[DISCONTINUED] Rogers First Rewards to be Discontinued and Introduction of the Rogers Bank Platinum MasterCard

The Rogers First Rewards program was very short lived. The telecommunications company only really got its rewards program up and running in early 2014. Less than 2 years later, they plan to discontinue the program, more specifically on December 1, 2015. Thankfully, instead of cancelling our points, they will be transferring the rewards to the Rogers Platinum MasterCard cash back account, assuming that you have the credit card.

If you do not have that credit card, then you will have until June 30, 2016 to redeem your points within the rewards catafalque. Note that in this case, you will need to inform Rogers by November 30, 2015 about keeping your points and not transferring them into cash back.

Speaking of the new Rogers Bank Platinum MasterCard, below are the highlights of the new credit card:

• $29 annual fee (waived the first year or waived so long as you have pre-authorized Rogers payments set up)
• Earn $35 cash back sign up bonus
• Earn 1.75% cash back on all purchases
• No foreign exchange fees
• Apply cash back to purchases made in Rogers branded stores or monthly Rogers bill

With the annual fee being waived the first year, there is definitely no harm in giving this credit card a try the first year to see how you feel if you are already a Rogers customer. Obviously this is fairly useless for non-Rogers customers. What I mean by this is that I would not switch to Rogers just based on getting this credit card. If you are already getting a good deal with your telecommunications, then leave it be. I would not use this credit card as a deal breaker to switch to Rogers.

The other sweet way to continually waive your annual fee is to set preauthorize payments for any Rogers companies monthly bill to this credit card.

The cash back that you earn can only be redeem towards purchases of Rogers and Fido branded stores, monthly Rogers, Fido and chatr bills, or online purchases at Rogers.com and Fido.ca.

You will be able to start redeeming your rewards when you have at least $20 in cash back value. You can redeem $20 and up to the full transaction amount, whichever is less. This is actually pretty, yes you do have to wait until you have $20 in cash back value before any redemption, but at least you do not need to wait until you have the exact amount of the bill.

In terms of the foreign transaction fees being waived, there is a catch. All transactions made in a foreign currency will be converted first to US dollars and then to Canadian dollars. With the Canadian dollar being so weak currently, this may not be that amazing of a perk anyway. This will however be very favourable when the Canadian dollar is strong against the USD.