Your first credit card in Canada: how to get one and the easiest cards to start with

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) states the age rule plainly: an applicant has to have reached legal age in their province. With no credit history yet, the routes this page covers are a student card, a bank’s newcomer program, a card with no annual fee and a low stated minimum income, or no stated minimum, and a secured card, which FCAC says may be an option if you don’t have a credit history. The starter table below ranks cards chosen for this page, each with no annual fee, by their yearly value for someone who spends $250 a month on groceries, $40 on gas, $100 on dining, $60 on recurring bills, $100 on transit, $30 at drugstores, $0 on travel and $220 on everything else (an assumed pattern for a first card, not an average). At that spending the first is Scotiabank American Express Card. Welcome offers are not included; how welcome offers work is covered separately.

Who can apply for a first credit card

FCAC’s rule is the legal age in your province. The age of majority set by the law of these provinces and territories, with the section that sets it:

Not in this table: Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia and Yukon.

You can also use a card before having your own, as an authorized user on someone else’s account: BMO, for one, says the primary cardholder of a BMO credit card account can add one through its online banking. Who owes the balance, and what is reported for an authorized user, are on authorized users.

The easiest credit cards to get with no credit history

These are the kinds of card this page covers for a first application, each as FCAC or an issuer describes it.

Student cards

FCAC says to contact the issuer to find out whether you’re eligible for a student card, and that these cards often have lower credit limits than standard ones. As one example, CIBC states no minimum income requirement for its Dividend Visa for Students. Cards made for students are ranked on student credit cards.

Newcomer programs

Scotiabank says its StartRight program, open to people who have been a Canadian permanent resident for five years or less, international students and foreign workers, who join by opening an account and providing the required documents to register as a newcomer, doesn’t require a Canadian credit history to be eligible for a credit card; the applicant must be a resident of Canada and of the age of majority where they live, and approval and the limit still depend on its credit criteria, including verifiable income. Other banks’ programs are compared on credit cards for newcomers.

An issuer that says it considers little or no credit history

TD says it’s always open to considering someone with a thin or empty credit file for a personal credit card, and young people including students.

No-fee cards with a low or no stated minimum income

The starter table below lists the cards chosen for this page, each with no annual fee, with an income column.

Secured cards

FCAC says a secured card needs a security deposit, which may range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Secured cards are compared on secured credit cards, and Capital One’s secured card, whose approval it describes as guaranteed on stated conditions, is under Capital One’s guaranteed cards.

Prepaid cards are not credit cards

With a prepaid card issued by a financial institution that links to a payment card network, FCAC says, you need to put money on the card first. One provider draws the line plainly: Wealthsimple says its prepaid card spends money you already have, while a credit card lends you money you pay back later, and that its card won’t help you build credit. Prepaid cards are compared on prepaid cards.

Best starter credit cards: no annual fee, low or no minimum income

The table ranks these cards by yearly value at the spending in the opening; how they were chosen is under how the starter ranking works.

A dash means this table shows no figure for that card. Yearly values use the spending assumed above and each card's published rates and caps. Welcome offers, first-year fee waivers and fee rebates tied to a bank account, banking package, profession or another card are not included.

Cards without a yearly value follow the ranked ones. Two of the values come from points: the TD Rewards Visa’s assumes every point goes to travel booked through Expedia For TD, and the Scotiabank American Express Card’s assumes points redeemed for money off at select grocery stores and pharmacies. What each program’s points can be used for is on TD Rewards and Scene+.

More cards with no annual fee are on no annual fee cards, and cards made for students on student credit cards.

How to choose a first credit card

FCAC says the key differences between cards are the interest rates, the fees, and the rewards and benefits. It also says the interest rate may not be an important factor if you pay your balance in full every month and don’t take cash advances or make cash-like transactions. The starter table’s fee and earn columns cover two of those differences. The full method for weighing them is on how to choose a credit card.

Applying with no credit history

What issuers look at, income figures and checks before applying are on getting approved. When a lender checks your credit, FCAC says, it creates an inquiry on your credit report; how hard and soft checks differ is on hard and soft credit checks. If an application is declined, the next steps are under if your application is declined.

Your first months with the card

FCAC says the issuer picks your limit when the card is first issued, and that you may ask for it to be lowered or raised.

Card issuers give an interest-free grace period to pay for the previous month's purchases, beginning on the last day of the billing period, and federally regulated financial institutions must provide at least 21 days. It doesn't apply to cash advances, cash-like transactions and balance transfers, and interest applies if the balance isn't paid in full by the due date. How interest is charged, and when it isn’t, is on how credit card interest works.

FCAC also says that lenders use your credit history when deciding whether to lend to you, how much interest to charge and what credit limit to offer, and that a poor or limited credit history may make it harder to get a credit card. How using a card shows up in your credit file, and how the share of your limit in use counts, is on building credit.

Moving to another card later

A higher limit on the card you have is something you ask the issuer for, as FCAC’s line above says. Moving from a secured card to one without a deposit is covered on secured credit cards.

How the starter ranking works

The starter table holds personal cards chosen for this page from this site’s card data, each with no annual fee and a Minimum income column showing $15,000 or less, or no amount; student, secured, store, business, prepaid and no-rewards cards are left out, and a dash marks a figure the card data doesn’t hold. Cards are ordered by yearly value at the spending in the opening: each category’s spending times the card’s published rate, with each cap and the rate after it applied, and a cap set per statement period applied as a monthly cap. Tangerine’s card lets the cardholder pick two categories for its higher rate, and groceries and gas are taken as picked. The Scotiabank American Express Card earns more at the grocers Scotiabank lists, and the value uses its rate at other grocery stores. Rogers pays its higher rate with a qualifying service with Rogers, Fido, Shaw or Comwave, and the value uses the rate without one. The two points cards are valued at the redemptions named under the table. Equal values share a place and are marked as tied. The values assume the balance is paid in full each month, as the grace-period line above describes, and welcome offers are not counted. The full method is on best credit cards.

More on getting approved

• Getting approved: what issuers check and what happens after a refusal.
• Student credit cards: the student ranking.
• Credit cards for newcomers: five banks’ programs, compared.
• Secured credit cards and credit cards for bad credit: cards that take a deposit, and options for a weak credit file.
• Prepaid cards: cards you load first.
• How to choose a credit card: the method in steps.