How to earn up to 100,000 rewards points

That’s pretty good for a card with a $150 annual fee. (This card has an interest rate of 20.99% on purchases and 22.49% on cash advances and balance transfers.) Don’t bother getting out your calculator—in this explainer, we’ve done the math for you, so all you have to do is think about how to spend those points.

Welcome bonus: 30,000 points

To get started, you’ll earn 30,000 bonus reward points when you charge a net purchase amount of $5,000 to your card within the first three months of opening your account. Net purchases are the purchases charged minus any returned items and refunds, and they don’t include annual fees, interest charges, balance transfers, cash advances or other account fees.

Also, $5,000 spent over three months would represent about $1,666 in net purchases every month. When you hit this mark, your 30,000 reward points will be added to your account; they will show up on your statement no later than five months after you open your account.

Credit card payment insurance: 10,000 points

Credit card payment insurance gives you peace of mind by protecting you against loss of income due to circumstances like job loss, disability, critical illness or a first diagnosis of cancer. While terms and conditions depend on the insurance you choose, in general this coverage will continue to pay your credit card bills—either the minimum payments or a lump sum—to help you manage your debt. The insurance premium will also vary by the amount of coverage.

When you open your account, you can opt in to credit card payment insurance for a minimum of three months to receive 10,000 bonus rewards points. (They’ll appear on your statement no later than five months after you open your account.) When you apply for the card, you’ll see this option on the form.

First-year anniversary: 30,000 points

If you charge a net purchase amount of $12,000 to your card within 12 months of opening your account, you’ll receive a bonus of 30,000 points. (They’ll be added to your account by the second statement after your first-year anniversary date.)

Reward points: Up to 30,000 points

When you use the National Bank World Elite Mastercard credit card, you’ll earn points on every purchase:

• 5 points per $1 spent at restaurants and on groceries (up to the first $2,500 in gross monthly purchases charged to the account, regardless of the purchase category, and then you’ll get 2 points per $1 spent)
• 2 points per $1 spent on gas and electric vehicle (EV) charging, recurring bill payments and National Bank of Canada’s À la carte Travel Agency service (and there’s no monthly cap for these categories)
• 1 point per $1 spent on everything else. 

With these kinds of points opportunities, there are numerous ways to earn 30,000 points in a year, but in general you’ll need to earn around 2,500 points per month. Here’s an example of how that could look.

Note that the total amount spent was less than $2,500. In the next example, let’s look at what happens if you spend more than $2,500 in a month.

¹ The monthly amount was over $2,500 when these items were purchased, so they earn 2x the points instead of 5x, due to the timing of the $650 purchase.

Grand total: Up to 100,000 points

There you have it—a strategy to rack up a cool 100,000 rewards points in your first year. How far does that go? You can redeem 7,250 points for a $50 gift card. Merchandise rewards start at 6,000 points. And if you’re planning a trip, you can get $100 off per every 10,000 points you redeem with À la carte Travel Agency.  

Read the full terms and conditions applicable to the credit card.

Read more about credit cards:

• Best travel credit cards in Canada
• Canada’s best low-interest credit cards
• Applying for a credit card: What you need to know
• How to manage money as a student