MBNA Smart Cash® World Mastercard® Review

Looking to optimize food and fuel? The MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard earns cardholders decent cashback on eligible gas and grocery purchases – especially in the first few months of membership.

Still, since you will be paying an annual fee, you might be expecting more value from this card overall. Unfortunately, this contender sits on the lower end of the spectrum when it comes to net annual rewards.

To uncover more about this lower-fee but lower-value gas and grocery option, and to find potentially better alternatives, keep scrolling.

How You Earn Rewards with the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard

With the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard, there are a couple of different ways to collect cashback.

Specifically, you’ll earn:

• 2% cashback on eligible gas and grocery purchases (capped at $500 per month combined)
• 1% cashback on all other eligible purchases

Clearly, this card was built to help everyday shoppers optimize their daily errands, from the gas pump all the way to the produce section.

Redeeming your Rewards with the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard

After you’ve collected at least $50 worth of cashback with your MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard, you can decide whether you:

• Apply the cashback as a statement credit
• Deposit the cashback into your bank account
• Donate the cashback to a participating charity

Most cashback cards aren’t quite as flexible when it comes to redeeming your rewards, so consider this card's redemption program a perk in and of itself.

4 Benefits of the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard

What better way to determine whether or not the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard is the right fit than by reviewing its benefits?

Below, we’ve broken down all of the pros that come with pocketing this Mastercard.

A Commendable Cashback Welcome Bonus

The cashback rate on gas and groceries on the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard is already decent, but the welcome bonus can more than double this rate for the first 6 months of membership.

Just be mindful that this promotional period is still subject to the card’s standard monthly spending caps.

A Couple of Travel-Focused Perks

Whether you’re hitting the road, or you run into a few obstacles along the way, the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard has your back.

To complement any road trip, cardholders are granted a discount at Avis Rent A Car and Budget Rent A Car locations. 

For any tricky situation, you’ll also receive trip and legal assistance. 

This perk provides members with:

• Support for emergency cash transfers
• Lost document and ticket replacement
• Lost baggage assistance
• Pre-trip information
• Legal assistance while travelling

Valuable Insurance Inclusions

The MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard protects cardholders with 7 different insurance inclusions. Some of these categories are actually quite valuable, specifically its rental car insurances (car rental accident, car rental damage and theft, and car rental personal effects insurance) and rare price protection insurance – allowing you to price-match a recently purchased item if the retail price of the product is suddenly lowered.

Flexible Redemptions 

As mentioned, there are a few ways for you to flexibly redeem your cashback with the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard. You can choose to either redeem your cashback as a statement credit, deposit it to a bank account, or donate it to charity.

3 Downsides of the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard

Where there are pros, there are also cons.

Here’s where the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard may fall a bit short.

Higher Income Requirements

Unfortunately, the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard comes with some higher income requirements. Specifically, you’ll need to either have a personal annual income of $50,000 or a household annual income of $80,000.

Lacks a Competitive Cashback Program

Considering that the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard comes with an annual fee, cardholders generally expect to extract more annual reward value – something this card lacks in comparison to other top cashback competitors.

Monthly Cashback Caps

While it’s nice that the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard optimizes common spend categories like gas and groceries, it’s a little disappointing that these earn categories come with monthly spending caps.

If you happen to hit these caps every month, then, eventually, these expenses will only receive the standard base rate of cashback.

Comparison to Other Low-Fee Gas and Grocery Cashback Credit Cards

Still not convinced the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard is the best low-fee option for cashback on gas and groceries? Well, in that case, we’ve compared this card to its closest competitors to either confirm or deny your suspicions. 

Here’s a closer look at the comparisons we’ll be making:

MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard vs MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus Mastercard

Let’s start by comparing the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard to the MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus Mastercard.

The first major difference between the two cards is the annual fee. While the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard boasts an overall low annual fee, the MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus Mastercard takes budget-friendly one step further by having no annual fee whatsoever. 

On top of that, the MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus Mastercard has no annual income requirements, unlike the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard.

So, what about the rewards program? When it comes to the specialized earn categories, both cards have the same cashback rates and caps on gas and groceries – they even have the same welcome offer of over double the cashback in the first six months. Unfortunately, however, the MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus Mastercard has a lower base rate on all other purchases, which also comes into play if you hit those monthly spending caps.

As for insurance, the two Mastercards have similar coverage among shared categories. However, the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard includes price protection insurance – a rare and valuable inclusion.

Moving on to benefits, you can expect the same car rental discounts and trip and legal assistance on both MBNA Smart Cash Mastercards.

