Certo! One Mastercard World Review 2026
| 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, which offers good cashback. After discontinuing 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 0.25% 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 Mastercards, 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.
One feature that is worth noting is that you can export transactions to CSV. For people who track their expenses, this is very useful because most tracking apps have a CSV import feature. And you can do that any time, not only at the end of the month, so this is very helpful.
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 secondly, this card has some cashback:
- 1% cash back at Migros, Coop, and SBB
- 0.25% cash back at other shops and online
This cashback is better than the previous card, which only gave 0.25% 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.
The cashback is paid about every three months.
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. It also has cashback:
- 1% cash back at three chosen retailers. You can select the retailers yourself on the app and change them once a month.
- 0.25% 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.
Like the other Certo card, cashback is accumulated for three months and then credited to your credit card bill.
I am pleasantly surprised by this card. The ability to pick 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.
We use Certo One to pay our expenses in Switzerland because we get a nice amount of cashback with it.
The fees
We also need to talk about the card fees.
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. This 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 or 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 0.25% on all other shops. Therefore, the new Certo One card is slightly 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 recently launched a new Cumulus credit card, we must compare the 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. In Switzerland, it should make no difference. Both Visa and Mastercard are always accepted together. However, there are some cases online where it could make a difference. And the conditions of both cards and sometimes different. But overall, this is a small difference.
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 if you can use the card with the main merchants!
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% pricier 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. However, I have had a bad experience with the 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 support e-bills. On the other hand, Migros Bank does. 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.
What is Certo One! good for?
Certo One! is great for all payments in Switzerland and online in CHF.
What is Certo One! not good at?
Certo One! is not good for payments abroad or in foreign currencies since it has expensive currency conversion fees.
Can you export your Certo transactions to CSV?
Yes! From the Cembra eService app, you can export the transactions you want to a CSV file so that you can easily track the expenses in the application of your choice.
Certo! One Mastercard World Summary
An excellent Swiss credit card with excellent cashback (up to 1%!), very flexible, and with a 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
- 0.25% cashback in all other shops
- The cashback is real cash back, not points
- Free card
- Free additional card
- Extra insurance benefits
- Can export transactions to CSV
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 created two different cards, and especially why they encourage people to switch to the Certo Mastercard (no One! in the name) even though the One! is always at least as good.
I am now using the Certo One! card, and I am quite happy about that. It is better than the old 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?
More reading
Swisscard Cashback Credit Card Review 2026 – Free and 1% Cashback
The best free credit card? Read our review of the Swisscard Cashback cards (Amex & Visa) and see if they offer the best rewards in Switzerland.
Credit Card Insurance in Switzerland 2026 – Is it worth it?
Are you covered? We analyze common Swiss credit card insurances (travel, purchase protection) to see if they are actually useful or just marketing.
The Best 2026 Credit Card Strategy: No Fees and Maximum Returns
Maximize your cashback. Discover the best credit card strategy for Switzerland to earn money on every purchase and minimize foreign fees.
Learn easy ways to optimize your finances and save thousands in Switzerland with our exclusive e-book. Learn about the most cost-effective financial services tailored for savvy residents and expats!
Get Your FREE Swiss Money-Saving Guide
Can someone make daily or weekly full/partial payments? Does it update the “amount available” in the app?
For example… I spend CHF10 on Monday. Later that day, I make a CHF10 transfer from my bank account to the credit card. Will the app show a balance of CHF 0 on Tuesday?
I prefer to top-up my credit card every few days.
Hi Brad,
You can do that, yes. It should update in the app and you should be able to do as many payments as you want.
But what’s the point?
Hi Baptiste, thank you for your reviews. What do you think about the Payment Protect of this card, please?
Hi Ade
Are you talking about the best price guarantee? It could be useful, but there are some strict conditions (14 days only for instance).
This credit card has other insurance policies.
https://www.cembra.ch/en/customer-center/insurance/paymentprotect/
What is PaymentProtect?
PaymentProtect protects you, as a principal holder of a credit card issued by Cembra, against the risk of outstanding credit card obligations, in cases such as involuntary loss of employment, illness or accident. In such cases, the insurance will pay the remaining outstanding balance under the defined conditions.
How much does PaymentProtect cost?
The premium rate is 0.65% of the monthly card statement balance.
Example:
Outstanding balance of monthly statement:
CHF 1,000.00
Premium rate:% 0.65
Monthly insurance premium:CHF 6.50
Outstanding balance including premium:CHF 1,006.50
Interesting, I had never seen this option before.
I don’t think it’s really useful unless you are in a bad financial situation. And if you are in a bad situation, you probably don’t want to pay extra in fees.
An emergency fund should cover emergency costs and we already insured against unemployment, illness and accident.
Merci, Baptiste! :) Those were my thoughts, too
Hello,
thanks so much for your blob posts. You gave me many useful tips how to manage my finance.
I just apply to get the Certo card, everything works perfectly, but I have one issue: I can export only the current transactions from the pending invoice, but as soon as the invoice is made I have only the pdf. How do you save the transactions in order to categorize them in your application? Do you have a reminder and you download them at the end of the month or did you find somewhere the possibility to export also old transactions? Thanks, best Luca
Hi Luca,
Unfortunately, I am not aware of any way of exporting old transactions to anything else than PDF.
I put my transactions into my budget app once a month and for this, I simply use the PDF.
