Capital One Quicksilver World Elite Mastercard Review

Capital One’s brand-new Quicksilver World Elite Mastercard has instantly established itself as a competitor in the cash-back space with no annual fee, generous rewards on gas and groceries and an even more generous welcome bonus.

In addition to rewards, this card has no foreign exchange fees, making it ideal for use outside of Canada. It also has some travel coverage, although it’s not complete and has lower claims limits than what you can get from proper travel rewards credit cards.

This is different from Capital One’s typical offering, however. While Capital One is known for its credit-building options (like secured credit cards), this may be not an option for those with low or bad credit. The World Elite badge requires a minimum income and, while Capital One hasn’t published a minimum credit score for this card, you’re likely to need good credit to qualify.

Unlike many other cash-back credit cards on the market, the Capital One Quicksilver World Elite Mastercard doesn’t cap the amount of cash back you can earn. Not on its top earning categories, not on its base earn rate, not on an annual basis, not at all.

That means you can earn a lot of cash back with this card — especially if you spend a lot on gas and groceries, both of which pay 3% cash back. All other purchases earn a base rate of 1% cash back.

There are a couple of extra bits of good news when it comes to these categories.

The first is that this card has the Mastercard badge, which means you can use it at pretty much any grocery store in Canada including Loblaws-owned stores which are famous for refusing American Express cards.

The second is that this card rewards you based on your actual gas spending. Unlike a fixed per-litre reward, your 3% cash back rises with the price you pay at the pump.

Unfortunately, Walmart and Costco don’t count as grocery purchases for this card. That’s not unusual — most credit cards exclude those retailers from their grocery reward categories. The nice thing is that this card makes that clear up-front.

When you’re ready to redeem your cash back, it will show up as a statement credit. No need to apply it to purchases or link a bank account to get paid out to. Easy!

If you’re looking for a card with a great welcome bonus, this may be the one to choose. Unlike other cards, which offer a heap of points or cash back on the condition you meet minimum spending requirements, the Capital One Quicksilver World Elite Mastercard is offering to double your cash back for the first year — no matter how much you earn.

That means that for the first 12 months, you’ll earn an effective reward of 6% cash back on gas and groceries and 2% on everything else with no caps on spending. That immediately makes this card a contender for the best cash back welcome bonus in Canada — even when compared with cards with an annual fee.

You should know that Capital One’s fine print says this bonus “must be presented to you at the time of your application.” That means they can pull the rug out from under this offer at any time. Capital One hasn’t specified how long this offer will last, so apply now if you’re thinking about getting this card.

Most credit cards charge a 2.5% foreign transaction fee on purchases made in other currencies. This card is among the very few that waive that fee. In fact, there’s only one other credit card in Canada with no annual fee and no foreign transaction fee: the Home Trust Preferred Visa Card.

The other cards with no foreign transaction fee include the Scotia Passport Visa Infinite +* Card and the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card, which carry annual fees of $150 and $120, respectively.

Notably, we can’t find anything in the fine print excluding foreign currency purchases from earning rewards, which gives it a leg up on the Home Trust card. So your cross-border spending will earn you the same base 1% cash back (or 2% while you’re in your first year) as your domestic spending.

While the Capital One Quicksilver World Elite Mastercard offers a few other travel benefits, it’s not necessarily a great card to purchase travel with.

On the plus side, this card has a few types of travel insurance coverage including:

Note that the full cost of the ticket or car rental must be charged to the card for coverage to apply.

On the down side, this card is lacking a few pieces of coverage — most notably, travel emergency medical insurance, which can be the most costly. It also lacks trip interruption/cancellation and hotel/motel burglary insurance.

While other Capital One cards are geared toward people with poor-to-fair credit, the Quicksilver World Elite Mastercard is designed for those who are already in good financial shape. It requires a minimum income of $80,000 (individual) or $150,000 (household) and, while Capital One hasn’t published a minimum credit score, likely requires a score in the good-to-excellent range.

If you don’t have the necessary income, you may qualify for this card’s sibling: the Capital One Quicksilver World Mastercard. The two cards are nearly identical — the only material difference is their purchase interest rates.

A useful feature of both cards is Capital One’s Quick Check pre-approval service which will tell you whether you’ll be approved without performing a hard credit inquiry or affecting your credit score.

Capital One Quicksilver World Elite vs. World Mastercard at a glance

Card	NerdWallet rating	Annual fee	Intro offer	Apply Now
Tangerine® Money-Back World Mastercard®*				APPLY NOW on Tangerine's website
APPLY NOW on Tangerine's website	4.9/5	$0	$120
Triangle™ World Elite Mastercard®
	4.6/5	$0	N/A
Rogers Red World Elite® Mastercard®
	4.5/5	$0	N/A

Look to the Tangerine World Mastercard if you want to choose your top cash-back categories. This card lets you choose up to three categories to earn 2% cash back and pays 0.5% cash back on everything else. It also comes with a welcome bonus worth up to $120 but lacks travel emergency medical insurance coverage.

Choose the Triangle World Elite Mastercard if you will take advantage of its included roadside assistance package. This card also offers 4% back in Canadian Tire Money at Canadian Tire and its family of stores, 3% on groceries, up to 7 cents per litre on gas purchased at Petro Canada and Gas+/Essence+ stations and 1% on everything else. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have travel emergency medical insurance and doesn’t waive the 2.5% FX fee.

Choose the Rogers Red World Elite Mastercard if you need travel emergency medical insurance. This card also offers up to 2% cash back on most purchases for Rogers customers and travel perks like roaming. Note that it lacks other travel insurance coverages and charges a standard 2.5% foreign transaction fee. It also caps the amount of cash back you can earn, but not in a way that will matter for most spenders.