Certo! One Mastercard World Review 2026
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(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
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They just quietly lowered the cashback for non-favourite shops from 0.33% to 0.25%. No notification, nothing. That‘s really bad style!
Plus, they messed up my last cashback quarter and didn‘t pay out the accumulated sum, it‘s still there under „accumulated“ with a new payout date in 85 days. So they‘re making me wait an extra three months for my cashback. They‘re really bad at customer service, just playing dead when you write them emails.
Hi Barbara
Yes, the communication was not great for the reduction :(
Interesting, I got mine paid out, but it’s sad that they messed up for some people.
The problem with customer service is likely the same for most services these days :(
Hi everyone,
I just received my credit card but can not find in the app where I can specify the 3 shops where I can get the 1% cashback…does it still exist?
Thanks for the help
Roman
Hi Roman
Are you sure you have the Certo One! card? THere are two cards (World and One!) and only the One! has the choice.
If you have the proper card, here is how to access it:
* Click on the “Credit Card” button on the main page
* Click on “Customize” on the top right of the Cashback box
* There you should see the 3 merchants
Thank you so much Baptiste for your quick feedback, ibrrally appreciate it. Yes I got the Certo One and I found the menu thanks to your help!
Again many thanks and keep it up, the poor Swiss is great!
Thanks, Roman, I am glad I could help!
It seems increasingly difficult to obtain the Certo! One Mastercard World Card. I am unsure of the reasons and have not received any answers from Cembra’s customer service. I have attempted to request the card four times without success. After submitting the request and not receiving any updates for weeks, I called the service, and they said they were processing the request. A few weeks later, when I called again, they claimed they had never received the request, contradicting what they had said earlier. This pattern has repeated four times, with no explanation provided. I find this very unprofessional, and I am certain I meet the requirements for the credit card.
Hi Marc
That’s really weird and sad indeed. At least if they refuse you, they should indicate why and the support should know the status of your request.
I hope you will get this sorted out!
I have been in a similar situation a few months ago, but since for me it was more of a nice to have, I didn’t bother until I read this comment. On the refusal letter they did not state any reasons and said any explanation would only be given upon a request in writing.
When I called them, I was told my request expired, because I didn’t send the necessary documents within 30 days period.
When signing up online, you can choose to print documents or receive them by post to sign and return. I chose the second option and the delivery took long. There is a slim chance I missed the 30 day window. So I just made a new request. Will keep you posted. In the meantime, I share similar thoughts – laconic communication and confusion. I would expect a more seamless and transparent process.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Marc. Let us know how it goes!
I would also expect better communication. This process should also be fully automated; there should not be documents to print or receive, but that’s unfortunately still the case a lot in Switzerland.
Just a follow up on that. The process was smooth from the last update. I was only requested to send some bill with address to finalize verification. Eventually got the card and so far I’m mostly happy with it. Adding to wallet or watch works with no issues.
However, I’m a bit disappointed by the mobile app being quite limited and confusing – when reading comments on the store it seems a lot of people struggle with various issues. For me the most bugging ones are: no possibility of setting daily/monthly spending limit; PDF statements can only be forwarded to another app, but not directly downloaded; the only 2FA is SMS code, no support for authentication apps, etc.
Regardless of how attractive the offer seems, there is a lot of room for improvement on the mobile app.
Thanks for your feedback, Marc. I am glad you could get the card on the second try.
I completely agree that the app leaves a lot to be desired. My main issue is the lack of proper statements. You only get a statement once a month and you can’t get it in any other format than PDF.
Hi Marc, I share your experience, I had a TCS Gold Mastercard (emitted by Cembra) and unfortunately had to deal with their customer service 3 times in a year. It is a very unpleasant situation, already it takes longtime for anybody to respond the phone and when they do, they seem unable to help. It took me over a month for them to process my credit card request so it did start badly and unfortunately just got worse. I do not recommend them and I don’t think I will ever have a Cembra card again.
Do you know whether it’s possible to have automatic payments of the bill? I had credit cards in other countries (UK and US) and always had automatic payments of the bill, so I never had to worry about paying it. I don’t seem to find that option in the app, but would love to know if you have set this up. Thanks!
You can do LSV (Direct Debit), but not e-bill. It’s not very convenient.
Unfortunately they probably will never add that feature.
Would be nice but I would not have my hopes up.
I also think they are avoiding that feature on purpose.
Hello,
I would like to know if Certo charges fees for online stores that are located abroad but have a Swiss website (CHF)? In the past, some credit card providers, such as Swisscard Cashback, have charged small fees even though the prices were in CHF. Can anyone confirm if there are any additional fees when paying with certo? For example, with Migros Cumulus Visa there are no additional fees on top of the original amount.
Is it possible to pay the reduced amount after Certo has issued the monthly invoice and credit notes are received afterwards, or do I have to pay the original invoice amount? With Migros Cumulus Visa this is not possible and you have to pay the original invoice amount, even if you receive a credit note later.
Regards
Marco
Hi Marco,
Certo uses the rule of the payment processor, it has nothing to do with having a Swiss website. So, if a Swiss website uses a foreign payment processor, you will pay a foreign.
With Certo, this fee is 2.50% on top of the exchange rate, for a total of about 4% it seems.
Be careful that Migros does not really have zero fees. Because they have a hidden exchange rate surcharge of at least 2% (reported to be up to 5% in some cases).
By credit notes, you mean if something was reimbursed later? You can pay less than the total amount, but if the credit is slow to come, you may have a negative balance and you may have to be interest rate on your negative balance. So I would recommend paying the full balance, the credit note will reduce your future bills.
It depends on the store. For example there is no surcharge for Zalando while you need to pay 2.5% for Ubereats.
Cembra considers refunds as payments so you don’t have to pay the amount in your monthly invoice if you receive a refund between the invoice date and the deadline for the payment. So you better use Certo instead of Cumulus when you buy stuff that you are not sure to keep.
Is it possible to hold multiple Certo One cards for one person? Me and my partner have 2 separate cards connected to the same account. However I would like to have a separate one connected to a separate account just for my individual expenses. Based on the information available on the Cembra website it is not clear to me if this is possible.
Hi Hur
I have no idea. You can either try to open a second card or ask them :)
I’m pretty sure that Cembra just allows two cards for every couple.
However, to be honest…Hur, I’d rather use another credit card for those particular things you mentioned, e.g. the super cool SUPERCARD credit card, which lets you gain super points by paying at least 3 CHF, that you can use to buy prizes (generally household appliances). That’s what I have just made.
That was my drift.
Cheers!
Hi tym,
Thank you for the suggestion but what would be the advantage of that over Certo? With Certo I can get 1% cash back and at the same time collect coop supercard points when I shop from there.
@to Hur
Because you don’t buy things at Migros without the Cumulus credit card. Secondly, based on my lifestyle, never did I really get more than 10 CHF in a year… did you? With 1% cashback, I already use the Swiss AMEX.
Third, I prefer receiving and paying through EBILL despite CEMBRA.
P.S.: I just got my first bill from TOPCARDS Supercard and they wrote I earned 3k Coop points, which I consider cool!
Can I also keep there some money to not go below 0 CHF?
And could you please describe how the bill actually comes by default?
e.g. Is it a letter with a QR payment that you get by post? is comes by mail? And how many time do you have to pay?
Hi Simone
The bill is available as PDF in the app. You have to pay each month.
You can add money on top of your credit if you want.