Credit Card Reviews and Comparisons in Canada

This hub collects every credit card review and roundup on WealthNorth: reviews of individual cards, best-card lists by category, and comparisons by spending type, network and bank. If you’d like a single answer first, the best credit cards in Canada page names one pick per category; to see every card’s fee, earn rate and income requirement side by side, use the credit card comparison table, which also sets out how to choose a card. How cards work in general (interest, fees, insurance, credit scores) is covered in the credit card basics and credit score sections, and rewards programs in the rewards programs guides.

Best credit cards by category

• Best credit cards in Canada: one pick per category
• Credit card comparison table and how to choose
• Best cash back credit cards
• Best rewards (points) credit cards
• Points vs cash back: which returns more
• How credit card welcome offers work
• Best no annual fee credit cards
• Best low interest credit cards
• Best balance transfer credit cards
• Best business credit cards

Travel and premium cards

• Best travel credit cards
• Best credit cards with no foreign transaction fee
• Best credit cards with travel insurance
• Best premium credit cards, and when one is worth it
• Best Aeroplan credit cards
• Best hotel credit cards

Building credit and starter cards

• Choosing your first credit card
• Best student credit cards
• Best secured credit cards and how they work
• Credit cards for bad credit
• Best prepaid cards
• The Vanilla prepaid card

Cards for particular spending

• Best grocery credit cards
• Best gas credit cards
• Best dining credit cards
• Best credit cards for Costco
• Best credit cards for Amazon.ca and online shopping

By network and bank

• Best American Express cards
• Where American Express is accepted in Canada
• Best Mastercards
• Best Visa cards
• Best RBC credit cards
• Best TD credit cards
• Best CIBC credit cards

Single-card reviews

Head to head: Amex Cobalt vs TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite.

How we review credit cards

Each review and roundup reads a card the same way, so the explanations below apply to all of them rather than being repeated on every page.

Card facts come from the issuer

A card’s annual fee, earn rate and income requirement are kept in one data file, taken from the issuer’s own card page or disclosure documents and dated when they were last checked, and every page shows them from that file. When an issuer changes a fee, every page that shows it changes together. The Sources list at the foot of each page names the issuer pages behind it.

What the card tiers mean

Visa and Mastercard sell their cards in tiers. Visa Infinite and Visa Infinite Privilege, and World Elite Mastercard, are the upper tiers: they usually carry an income requirement, travel insurance and other benefits, and they cost merchants more to accept. Lower tiers, such as Visa Platinum, classic Visa and World or standard Mastercard, are where most no-fee cards sit. The tier tells you roughly what to expect; the card’s own terms tell you what it actually includes. The Visa card roundup and the Mastercard roundup cover each network’s lineup.

How we estimate annual value

Where a review estimates what a card earns in a year, it multiplies a stated monthly spending pattern by the card’s earn rates, applies any category caps, and subtracts the annual fee. The spending pattern is an example, shown on the page, not a typical household; your own figure depends on where you spend. Points are converted to dollars using the redemption values in the rewards programs guides, and welcome offers are left out because they apply only to the first year and change often.

How to read the insurance lines

Insurance on a card is set by its certificate of insurance, not by the marketing page. When a review lists travel medical cover, the days covered and the age limit matter as much as the dollar maximum, and most cover applies only when the trip was charged to the card. The credit card insurance guide explains the common conditions and exclusions, and the travel insurance card roundup compares the terms card by card.