Dear Baptiste
Thank you for your great blog, which I have been following for a while now. How do you pay online in foreign currencies? The Certo! One credit card has a high processing fee. Do you use the neon debit card? Would, for example, the Cumulus credit card (low foreign currency fee, little cashback) be a solution?
Thanks for your great work!
Hi Luca
I always use the Neon card abroad or in foreign currencies. The Cumulus is decent, but not great. There is a markup of 2% by the Migros Bank, but that is hidden… It will be much more expensive than Neon.
Hi, not to forget. The Cembra credit card can be linked to your TWINT account, so that you can get cashback every time you pay with TWINT, and it’s the only one that can be linked. Did you know it? Not to mention that TWINT offers a lot of promotions and challenges to get prizes
I did not know it. Thanks for sharing. I actually have never even tried TWINT so far :)
Ian, not true on all counts, any credit card can be linked with TWINT and the certo! Credit card does NOT give cashback on any payments made with TWINT.
It seems that people don’t argue on that point :)
Unfortunately, as Barbara said, it is not possible to link Twint with Cembra for payback purposes. It is explicitly mentioned in the exceptions on the site.
Ausnahmen
Von Ersparnissen mit Certo! ausgenommen sind … Zahlungen mit TWINT.
Thanks for the confirmation, Eric. This confirms what I thought originally about credit cards in Twint.
Hi Baptiste,
Thanks again for your blog, it helps me a lot to navigate financially in Switzerland.
Got a question. I think in US, it is quite common to pay even utilities and rental payments by credit cards. I never did, because with my credit cards there were always some fees related for bank payments. Can you advise how does it work in Switzerland? Does Certo or Swisscard Amex card allows regular bank payments without fees?
Thanks!
Zuzana
Hi Zuzana
You can’t make regular payment without fees. You could pay a QR bill at a post office with a credit card, but it will be more expensive than the cashback you will earn. So, it is unfortunately not interesting to do so.
Hello,
did someone manage to set up a LSV direct withdrawal (especially interested in Neon or potentially Revolut as have both), or their system is still not rejecting that?
I would think twice if I have to manually pay the bill or get late payment fees + interests.
Hi Simone
I never tried but Certo has forms in the three languages for the LSV contract. Normally, you only have to set this up and it should work for any bank.
Thanks for the answer, my question came as in other users comments they were saying they got rejected several times with Neon.
I am not even sure Neon is really involved because the form for LSV will be done with the HBL bank directly. It should then come back. But maybe there is a probably because of the transfer of information between HBL and Neon. That would be weird, but possible indeed.
Have you ever had reserved payments on this card that were supposed to be canceled again? I rented a car almost two weeks ago and they always reserve a security deposit. The car company said they canceled it already last Monday after inspecting the car and finding it ok but the transaction ist still „pending“ on my certo card. Frankly, it‘s annoying it‘s taking them so long to delete it.
Hi Barbara
No, I never any such payment on this card.
One week to cancel seems slow, but honestly not very surprising of Cembra. I would personally not worry before a full month even though that would be really slow. After that, I would assume there was an error.
@Barbara @eric
ooohh really?? this is so bad! Where can I find the statement in the contract? I can’t find it…
Btw, thank you for filling me up, however, Barbara is not right, because The Certo cc is the only one to be linked to TWINT, e.g. AMEX can not be linked!
Dear Ian
It says so in the fine print on their website about the cashback option, Eric already quoted it for you in German.
An AMEX is an American credit card, right? So I should habe specified that any SWISS credit card can be linked with TWINT since TWINT is an exclusively Swiss payment solution so far. All the big Swiss banks even have their own TWINT apps, so obviously UBS, CS, Raiffeisen, Postfinance, ZKB… you can use all their credit cards easily.
Hi,
did i get it right that each month you will get the previous month invoice in the mobile app?
Thanks
Yes, around the 23 of each month, you will get a bill for the previous 30 days. And you have 30 days to pay the bill.
The day you receive the bill might depend on when you started the card. Because I get it on the 12th and that was the first day my card was active.
Oh, that’s interesting. I was expecting the date to be set for everybody. This is not very convenient for some people then depending on when they got it and when they receive their salary. Thanks for sharing!
It’s just my interpretation from what happened with my card. Also, when it became active there were exactly 30 days until the next bill, and exactly 90 days until the next cash back payout.
Hi,
Great info thanks a lot.
While reading their website, I noticed that you pay 1.5% commission on foreign websites even if the currency is CHF. I think you should highlight this, since in that case is better not to use it .
I believe there might be a typo here too.
“If you pay abroad on in foreign currency, you will pay 1.5% extra”
Thanks
You are right and it’s so annoying…
Haha, actually I did mention this on the phrase you highlighted, but there is a typo indeed.
It was meant to say “If you pay abroad or in foreign currency”. I will address this, thanks.
Hi,
is there a way to set up the card with your bank account, so that every month it automatically gets topped up?
Hi Marton,
You can set up LSV (direct debit) indeed. But Certo does not support ebills.
Is it an actual problem if you also have a NEON?
I assume that we’re not getting any cashback when we pay a e-bills, as it’s a bank transfer and not a payment to a shop, correct?
What I meant is that you cannot pay the balance of your credit card with an e-bill. You have to pay the QR bill and remember to pay it. Other companies allow e-bills for the credit card balance.
There are no credit cards in Switzerland that would allow you to pay a bill with cashback.
@Barbara Well, sorry… I got it, thanks.