Certo! One Mastercard World Review 2023
| Updated: |(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links)
Cembra is a well-known credit card provider in Switzerland. They are primarily known for their Cumulus card with a good cashback. After stopping this card, they started a new set of cards: The Certo One Mastercard World and the Certo Mastercard World.
And these cards look even better than the last card from Cembra. So, we delve into the details of these two cards and see how interesting they are.
By the end of this review, you will know whether you should use one of these new cards from Cembra.
| Yearly fee | 0 CHF |
|---|---|
| Card | Mastercard |
| Cashback | 1% in three shops and 0.33% in other shops |
| Foreign exchange fee | 1.50% |
| Interest rate | 11.95% |
| Emitter | Cembra |
The end of the Cumulus Card
Until recently, Cembra issued the Cumulus Mastercard, an excellent free credit card in Switzerland. I have used this card for several years.
However, in May 2022, Migros Bank announced they would issue their credit card based on the Cumulus points system. This decision ended a 15-year partnership between Migros and Cembra.
So, Cembra started their Certo One! Mastercard and Certo Mastercard, in response to the end of this partnership, to retain their customers.
The cards previously issued by Cembra will remain valid until their expiration date. However, new cards will not be issued anymore.
Cembra Certo cards
To replace the loss of the Cumulus card, Cembra started two new cards:
- The Certo Mastercard World that you can get in exchange for your Cumulus Mastercard.
- The Certo One Mastercard World is an entirely new card.
In this review, we look at these two cards in detail.
Cembra started a new website for these two cards: Certo Cards. You can register there to get a new card for free.
Both cards are Mastercard, which shops in Switzerland accept very well. You can use them pretty much everywhere in shops and online. Mastercard is much better in Switzerland than American Express.
Certo Mastercard World
The first card, the Certo Mastercard World, is made to replace the Cumulus Mastercard offered by Cembra. You can only obtain it by exchanging your previous Cumulus card with this new card.
This card is free, which is generally the essential point about credit cards.
And second important point, this card has cashback:
- 1% cash back at Migros, Coop, and SBB
- 0.33% cash back at other shops and online
This cashback is better than the previous card that only gave 0.33% in every shop. For a free card, this is great! This level of cashback is quite good if you often shop at the first three shops.
Certo One Mastercard World
A great Swiss credit card with excellent cashback (up to 1%!), very flexible, and with a good mobile application.
- No yearly fee
- 1% cashback in three shops
The second card, the Certo One Mastercard World, is a new card that anybody can order.
This card is also free. And it also has cashback:
- 1% cash back at three chosen retailers. You can select the retailers yourself and change them once a month.
- 0.33% cash back at all other shops and online.
Here is the current list of available retailers (as of July 2022): Migros, Coop, SBB, Zalando, SWISS, Manor, Lidl, Decathlon, Aldi, H&M, Netflix, Spotify, Airbnb, Booking.com, Microspot, Digitec Galaxus, Ochsner Sport & Shoes, Interdiscount, Denner, Landi.
Just like the other Certo card, the cashback will be accumulated for three months and then credited to your credit card bill.
I am pleasantly surprised by this card. The ability to choose the three places where you want the highest cashback is excellent! Looking at the list, I would use Migros, Lidl, and Digitec Galaxus. These three shops cover a lot of our expenses!
I do not understand why the Certo (without the One) Mastercard exists. The Certo One is better for me since you can achieve the same cash back even better.
The fees
We also need to talk about the fees of the card.
As mentioned before, the base price of the card is free. There is no annual or monthly fee. If you use these cards correctly, you will never pay any fee.
You can also get an additional card for free. An additional card is useful if you want a single account for you and your partner but still want to have two cards.
If you carry some balance, you will pay 11.95% interest. This interest rate is extremely expensive, but it is probably not a huge deal since you should always pay your entire balance. A credit card is only attractive financially if you do not carry credit card debt.
There are other fees as well:
- If you pay in full but late, you must pay 30 CHF.
- If you need a replacement card, you will have to pay 20 CHF
- If you withdraw money in Switzerland or abroad, you will pay a 3.75% fee
- If you pay abroad on in foreign currency, you will pay 1.5% extra
All those fees are pretty high. However, you can avoid all these fees. So, I still consider this card free, which is excellent.
The insurance benefits of Certo One
Many credit cards come with some insurance benefits. So, we can quickly review the Certo One Mastercard World insurance benefits.
This card has three different insurance benefits:
- Best price guarantee: At most 3000 CHF per year and 2000 CHF per event
- Purchase insurance: At most 2000 CHF per year and 2000 CHF per event
- Rescue assistance insurance: Transfer to the nearest hospital, repatriation, search, and rescue
All these insurance benefits come free of charge with the card.
