Tangerine MasterCard available in preview mode

While I’m not a big fan of chasing latest and greatest credit cards, this particular credit card caught my attention for a few reasons. After looking into benefits of it, I’ve put our names for registration, and recently we’ve received our brand new Tangerine MasterCard in the mail.

 

I’ve always been cautious about using credit cards

First, I’ve had a bad experience with borrowing too much money for frivolous spending and balance biting me in the ass in the past. While I successfully paid off the debt and never carried the balance for almost 10 years, I’m still a bit nervous about tasting easy money and falling off the wagon like vegetarian sharks in Finding Nemo.

Second, I like keeping our finances as simple as possible to maintain peace of mind. You can certainly collect a lot of airmiles and rewards by churning credit cards with intense competition between credit card companies for new customers. But I like to keep things simple and minimize the number of financial accounts we have to avoid the headache of managing them all.

At the same time, using a credit card is inevitable these days. We do buy a fair amount of products online, book tickets and hotels when traveling, and pay for everyday expenses with it. So, if we must have a credit card, we might as well go with the one that fits our needs and habits.

 

 

What makes Tangerine MasterCard great in my mind?

1. Tangerine MasterCard pays you back for all expenses you put on it.

You can earn up to 2% cash-back on expenses that fall into 2 chosen expenses categories you put through Tangerine MasterCard and 1% on all the rest. You can even choose to have reward money deposited into your account automatically, and it will also give you an option to pick one more 2% expense category.

The money you earn is given to you in a form of cash. Not miles, not points, not merchandise rewards. Cold cash that you can use for whatever you want or simply save. I’ll take cash over airmiles any day.

2. The process of earning money is very simple once you set it up. Once your statement becomes available, Tangerine will issue the reward money automatically. You don’t have to request it. Rewards never expire. There’s no limit on the amount of money earned, just simple as that.

3. I’m a big fan of Tangerine bank in general (previously known as ING Direct). I’ve been recommending their high interest savings and checking accounts for years, and been a loyal customer for over a decade. Their customer service is top notch, and I’ve had zero problems over all these years.

Over the years, we’ve earned over $2,500 in interest payments and saved over $600 by not paying any banking fees. Tangerine has been great to us without costing us a single cent.

 

Did you know you can earn $50 just by signing up for Tangerine Savings Account? It’s quick and easy.

4. No annual fees and no fees for additional cards. Tangerine MasterCard won’t cost you any money unlike some other premium cash-back credit cards that charge annual fees, sometimes over $100 just for the first one.

5. Automatic bill payments. I’m a huge fan of having our finances on autopilot, and paying the balance off automatically is a great feature for us. Sometimes we’re traveling and can’t be bothered to do online banking.

6. Purchase Assurance and Extended Warranty. While it’s no big deal for us, this might be a good benefit for people who buy brand new products such as electronics. Tangerine MasterCard will extend the warranty periods just because you paid for the product with it.

7. Low foreign conversion fee. We do travel abroad occasionally and plan on doing it even more in the future, so this might save some money for us too. Not a huge amount, but whatever helps, right?

8. Almost everything to do with Tangerine MasterCard can be done online. Increasing your credit limit, activating cards, changing PINs, adding authorized users, etc. can be done by simply logging into their online banking engine. Tangerine has one of the best and easy to use websites for it, in my opinion. For somebody who travels this can be very appealing. Last thing I’d like to do on a trip is to spend time talking to customer service on the other side of the globe.

 

My expectations of Tangerine MasterCard

Personally, I’m quite excited about it. Once we transition to Tangerine MasterCard from the one we’re currently using, all our everyday finances will be under Tangerine umbrella. I’m a big fan of this brand, and looking forward to simplifying our finances by having it under one roof.

I’m not expecting to earn huge amounts of money. We don’t spend exuberant dollars on our credit card simply because we are fairly frugal household. But if somebody wants to give us some money just by using the card for expenses we otherwise would have to pay for anyways - why not?

 

Signing up

You can sign up for Tangerine MasterCard here. Just FYI, I’m not paid to promote this credit card. I just like the product.

Yours truly, Financial Underdog.