 2% cash back on all eligible purchases for Rogers, Fido, and Shaw postpaid customers, and 1.5% cash back on all other purchases.
The Rogers Red World Elite Mastercard® earns cash back and gives cardholders the opportunity to earn 3% cash back on all purchases made in US dollars.
$0 cash back
$0
$0+
$0
Yes
–
The Rogers Red World Elite Mastercard also offers a complimentary Boingo WiFi membership and several insurance coverages. However, this card also requires a minimum annual personal income of $80,000 or a minimum annual household income of $150,000.
Combine a Tangerine Credit Card & Tangerine Bank Account For Additional Benefits
When you sign up for a Tangerine credit card, you may also want to consider signing up for a Checkings and Savings account. These accounts are all free with no fees and provide an easier way to manage your cash and pay off your Tangerine credit card. All of your cashback from your credit card will also be deposited automatically into your savings account.
There are two other key benefits to combining a Tangerine credit card with their bank account(s).
- If you are only eligible for the base Tangerine Money-Back credit card, this card comes with only two 2% changeable categories. However, if you also have a savings account, then you will be granted three categories, on par with the Tangerine World card.
- Tangerine bank accounts come with welcome bonuses of their own. For example, currently, you can use the code EARNMORE to get up to a $400 cash bonus and a 5.75% promotional savings rate for 5 months. Conditions apply.
Conclusion
With their flexible and changeable 2% cash back categories, both the Tangerine World Mastercard and Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card are solid options for a daily driver credit card in Canada. They are particularly useful if you have spending patterns that fluctuate in a predictable way from month to month, or if you have a large amount of spending in categories that aren’t well covered by available credit card options in Canada such as groceries, restaurants, or travel.
Frequently Asked Questions
Tangerine Orange Key is a referral code that you can share with your friends and family (or the internet). For each referral, you and the referee get $50. The orange key is valid for Tangerine Chequing and Tangerine Savings accounts.
Tangerine cash-back is automatically calculated and applied to either your card balance or redeemed directly into your Tangerine Savings Account if you have one. You can choose which option you want in your Tangerine account dashboard.
Tangerine cash back is deposited automatically once per month, the day after your billing cycle ends.
No, Tangerine credit cards have no cap on spending or cash back you can earn from purchases.
Reed Sutton
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I am considering tangerine accounts to bill pay from PayPower mastercard, as part of MS. So it would go:
1. Amex Cobalt groceries and Paypower reload
2. Bill pay from Paypower to Tangerine Mastercard
3. Recurring Bill-pay Tangerine Mastercard to Hydro/Gas providers for 2% back
4. Additional cash transfers from Tangerine mastercard to Tangerine chequing.
Is this workable, or is there a better way?
Thanks!
Hi Jim,
Yes that will work. Really its a personal choice, whatever credit card/bank you’re comfortable with. I was doing my PayPower to Tangerine for a long time, and then transferring the balance to my Tangerine checking account. Others send it to their LoC with the bank and transfer that to checking or spend it out. You can also bill pay to PC Financial and etransfer the money from there. Lots of options!