Insurance benefits on credit cards are not essential. In the immense majority of cases, people will never use them. On top of that, some of these insurance benefits could be covered by complementary insurance.
Nevertheless, these insurance benefits are interesting, and it is good to know about them using this card.
Alternatives
Finally, we must compare the Certo One card with some alternatives.
Certo One vs Cembra Cumulus Mastercard
Before, the Cumulus Mastercard from Cembra was the best card available in Switzerland. So, we can compare the new Certo One vs the old Cembra Cumulus card.
The previous Cumulus card offered 0.33% cashback in every shop, with no other improvements. The new Certo One card offers 1% on three select shops and 0.33% on all other shops. Therefore, the new Certo One card is significantly better than the Cembra Cumulus Mastercard.
On all other fronts, the two cards are similar. They have the same fees and use the same system. There are some differences on the insurance front, but this does not matter to most people. And insurance in credit cards is generally just a marketing argument.
Overall, I much prefer the new Certo One Card!
Certo One vs Migros Cumulus Visa
Since Migros started a new Cumulus credit card, we must compare Certo One Mastercard and the Migros Cumulus Visa credit card.
Both cards are free. There is no annual or monthly fee.
The first difference is that the card from Migros is a Visa, while the card from Cembra is a Mastercard. But in Switzerland, it should make no difference. Both Visa and Mastercard are always accepted together.
The new card from Migros offers 1% cash back at Migros (2% the first year) and 0.33% cashback in other shops. This cashback is very similar to the Certo One card.
However, with Certo One, you can get 1% cashback in three different shops, including Migros, while you only get Migros shop with the Migros Bank card. Therefore, the Certo One card is better than the Migros Cumulus card!
Also, the cashback from Certo is real cashback on your credit card bill. You can only spend the cashback from Cumulus at Migros. So, the cashback from Certo is more interesting than the cashback from Cumulus.
The Migros Cumulus Visa card is slightly cheaper on other fees:
- 2.5% for withdrawing money instead of 3.75%
- 9.4% interest rate instead of 11.95%
Since you should not pay any of these fees, these differences should not matter.
Also, Migros Cumulus Visa card has no fee for foreign exchange, compared to Certo’s 1.5% exchange fee! One. However, this card is still not good to use abroad! The card has no fee, but you will use the Migros Bank exchange rate, which is, on average, 1.5% more expensive than the interbank exchange rate. It is better than the Certo One, but you should not use these cards abroad or online (use Neon to save money on foreign currency transactions)!
With Certo One, you will have to use the Cembra mobile app. And with the Migros card, you will have to use the One app. I have never tested any of these apps. But I have had a bad experience with Cembra and Migros Bank applications. So, I do not expect a good application from any of them. It should not make much difference anyway.
One difference that could be significant for some is that Cembra does not have any support for e-bills. On the other hand, Migros Bank supports it well. So, if you rely on e-bills, the Cumulus Visa has an advantage.
So, overall, the Cembra Certo One Mastercard World looks better than the Migros Cumulus Visa card!
To learn more, read my full review of the Migros Cumulus Visa credit card.
Certo One FAQ
What is Certo! One monthly fee?
Certo! One Mastercard World has no monthly fee!
Can you pay your Certo! One with e-bill?
No, unfortunately, Cembra does not offer support for e-bills.
Certo One Summary
An excellent Swiss credit card with excellent cashback (up to 1%!), very flexible, and with a good mobile application.
Product Brand: Cembra
4.5
Certo! One Mastercard World Pros
Let's summarize the main advantages of Certo! One Mastercard World:
- 1% cashback on three shops
- 0.33% cashback in all other shops
- The cashback is real cash back, not points
- Free card
- Free additional card
- Extra insurance benefits
Certo! One Mastercard World Cons
Let's summarize the main disadvantages of Certo! One Mastercard World:
- Expensive to use abroad
- No support for e-bills
Conclusion
A great Swiss credit card with excellent cashback (up to 1%!), very flexible, and with a good mobile application.
- No yearly fee
- 1% cashback in three shops
For me, the new Cembra Certo One Mastercard World is the new best credit card in Switzerland. You can use it everywhere; it is free and has high cashback.
It is better than the previous Cumulus card and better than the new Cumulus card from Migros, with more flexible rewards.
The card is free but has several high fees that you should avoid. But since You can avoid all the fees, we can still consider this card a free card!
The only thing I do not understand is why they did two different cards. And especially why they encourage people to exchange to the Certo Mastercard (no One! in the name) even though the One! is always at least as good. I plan to move to this card in the next few weeks since it is better than my current Cumulus card.
