No foreign transaction fee credit cards in Canada

The table below lists credit cards from this site’s card data whose providers state no foreign transaction fee, ordered by annual fee from lowest to highest, so it starts with the Capital One Quicksilver World Elite Mastercard, Capital One Quicksilver World Mastercard and Home Trust Preferred Visa, tied. On these cards the provider’s own charge goes, but the purchase is still converted at an exchange rate, as Wealthsimple and Scotiabank say of theirs. Welcome offers are not part of this list; how they work is on credit card welcome offers.

Credit cards with no foreign transaction fee

These are personal credit cards whose provider’s card page, welcome kit or disclosure states no foreign transaction fee, with the annual fee, what each card earns and a foreign transaction fee column, where 0% stands for the provider’s statement that it charges no such fee.

Welcome offers, first-year fee waivers and fee rebates tied to a bank account, banking package, profession or another card are not included.

The providers word the waiver differently: Capital One states its fee for purchases made outside Canada, while Scotiabank’s card pages state theirs for purchases made in a foreign currency.

Scotiabank’s page for this card says purchases in a foreign currency carry no foreign transaction fee and just the exchange rate applies. Its fees page says that fee does not apply to select cards, so the waiver belongs to particular cards rather than to Scotiabank’s cards in general.

The top earn rate is paid at Sobeys, Safeway, IGA, Foodland and the other grocers Scotiabank lists, and both higher rates apply to the first part of each calendar year’s purchases on the account, up to the limit in the earn line. How Scene+ points are redeemed is in the Scene+ points guide.

The airport lounge visits are given to the Primary Cardholder for each membership year; any cardholder can use them, but the Primary Cardholder has to be there each time. A guest uses a visit, and visits past the included ones carry a fee in U.S. dollars. How the program and its rules work is on airport lounge access.

The medical cover’s length depends on age at departure, and the rental cover leaves out vehicles above a price limit and rentals longer than a set number of days, as the insurance lines show. Cover on other cards is compared on credit card travel insurance. The foreign spending at which this card’s annual fee equals the fee it saves is worked out on travel credit cards.

What is a foreign transaction fee?

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) sets out the two parts of the charge. FCAC says that when you use your credit card outside of Canada, your financial institution will apply an exchange rate for the purchase and a foreign currency conversion charge. FCAC goes on, in its words: Financial institutions calculate foreign currency charges in different ways. They convert some transactions directly into Canadian dollars. They may convert some transaction to U.S. dollars and then to Canadian dollars. They apply the foreign currency conversion charge after converting the purchase to Canadian dollars.

FCAC works through an example. A purchase of €1,000 at an exchange rate of 1.45 comes to $1,450. A conversion charge of 2.5% on that amount is $36.25, so the purchase costs $1,486.25 in Canadian dollars. FCAC adds: Read the terms of your credit card agreement for the total foreign currency conversion charge.

Two more points from FCAC concern a cash advance taken abroad and a refund of something bought in another currency: The fee for a cash advance outside of Canada is typically higher than it is in Canada. A foreign currency conversion charge may also apply to a foreign cash advance. If you return items you bought with a foreign currency, the refund that appears on your statement may be for a different amount than your purchase. This is because the exchange rate varies from day to day.

A card with no foreign transaction fee removes the provider’s percentage, not the conversion: Wealthsimple says the payment network still applies its currency conversion rate, and Scotiabank says just the exchange rate applies.

What these card providers charge

These card providers’ stated foreign transaction fees, with the cards or documents they name where they name them:

• American Express
  Fee the provider states: 2.5% foreign currency conversion commission (stated on the Cobalt Card page)
  Where it states it: American Express Canada's Cobalt Card and Platinum Card pages each state that purchases made in a foreign currency are converted to Canadian dollars and a 2.5% foreign currency conversion commission applies.
• BMO
  Fee the provider states: 2.50% added to the payment network's rate on purchases (and 2.50% subtracted on refunds)
• Brim Financial
  Fee the provider states: 1.5% of the converted amount
• Capital One Canada
  Fee the provider states: 0% on purchases made outside Canada, on the Quicksilver World Mastercard and the Quicksilver World Elite Mastercard
  Where it states it: Capital One's cardholder agreement says that if an account is subject to a foreign currency conversion charge, the charge is set out in the disclosure statement.
• CIBC
  Fee the provider states: 2.5% of the converted amount, on both debits and credits
• Desjardins
  Fee the provider states: 2.5% (none on U.S.-dollar purchases with the U.S. Visa card)
• MBNA
  Fee the provider states: 2.5% of the converted amount, on the Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard cards (MBNA's Amazon.ca Rewards disclosure)
  Where it states it: The same disclosure says the 2.5% fee also applies to refunds and credits of foreign currency transactions. MBNA's account agreement says the fee for a card is in that card's disclosure statement.
• National Bank of Canada
  Fee the provider states: 2.50% of the amount converted to Canadian dollars, on debits and credits
• Neo Financial
  Fee the provider states: 3%
• RBC Royal Bank
  Fee the provider states: 2.5% over a benchmark rate (RBC Cash Back Mastercard disclosure, information current as of October 1, 2026)
• Rogers Bank
  Fee the provider states: 2.5% (0% on the Rogers Red World Legend Mastercard)
• Scotiabank
  Fee the provider states: 2.5% in most cases; does not apply to select credit card products (only the exchange rate applies)
  Where it states it: Scotiabank’s Passport Visa Infinite+, Passport Visa Infinite Privilege and Platinum American Express pages and its Gold American Express welcome kit state no foreign transaction fee on foreign currency purchases (only the exchange rate applies)
• Simplii Financial
  Fee the provider states: 2.5%
• Tangerine
  Fee the provider states: 2.50%
• TD
  Fee the provider states: 2.5% (TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite disclosure)
  Where it states it: TD's cardholder agreement says it charges a foreign currency conversion fee on foreign-currency transactions, a fixed percentage of the transaction amount after the payment network converts it, and refers to the Disclosure Statement for the amount. TD's First Class Travel Visa Infinite disclosure states 2.5%.
• Wealthsimple
  Fee the provider states: 0%
  Where it states it: No Wealthsimple fee on the Wealthsimple credit card or the Visa Platinum Prepaid card; the payment network still applies its currency conversion rate.