Overall, you’ll likely only apply for the MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus Mastercard over the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard if you don’t meet the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard’s higher income requirements, or you want to avoid an annual fee altogether. Otherwise, the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard is the better choice in terms of value.

MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard vs CIBC Dividend Platinum Visa Card

While the CIBC Dividend Platinum Visa Card is slightly more expensive annually than the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard, its annual fee is conveniently waived within the first year of membership.

The CIBC Dividend Platinum Visa Card also has much lower annual income requirements than the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard, making it more accessible to certain applicants.

When it comes to rewards, the CIBC Dividend Platinum Visa Card actually earns cardholders more cashback on gas and groceries with substantially higher annual caps rather than monthly caps. This Visa also adds more specialized earn categories like transportation, dining, and recurring bills. One thing to note, however, is that when shopping for groceries at stores like Costco or Walmart, Mastercard is actually the better option since Costco only accepts Mastercards in-store and Walmart is considered to be a department store with Visa rather than an eligible grocery store. So, if you shop frequently at Costco or Walmart for groceries, then you might want to stick to the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard.

The MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard is also the smarter choice when it comes to insurance coverage, offering more valuable inclusions like car rental accident, price protection, and car rental personal effects insurance.

In terms of benefits, the CIBC Dividend Platinum Visa Card actually offers a better rental car discount at participating Avis and Budget locations and instead of trip and legal assistance, cardholders receive gas discounts at participating Pioneer, Fas Gas, Ultramar and Chevron gas stations.

So, if you want a more accessible gas and grocery credit card with more cashback potential, better rental car discounts, and added gas discounts, the CIBC Dividend Platinum Visa Card could be your top pick. On the other hand, the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard is cheaper annually, better for Costco and Walmart grocery shoppers, and has more exclusive and extensive insurance coverage – as long as you can meet those higher income requirements.

Comparison to a Top Cashback Contender

While it's good to compare the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard to its closest competitors – in this case, those with lower annual fees and similar earn categories – it's also important to compare this card to top cashback contenders, like the Neo World Elite Mastercard.

MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard vs Neo World Elite Mastercard

Let's start with the rewards programs.

Immediately, you'll see that the Neo World Elite Mastercard's reward program is clearly superior to the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard's reward program. In terms of shared categories, the Neo World Elite Mastercard has better initial cashback earn rates on gas and groceries, plus competitive rates on recurring purchases. The best part is that these initial rates can actually be boosted to even higher cashback potential when cardholders keep $5k - $10k in a Neo everyday savings account. Not to mention, if members happen to purchase their food and fuel (among many other expenses) at a Neo Partner retailer, they'll receive bonus cashback on top of the initial or boosted rates.

As expected, the Neo World Elite Mastercard also comes with more extensive insurance – including valuable travel protections like trip interruption and trip cancellation insurance, hotel burglary insurance, and emergency out of province medical insurance.

When it comes to benefits, the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard actually has more perks, but the Neo World Elite Mastercard includes an airport lounge Dragon Pass (excluding complimentary visits).

It's crucial to keep in mind, however, that the Neo World Elite Mastercard has a higher annual fee and higher annual income requirements to make up to its higher overall value.

Therefore, you'd likely select the Neo World Elite Mastercard over the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard if you can meet those high annual income requirements, and you don't mind spending more money annually for one of the most competitive cashback programs for multiple everyday earn categories. Alternatively, you might stick with the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard if you want gas and grocery cashback opportunities that are more affordable and attainable.

Final Verdict

The MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard is a decent low-fee gas and grocery cashback credit card option – but there are some better and more diverse options out there.

When stacked up alongside it's closest competitors, we see that compared to the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard, the MBNA Smart Cash Platinum Plus Mastercard has no annual fee and avoids income requirements, but its overall base rate is below-average, which becomes a problem when you hit monthly spending caps on specialized categories. In addition to this, the coverage on the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard is better, adding rare price protection insurance. There’s also the CIBC Dividend Platinum Visa Card, which comes with better cashback rates on gas and groceries and a gas discount for lower income requirements. Still, this option is more expensive, has less coverage, and is useless to those who purchase groceries at Costco or Walmart – which are top retailers for many shoppers.

At the end of the day, if you can afford to do so, we actually recommend taking a peek at one of the top cashback credit cards in Canada – the Neo World Elite Mastercard – for the most competitive and unique cashback opportunities.

Frequently Asked Questions

So, what is the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard's annual fee?

As of now, the MBNA Smart Cash World Mastercard has an annual fee of $39.