Tangerine Money Back Credit Card Review

Tangerine Money Back Credit Card Review

The Tangerine Money back card is one of the only two credit cards offered by Tangerine. There are some unique features on this card that make it very different and versatile compared to other credit cards that we will explore in this in-depth review.

This card is very similar to the Tangerine World Mastercard but with fewer benefits. The only reason you might go for the Tangerine Money back in favor of the World is that you don't have the requirements of the World Mastercard, which are not that easy to qualify for ($60K individual or $100K household income).

The Rewards

The Tangerine Money-Back credit card allows you to choose which categories you want to get extra cashback in. This is unique because no other credit cards allows you to choose which categories you want to have extra cashback.

You have the option to choose from 10 categories:

1. Grocery

2. Furniture

3. Restaurants

4. Hotel-Motel

5. Gas

6. Recurring Bill Payments

7. Drug Store

8. Entertainment

9. Public Transportation

10. Parking

You can choose two of these categories, and you will then receive 2% cashback on them and 0.5% on all your other categories.

One good thing about the categories is that you can choose two and, after opening your account, request the categories change. After every change, you can wait another 90 days and request a change again. You can use this to your favor. So, for example, if you know you are going to pay a huge amount for a Hotel soon, you can change one of your categories to Hotel-Motel to get the extra cashback.

If you decide to go with this card, we highly advise going for the Tangerine Savings account as well because it allows you to choose three categories to earn 2% in, which will make this a very good card.

Welcome Bonus

Tangerine offers 10% Extra cashback on your purchases up to $100 earned. This extra means that if you buy something in the 2% categories selected, you will earn 12%; if you buy something outside of the 2% categories, you will earn 10% on top of the 0.5%, meaning %10.5.

So for you to get all the $100 welcome bonus, you need to spend a total of $1000 in the first two months.

2 benefit of Tangerine Money Back Card

1. Good cashback rate for a card with No annual fee

The Tangerine cards give good cashback for a card that has no annual fee. There are some other cards that might beat it in terms for users with different spending categories, but in general, it usually is in the top 5. No annual fee cards are recommended to the users.

If you want to double-check the rewards you earn with Tangerine, you can use FinlyWealth's reward calculator to see how it compares to other cards.

2. Easy Approval

To get the Tangerine Money Back credit card, we estimate that only a fair credit score is required. In addition, a $12K personal income is asked for, which is a very low number; most people, even the ones with part-time jobs, are making over that number.

Downsides of the Tangerine Money Back Credit Card

Low Insurance Coverage

The Tangerine Money Back offers just the basic purchase protection and an extended warranty, which are standard features found on most free cards. This is a limitation, especially when there are No annual fee cards out there offering perks such as roadside assistance and no foreign transaction fees.

Therefore, if you're in search of a card with more extensive benefits, the Tangerine Money Back might not be the best choice for you.

Final Verdict

First off, if you have a high income ($60K personal or $100K household and a good creditscore, then the World elite version of this card is a better choice. But if you don't have those requirements then we can look at the Tangeride Moneyback card.

Based on this information, whether to go for the Tangerine Money Credit card or not depends on a few things.

1. If you want a card with many benefits then this card might not be for you. Tangerine only has the basic benefits and there are some cards that provide more benefits.

2. If you want this to be your one and only card and if you are planning to maximize your rewards, it would be best to use FinlyWealth's calculator to see how much rewards you will be able to get using the Tangerines credit card. Depending on your results, you can decide if Tanginrine is the best card for you or not.

3. If you are willing to use multiple credit cards, then we advise you to go for this card. The main reason is that even though it might not be the best card for Grocery and Restaurant purchases, which are the biggest spending categories for many people, it is one of the best cards (Among all credit cards, both paid and free!) for Recurring purchases, Gas and Pharmacy. So having this card in for these categories in addition to another card for your Restaurant and Grocery purchases would create a great combo!