Monthly bills are a reality of life, and unfortunately, with inflation and other factors, the cost of these bills has only increased, as has the cost of living expenses in general. Given this, it’s no surprise that many of us are trying to find ways to save on these recurring costs.
The good news is that with a little knowledge you can leverage the right credit card to save a small portion off your bills!
In a time when every little bit helps, this article share’s the best credit cards for you to use to save money on your recurring bill payments.
How Do I Save on My Bills?
For those who aren’t familiar, most credit cards offer the opportunity to earn rewards, such as cash back, airline and hotel loyalty points, and other rewards points at elevated rates in certain spending categories.
Common spending categories that are often included as part of a credit card’s earning rates structure are groceries, dining out/food delivery, gas, travel, and, sometimes, recurring bill payments.
This latter category is important because by earning rewards when you pay your bills, you’re essentially saving money on this bill since the rewards can be used to offset other expenses.
With tiered rewards earning structures, the rewards you earn with your credit card will change depending on which category you’re spending in.
For example, the Scotiabank Gold American Express® Card earns rewards (Scene+ points in this case) at the following rates:
- 6 Scene+ points per dollar spent at Sobeys, IGA, Safeway, FreshCo, and more
- 5 Scene+ points per dollar spent on groceries, dining, and entertainment
- 3 Scene+ points per dollar spent on gas, transit, and streaming services
- 1 Scene+ point per dollar spent on all other purchases
As you can see, the value of what you earn for each dollar you spend changes depending on whether you’re spending on groceries or on gas or on something else.
To save money on your bills, you’ll need to choose a credit card that includes “recurring bill payments” or “pre-authorized payments” as a category in their earning structure.
What Counts as a Recurring Bill Payment?
Recurring bill payments, as the name suggests, are bills that you have to pay over and over again at specific intervals (e.g., monthly, quarterly, annually). However, to officially qualify as a “recurring bill payment” and to earn you the associated category earning rate, the bill payment does need to be pre-authorized.
This means that you must set up your credit card as your payment method with the merchants and authorize them to charge your card at the specific intervals; this is why recurring bill payments are also referred to as pre-authorized payments.
Examples of recurring bill payments include telecommunication, insurance, memberships, and subscriptions. In other words, these bills may include your phone plan, Spotify subscription, and gym membership, along with many other common expenses.
You may also be able to settle your monthly rent within the recurring bill payments credit card category. By using a program like Chexy, you can essentially pay your landlord with your credit card, albeit with a small surcharge.
Check out our guide to Chexy’s services to learn more about how you can save money and earn rewards when paying your rent.
When setting up your recurring bill payments, keep in mind that not all merchants offer a pre-authorized payment option. Financial institutions classify these transactions internally by merchant code, so to be sure, you can check with the merchant directly if they indeed bill as such.
Alternatively, you can do a one-month test run payment to see if your bill gets classified as a recurring payment.
Canada’s Best Credit Cards for Recurring Bill Payments
In the Canadian market, there are only a handful of credit cards that offer an elevated earning rate for recurring bill payments and most of them offer cash back, rather than miles or points.
Below, we’ve handpicked the best ones.
Scotiabank Momentum® Visa Infinite* Card
At the top of this list is the Scotiabank Momentum® Visa Infinite* Card. For recurring bill payments, this card offers an outstanding 4% cash back, which is the highest rate offered in this category among Canadian credit cards.
The Scotiabank Momentum® Visa Infinite* Card offers the following earning rates:
- 4% cash back on groceries and recurring bills
- 2% cash back on gas and transit
- 1% cash back on all other purchases
A 4% cash back rate means that for every $100 (all figures in CAD) that you spend in this category, you’ll earn $4 back that you can use to offset your purchases. Over the course of a year, and let’s say $5,000 in recurring bill payments, this could save you $200!
In addition to earning cash back, this card also comes with a handful of useful perks and benefits.
As a cardholder, you’ll save up to 25% on car rentals at participating Avis and Budget locations in Canada and the US, and you’ll also have access to Visa Infinite benefits, including concierge service, the Luxury Hotel Collection, and the Dining and Wine Country program.
The Scotiabank Momentum® Visa Infinite* Card also comes with strong insurance coverage, which includes emergency travel insurance (up to $1 million) and trip cancellation and interruption coverage (among other coverages).
Tangerine World Mastercard®
The next card on our list is the Tangerine World Mastercard® which stands out in the credit card market thanks to its rather unique feature: as a cardholder, you get to choose two or three categories that earn unlimited 2% cash back. This means that you can actually customize your card’s earning categories to suit your spending habits.
A cash back reward of 2% is pretty respectable for a card of this tier, especially since it’s a product that doesn’t charge an annual fee for the principal cardholder plus five authorized users.