A provider's name links to its cards page; the pages each line comes from are in the Sources list.

Some providers state their fee in particular cards’ documents. American Express states it on its Cobalt Card and Platinum Card pages, TD in the disclosure for its First Class Travel Visa Infinite, and MBNA in its Amazon.ca Rewards disclosure. TD’s and MBNA’s agreements say a card’s fee is in that card’s disclosure statement, and Capital One’s says the same of a conversion charge on an account. Brim’s disclosure states a fee of 1.5% of the converted amount, so its cards are not in the table above. Rogers Bank’s disclosure gives one figure for its cards and a separate one for the Rogers Red World Legend Mastercard, as its line shows.

What the fee adds up to

How that saving compares with a card’s annual fee is worked out on travel credit cards.

U.S.-dollar credit cards

These are U.S.-dollar cards, with what each provider says about conversion fees on them and what each card earns where its provider states it.

A dash means this table shows no figure for that card. Welcome offers, first-year fee waivers and fee rebates tied to a bank account, banking package, profession or another card are not included.

Scotiabank says purchases on its card in any currency other than U.S. dollars still carry its foreign currency conversion fee. BMO’s fees document describes converting foreign currency transactions to U.S. dollars on its U.S.-dollar cards, at the network’s rate plus a percentage, and says fees and charges on its U.S. Dollar Mastercard are in U.S. dollars. CIBC says that paying its U.S. dollar card from a CIBC U.S. dollar bank account saves the conversion fee, since the payments are in U.S. dollars. Accounts held in U.S. dollars are compared on US-dollar accounts.

A Canadian-dollar card can also pay a separate rate on U.S.-dollar spending. The Rogers Red World Elite Mastercard charges 2.5% on a foreign currency transaction after it is converted to Canadian dollars, and earns 3% cash back on U.S. dollar purchases, on the first $61,000 spent in the annual period, then 1.5%. Rogers Bank says that effective November 18, 2026, cash back rewards on the card increase to 5% on certain eligible Rogers purchases, subject to the card's annual limits.

Buying online from a seller outside Canada

The providers’ wording says what the fee attaches to. CIBC charges its fee on currency conversion, a percentage of the converted amount on both debits and credits. Capital One states its waiver for purchases made outside Canada. MBNA’s Amazon.ca Rewards disclosure ties the fee to the transaction amount after the payment network converts it to the account’s currency.

Paying in Canadian dollars abroad

Some shops, restaurants and ATMs abroad offer to convert a transaction into Canadian dollars on the spot. What that costs, and the federal government’s travel advice on it, is on currency exchange, under dynamic currency conversion.

Prepaid cards

KOHO states a foreign transaction fee of 0% on the Extra and Everything plans. Wealthsimple says it charges no foreign transaction fee on its prepaid card either, and that the Visa exchange rate still applies. Prepaid cards are compared on prepaid cards.

How this list works

The table holds personal credit cards in this site’s card data whose provider’s card page, welcome kit or disclosure states no foreign transaction fee. Cards are ordered by annual fee, lowest first; a monthly fee is counted for a full year, with no waiver taken off, and equal fees keep the order of the site’s data. The table gives no yearly value, since the saving depends on how much goes on foreign currency purchases; the example above shows the arithmetic. How the site’s card tables choose cards and when they print a dash is on best credit cards.

Related

• Travel credit cards: points, airline and no-fee travel cards.
• Airport lounge access: cards and lounge programs.
• Credit card travel insurance: cover by card.
• Currency exchange: where to change money and paying abroad.
• Prepaid cards: reloadable cards compared.
• No annual fee cards abroad: no-fee cards for spending outside Canada.