One card that I should still mention is the Swisscard Cashback American Express. It has 1% cashback in each shop. However, you cannot use it everywhere since it is an American Express. The new Certo card is better than the Amex if you only want one card. But you can get both for maximum cashback everywhere if you want to optimize.
To learn more about credit cards, you can learn about my credit card strategy.
What about you? What do you think about this new credit card?
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Hi, thanks for these reviews and insights in the credit card world of Switzerland.
I was wondering two things :
1. Is it any concern to you that these banks (e.g. Cembra) are selling your/our purchases datas to marketing services? Sometimes outside of Switzerland?
2. If you had to make a big purchase that would cause to spread payments over several months and thus generate interest fees, how would you go by making the best of it?
Thanks for your help
Hi Kevin,
1) Not really since I don’t think there is much of a choice in the matter. I’d rather “sell” my data and have a good credit card than not and lock in with a bad credit card.
2) If you need to go over the limit, you need to pay back the debt as fast as possible. But generally, credit card debt is the worst kind of a debt. A bank loan or a Lombard loan would generally be much better.
I applied for one of these cards and tried to set up LSV. However they repeatedly denied my LSV application for using a ‘coorporate bank account’ even though my bank account is a private account by Neon.
So I don’t bother using this card. Seems their backend systems are a mess.
Interesting, I am very much against LSV but it should work indeed. Sorry to hear that.
Great write up Baptiste! when using an existing Certo Cumulus vs the Certo World that came to replace it – what happens to the points earning system on the former? It continues accruing on Cumulus points, or stops accruing all together when then latter is first used?
Both are active, same card number, and same expiry date, but different security code.
By the way I thought the former had 1% back on Migros and 0.5% elsewhere, but maybe they changed that?
Hi Jay,
I would think it stops moving. The points are still available in your Cumulus account, but you won’t get any more points. That’s my guess. If you can still use the old card, my guess would be that you can still get points as well until expiration date.
I think it always has been 1% Migros and 0.33% on the rest.
Hi Mr. PoorSwiss,
A few novice questions from a Jealous Soup.
Thank you for the article. I am now considering ordering a Certo! One credit card. I have no experience with credit cards however I know I always pay my bills in time and no debt. Therefore, I am asking you:
– Using and limiting our case to Switzerland, should I pay rent with it? Like what type of expenses do you use a credit card for? Isn’t there a yearly limit I shouldn’t go over?
– How do I follow up on my spendings with this card? Is there an app?
So far I have been using UBS debit card without issues. And my type of bills are basic (rent, swica, swisscom, migros, sbb; monthly bill of all my journeys), gym, and netflix)
Thank you so much!
Hi JealousSoup,
1) If you could, it would be great to pay rent with a credit card. But there is no way to pay bills with credit cards without fees. Most credit cards have monthly limits. As a rule, you should use it as much as possible while always paying the balance in full.
2) Certo has an app that is quite good, you can see your spending in real-time.
Most of the bills you mention won’t be paid by credit cards normally (unless you are lucky), but you can pay Migros and SBB with credit cards and netflix (be careful about the currency).
1) Can’t you just pay your QR-rechnungs on UBS TWINT using your MasterCard?
No idea :) I did not know you could pay a QR bill from TWINT (still never tried). In that case, it should work if everything goes well.
Question on the bill payment. Currently im using the migros credit card provided by Viseca and its rather annoying in terms of paying the bill. The limit does not refresh automatically despite paying and usually only happens on a monthly basis. Also I cant seem to pay a large sum in advance for this card for some reason. How does it work with this particular card?
Hi marc,
You can see the balance updated in real-time in the app, which works quite well.
As for paying in advance, I have never tried paying more than my balance, so I don’t know.
Thank you for your review!
Does the certo one card work with Google Pay? If not, is it possible to pay with their app instead of using a physical card?
Hi Pavel,
Apparently, Google Pay is the only service that Cembra does not support. You can use Samsung and Apple Pay but not Google Pay.
The app itself won’t let you pay with your phone.
Such a bummer!
What in your opinion could be the next option after the Centro One credit card with some cashback/bonuses?
The next option is likely the Migros Cumulus Visa. You could also use the Swisscard Cashback American Express which currently has the best cashback.
Hello, great comparision, i just wanted to know how the credit card bill paiement works.
You can get it from “E-Bill” ? Or you an get a email with the paiement or paper bill, what’s the possibility and what’s the best ?
I dont really see any info the their website.
Thanks.
Hi emil,
You will get a PDF of the QR bill from the app. You can then scan it and pay from your banking app.
Hi Baptiste,
how do you get this PDF? Via email or in-app?
Thanks!
You get it from the app.