M&T Visa Signature Credit Card

Rewards by category

Our take

The M&T Visa Signature earns a flat 1.5x on everything with no annual fee, and since the points are worth a cent each, that is a straightforward 1.5% back on every purchase with no categories to track and no quarterly picker to remember. It is worth being blunt about where that lands: 1.5% trails the flat 2% cards, and the gap is not trivial. On $25,000 of annual spending, 1.5% returns $375 while 2% returns $500 — a $125 difference for behaving exactly the same way at exactly the same registers.

The feature that genuinely earns attention is the absence of a foreign transaction fee. A card that charges the common 3% costs $30 on every $1,000 spent abroad, which is more than double what 1.5% earns back, so for travel purchases this card beats any no-fee flat card that adds a foreign surcharge. What it does not beat is a 2% card that also waives foreign fees — that card wins at home and abroad, and if you already carry one, the M&T card has no purchase left to win.

The other thing to know is who the issuer is. M&T is a Northeast regional bank, so this is realistically a card for people who already bank there and want their checking, savings and credit in one place, one app and one customer service line. If that consolidation is worth 0.5% a year to you, it is a perfectly reasonable default card and the no-foreign-fee travel behavior is a real bonus. If you do not bank with M&T, the case for opening it is thin — a widely available 2% flat card does the same job with more money at the end of the year.

Key benefits

• No annual fee
• No foreign transaction fees

Common questions

Does M&T Visa Signature Credit Card have an annual fee?

No — M&T Visa Signature Credit Card has no annual fee.

What rewards does M&T Visa Signature Credit Card earn on everything else?

1.5x on all other purchases, in M&T Rewards.

How does the M&T Visa Signature 1.5% compare to a 2% card?

It gives up half a cent on every dollar, which compounds quietly over a year. On $25,000 of spending, the M&T card's 1.5x returns $375 in points worth a cent each, while a flat 2% card returns $500 — a $125 shortfall for identical purchases. That gap is why we do not rank it at the top of our flat-rate list, and why it makes the most sense as a relationship card rather than a maximizer's pick.

Does the M&T Visa Signature charge foreign transaction fees?

No, it has no foreign transaction fee, which is the strongest single reason to carry it abroad. A card charging the typical 3% surcharge would cost you $30 per $1,000 spent overseas, far more than the 1.5% you earn back, so this card comes out ahead of any fee-charging flat card on international purchases. A 2% card that also waives foreign fees still beats it on both fronts.

Related reading

• How we value points and miles (and why our numbers are lower than everyone else's)SwipeCaddy ranks cards by reward rate × a conservative cash value per point: 1¢ for cash back and transferable points (Chase, Amex, Citi, Capital One, Bilt), 1.1–1.3¢ for airline miles, 0.4–1.4¢ for hotel points, and 0.8–0.9¢ for store currencies. Optimistic transfer values are recorded for context but never ranked, because most people never achieve them.