Westjet and the RBC (Royal Bank of Canada, is what they used to call themselves) have teamed up and are offering Westjet branded Mastercard options with the highlight being that you can now earn westjet dollars, or points on your purchases through these cards.
There’s two MasterCard cards being offered by the Royal Bank to use so let’s look at each one seperately, shall we?
With this card, the first thing I noticed was there was a $39 annual fee for the card. I could never understand why you would pay a fee for a credit card. I mean, you’re already coughing up big bucks in interest if you carry a balance on the card so why tack a fee on? Perhaps this is to ensure that there’s some sort of penalty or disadvantage. If you’re in the habit of paying off your balance each payment period, I guess there’s not much gain for the credit card company to have you as a client, thus the fee. Anway, do the math before you decide to apply for the WestJet MasterCard from RBC to make sure it’s right for you. If you travel a lot, and use your card a lot maybe this is a no brainer…I know I wouldn’t have much need for this card right now.
The good news is you do get $25 as a welcome bonus on your first purchase, so your first year I suppose – you’re only out $15 to try the WestJet card and see if you like it. This of course assumes you take a flight with westjet to cash in your westjet dollars. You could be a westjet dollar millionaire, but like money, they’re only good if you spend them. Then, they have value.
On ‘everyday purchases’ that you make with this card, you get 1% back in Westjet Dollars, and they’ll bump the percentage up to 1.5% if you buy flights or packages through WestJet or WestJet Vacations.
The first thing I noticed with the WestJet RBC World Mastercard is the annual fee is double than the non-world version above at $79.00 annually . But once you get past that, the good news is the WestJet dollars you get with your first purchase is much higher at $100. So unlike the other Westjet RBC Mastercard, the WestJet RBC World Mastercard actually gives you enough of a bonus to start to fly. As I write this I can fly to Halifax for $109, so with a $100 headstart, it would only cost me $9 (plus taxes, etc) to fly with WestJet. I’d get a pretty good warm and fuzzy feeling about spending $79 and then getting $100 worth of something that starts with more welcome dollars. I’d be much more inclined to go with the World Mastercard Option.
And with your higher annual fee, you also get more WestJet dollars back with your purchases – this time it’s 1.5% on everyday purchases, and 2% on your purchases with WestJet and WestJet Travel. If you spent $20,000 over the course of the year on your everyday purchases (which is possible) you’d have $300 in WestJet dollars at years end. Maybe it pays for a small round trip or makes a dent on an annual vacation somewhere warm.
WestJet flies to pretty much every major Canadian City , Toronto, Montreal, Halifax and so on and lots of popular travel destinations such as Las Vegas, or Florida, California, or Cancun to name just a few.
The new WestJet MasterCard from RBC could be a great way for you to save some money on your travels with WestJet.
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