BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* Card

The BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* Card offers a high welcome bonus, along with an extremely competitive earning structure of 5 points per dollar spent on dining, gas, groceries, and drugstores.

The $50 annual credit also goes a long way towards offsetting the annual fee.

Bonuses & Fees

The BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* Card offers a welcome bonus of up to 60,000 BMO Rewards points, distributed as follows:

• 30,000 BMO Rewards points upon spending $3,000 in the first three months
• 2,500 BMO Rewards points in each of months 4–15 in which you spend $2,000, for a total of up to 30,000 additional points

The second part of the welcome bonus is quite a high spending requirement for low rewards. Therefore, you might want to skip it – our first year valuation only takes the first part into account.

The card comes with an annual fee of $120, which is waived for the first anniversary. Supplementary cards can be added for an annual fee of $50 apiece.

This is the exact same welcome bonus as the BMO Ascend World Elite®* Mastercard®*, so you should choose based on which other features you prefer.

Earning Rewards

The BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* Card launches with the following earning rates:

• 5 BMO Rewards points per dollar spent on dining, groceries, gas, and transit (on up to the first $50,000 in purchases per calendar year)

• 1 BMO Rewards point per dollar spent on all other purchases

For greater clarity, the bonus categories are defined as follows, and are limited to purchases made in Canada:

• “Dining” includes restaurants, bars, and cafes, as well as food delivery services like Uber Eats and meal-kit companies like Hello Fresh and GoodFood.
• “Groceries” includes any grocery store or supermarkets, but excludes wholesale retailers like Costco or general-goods retailers like Walmart.
• “Gas” includes all gas stations.
• “Transit” includes subways, metros, buses, commuter rail, ferries, taxis, and rideshare services.

The 5x return on these five categories is among the strongest in Canada, putting the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* Card (as well as its Visa Infinite Privilege counterpart) right up there alongside the Cobalt Card and the Scotiabank Gold American Express® Card as the only 5x-earning Canadian credit cards.

Since BMO Rewards points are valued at 0.7cpp as outlined above, the return of 5x BMO Rewards points can also be thought of as a very competitive 3.57% return on these categories.

Moreover, as an introductory benefit, if you add a supplementary card to your BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* account, you’ll receive a 10% boost to the earning rates, which is the first credit card feature of its kind in Canada. As a result, you’ll enjoy the following elevated earning rates:

• 5.5 BMO Rewards points per dollar spent on dining, groceries, gas, transit,

• 1.1 BMO Rewards point per dollar spent on all other purchases

In this case, you’re getting an effective 3.93% return on spending in bonus categories!

However, on purchases outside of these five categories, the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* only offers 1 point per dollar spent. This is therefore equivalent to a 0.71% return on spending, so this wouldn’t really be the strongest card for day-to-day spending outside of the bonus categories.

Redeeming Rewards

BMO Rewards points are worth 0.67 cents per point (cpp) when redeemed against the cost of travel booked via the BMO Rewards online portal (at a fixed rate of 150 BMO Rewards points = $1).

Therefore, the signup bonus of 60,000 BMO Rewards points can be redeemed as $400 worth of travel. Plus, you’ll earn more points from everyday spending as you work towards the spending requirements.

BMO Rewards points can also be redeemed at 0.5cpp against any statement purchase (at the rate of 200 BMO Rewards points = $1), but the value in doing so is clearly not as strong, so you should always aim to use your BMO Rewards points to book travel, if possible.

Perks & Benefits

In terms of perks and benefits, this card’s standout benefit is a $50 annual lifestyle credit, which is a statement credit that you automatically receive once every calendar year on the account anniversary date of the account opening, at your annual fee renewal. You must make a purchase of at least $50. That’s how simple it is – spend $50, get $50!

Essentially, the lifestyle credit can be thought of as a way to offset the card’s $120 annual fee. Best of all, the lifestyle credit is available once per anniversary, meaning that if you apply now, you’ll be able to take advantage of a $50 lifestyle credit now, and another $50 lifestyle credit next January – for a total of $100 in statement credits – all before having to pay an annual fee for the second year.

Insurance Coverage

Like BMO’s other premium travel credit cards, the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* boasts an outstanding insurance package, including:

• Emergency medical insurance

• Common carrier accident insurance of up to $500,000

• Car rental insurance and Collision Damage Waiver benefits, which allow you to save on the insurance fees that car rental companies usually charge

The most powerful part of the travel insurance benefits is that all of these benefits are valid as long as you charge the full or partial cost of the trip to your BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* Card.

This is a benefit which is unique to BMO’s suite of travel credit cards, making it an ideal card for whenever you’re travelling on points or award tickets. As long as you charge the taxes and fees of your trip to the card, you’re fulfilling the “partial cost” criterion and therefore eligible to receive insurance coverage on your trip.

Furthermore, as a card geared towards the modern frequent traveller, the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* Card also comes with the following additional perks:

• Mobile device insurance that covers you in the case of loss, damage, or theft of your mobile device for up to $1,000
• Extended warranty benefits that automatically doubles the manufacturer’s warranty up to a maximum of one years
• Purchase security insurance that insures your items against theft or damage within the first 90 days after purchase.

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