The best credit cards in Canada for 2025

Rewards credit cards that earn cash back and travel points are most suitable for Canadians who frequently use credit cards but don’t usually carry a balance. Rewards credit cards provide a return on your spending. However, many charge an annual fee. So, if you don’t expect to use the card regularly, or if you typically carry a balance, the annual fee and/or interest charges can easily cost you more than the rewards are worth. A no-fee or low-interest credit card may be a better option in these situations.

When choosing between a points credit card and a cash back card, Canadians should consider their spending habits and preferences for perks. A points card is best for those who travel often and see value in rewards for flights, hotels or other travel perks. A cash back card is typically more straightforward, offering a percentage of your spending on the card back as cash, which can be redeemed for credit or deposited into your bank account. Consider the annual fee, interest rates and rewards bonus categories (such as groceries or gas) to decide which card fits your lifestyle and financial goals.

A premium credit card is ideal for Canadians who can fully make use its perks and benefits, such as frequent travellers and high spenders. These cards typically offer accelerated earn rates and some very generous welcome offers—all of which help offset the hefty annual fee. Overall, premium cards are best suited for those Canadians with high spending habits and lifestyle needs.

A credit card perk refers to any benefit and/or reward offered by a credit card issuer to cardholders. Perks can vary greatly depending on the type of card, though. Some of the most coveted benefits include no foreign transaction fees; travel insurance (including emergency medical, trip cancellation and loss baggage insurance); airport lounge access; priority boarding and free checked bags on flights; dining and travel credits; concierge services; and exclusive access to concerts, presale tickets, private experiences and more.

Credit cards in Canada typically charge about 20% interest on purchases and about 22% on cash advances and balance transfers. However, low-interest cards are designed to save cardholders money on interest (and help to pay off a balance quickly). If you typically carry a balance, a low-interest rate card may be a better option than a rewards-earning option that charges a more standard interest rate.

While some cards in Canada stand out for a regular low purchase interest rate, you can also consider balance transfer credit cards, which offer an extra-low interest rate (sometimes 0%) for a limited time. Balance transfer cards are most suitable for Canadians who currently have a credit card balance and want to pay it off faster than with a higher interest rate card (or simply save money on interest charges).

Credit card interest is expressed as an annual percentage rate (APR). If you’ve paid your credit card balance in full by the end of the billing cycle, you shouldn’t be charged any interest. But if you carry a credit card balance, interest charges begin to accumulate, and you’ll continue to pay interest until you pay your balance back in full.

Though APRs are expressed in annual terms, credit card interest is calculated daily and charged monthly. (The APR represents the total cost of borrowing money for a year.) You can figure out your daily interest rate by dividing your APR by 365 (or 366 during a leap year). For a credit card with a 19.99% APR, your daily rate is 0.0548%.

This means a $1,000 balance will incur $0.54 in interest charges in a single day. And the interest compounds daily, which means that the next day, assuming you don’t make any additional purchases, you’d be charged interest on a total of $1,000.54, and so on.

Finally, at the end of the billing cycle, you’re charged interest based on the average daily balance during each one of the days in the billing cycle. So, to determine the amount of interest owed:

1. Calculate your daily interest rate by dividing the APR by 365.
2. Find your average daily balance by adding up the balances for each day of the billing cycle and dividing it by the number of days in your statement period.
3. Multiply your average daily balance by the daily interest rate, and multiply this total by the number of days in the statement period.

That’s why it’s best to pay down your debt as quickly as possible. If you don’t square off your balance in full by the date noted on your statement, you’ll owe interest, starting on the day that you made your purchase, which can also be compounded by more interest.

Federally regulated financial institutions (think: major banks) are required to offer an interest-free grace period of at least 21 days, which begins on the last day of your billing period. Some issuers offer up to 30 days. (Note: This rule doesn’t apply to cash advances or balance transfers.)

Secured credit cards are a good option for Canadians who want to establish or rebuild their credit score. These cards require a cash deposit as collateral, which sometimes is the credit limit. This makes secured cards more accessible than other types of cards, because if the cardholder doesn’t make their payments, the lender is protected. However, it is possible to miss payments and be charged interest. Also, because secured card issuers generally report account activity to one of the Canadian credit bureaus (or both), the cards can be used to establish or rebuild a credit score. There are newcomer credit cardss and student credit cards and other non-secured cards that are extremely accessible to people with no credit history.

First off, any credit card issued in Canada has the potential to be featured as one of our picks—not just affiliate partners like some other credit card comparison sites. In most cases, there are only a handful of strong cards in any given category that are worthy of a close point-by-point comparison.

Once we have our shortlist of cards, we dig into the fine print to see how they stack up on the criteria that matter most for the category—it could be the rate of return on your spending (for travel cards), the interest rates offered (for balance transfer and low-interest cards), or the eligibility criteria (for student cards). Oftentimes, it’s a combination of a few factors. 

This focus helps us find the products that are mostly likely to help you achieve your goals. In the end, additional features and benefits are often better treated as an added bonus—not the main reason to get a card, but nice to have anyway.

No. Any card issued in Canada can be featured on MoneySense. It’s the only way to maintain our award-winning reputation and journalistic integrity. 

That said, our parent company, Ratehub Inc., works with a lot of financial partners in Canada. When there’s an active partnership, a link is added to cards issued by the partner, which allows MoneySense to earn revenue when you click on them and apply. Links are added after judging and do not influence these picks. The money we earn is used to continue producing the quality Canadian personal finance journalism you expect from us—all without a paywall. Let’s be honest, it’s a great set-up: We get to showcase the cards we truly want, while still benefiting from the hard work of the Ratehub partnerships team. Read more about how MoneySense makes money.

We change our credit card picks at any time. Every now and then, an issuer changes a credit card’s features—such as the interest rates, earn rates or point values—and we update our lists to reflect that. It’s the only way to make sure we’re recommending the very best financial products available in Canada.

You may notice articles like these typically have a recent publication date. That’s because the pages are continuously updated to provide the most accurate and relevant information. Sometimes, we change details like a card’s interest rates and welcome offers. Other times, we update our analysis to ensure we’re helping you make the best financial choices. These changes show that we care about the quality of the information on our pages.