In addition to the recurring bill payments category, you can choose your cash back categories from among groceries, furniture, restaurants, hotel/motel, gas, drug store, home improvement, entertainment, and public transportation/parking.
Notably, several of these categories are quite niche and not available with other cards. Plus, as we mentioned, the cash back potential is unlimited. This means you can pay as many bills as you’d like or even pay for an expensive home renovation and earn cash back rewards on it all (assuming you’ve selected the associated categories).
That said, a downside to the card is that it only earns 0.5% cash back outside of the two or three categories of your choosing. Hence, it might be prudent to supplement this card with one that provides strong rewards in complementary categories.
Even as a no-fee product, the Tangerine World Mastercard® still comes with a slew of perks and benefits, including free Boingo Wi-Fi access, mobile device insurance, and rental car insurance coverage. It also comes with a DragonPass membership for airport lounges, though you’ll have to pay the preferential rate of $32 (USD) per person per visit.
Rogers Red World Elite® Mastercard®
The no-fee Rogers Red World Elite® Mastercard® is, unsurprisingly, best suited for those with a Rogers, Fido, or Shaw subscription, since subscribers get an unlimited 2% cash back on all eligible purchases, including recurring bill payments. Cardholders who aren’t subscribers receive unlimited 1.5% cash back, which is still pretty good.
Furthermore, if you’re a subscriber, the card lets you redeem your cash back for a 50% bonus if you use it to pay for your Rogers, Fido, and/or Shaw purchases, which include new phones, bill payments, and accessories. This means that if you’ve accumulated $100 in cash back, you’ll get a $150 credit when you apply it against your bill.
In addition to the up to 2% cash back on all purchases, the Rogers Red World Elite® Mastercard® uniquely features the opportunity to earn 3% cash back on purchases denominated in US dollars, which effectively cancels out the 2.5% foreign transaction fee that the card charges.
Additionally, the card comes with a number of traveller-friendly features including five “Roam Like Home” days for qualifying mobile subscribers, and some valuable travel insurance benefits. The card also comes with a DragonPass membership for airport lounges, but you do have to pay per visit at the preferential rate of $32 (USD) per person.
TD Cash Back Visa Infinite* Card
Rounding out our top picks is the the TD Cash Back Visa Infinite* Card which provides 3% cash back on recurring bill payments, as well as on groceries and gas.
Given that a significant portion of your household expenses are likely covered within these three elevated earning categories, we think this is a solid and well-rounded card.
However, a notable disadvantage with this card is that these three elevated earning rates are capped at $15,000 (CAD) in spending per category per year, after which the earning rate drops to the standard rate of 1%.
These caps are not ideal since they could be surpassed if you’re shopping as a big family, and this limits the potential value of your cash back. Given this, you may want to consider adding another card to switch to if you know you’ll go beyond the limit.
As a Visa Infinite product, the TD Cash Back Visa Infinite* Card comes with access to the concierge service, the Luxury Hotel Collection, and the Dining and Wine Country program. It also comes with a free DragonPass membership, but like cards above, you’ll still need to pay per visit.
Additionally, one of the card’s most compelling features is its offer of free Deluxe TD Auto Club Membership, which provides 24/7 emergency roadside assistance.
Honourable Mentions
In addition to the four cards mentioned above, there are a handful more that offer good rewards on recurring bill payments.
First up is the MBNA Rewards World Elite® Mastercard®, which lets you earn 5 MBNA Rewards points per dollar spent on digital media, membership, and household utility purchases. Its elevated earning cap is high at $50,000 annually, but that limit is shared with restaurants and groceries.
MBNA Rewards points can be redeemed flexibly for merchandise, gift cards, statement credits, and more. However, the best value can be had by booking through MBNA’s travel portal, where you’re able to redeem your points at a value of 1 cent each. This means that by using this card on recurring bill payments, you could earn a value of up to 5 cents per dollar spent.
1x 5x MBNA Rewards points† on groceries, restaurants, digital media, memberships, and utilities
The next honourable mention is the National Bank® World Elite® Mastercard®, which provides the opportunity to earn 2 À la carte Rewards points per dollar spent on recurring bill payments.
When redeemed through the À la carte Rewards travel portal, your points are worth 1 cent each, so this card effectively gets up to a 2% return on your bill payments.
Our final honourable mention is the CIBC Dividend® Visa Infinite* Card, which features a solid 2% cash back on recurring payments and on dining and transportation. This card also provides a stellar 4% cash back on eligible grocery, EV charging, and gas purchases.
Conclusion
While inflation in Canada has somewhat cooled down, many of us are still feeling the pinch in our household expenses.
Fortunately, we in the Miles & Points community know that we can use credit cards as tools to help us keep expenses down. In the case of recurring bill payments, it’s just a matter of choosing the right card to extract the most rewards out of your weekly, monthly, and annual expenses.
Hopefully, our selection of the best credit cards for recurring bill payments helps you with your choice.