The best Canada rewards cards

Featured cards

All 15 cards in this ranking, with what each one is actually best at. Tap any card to jump to its row.

1. 1 WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard — Best overall for rewards: 1.5x on everything, C$139 a year — 1.9¢ CAD back per C$1
2. 2 RBC Avion Visa Infinite — 1x on everything, C$120 a year — 1.5¢ CAD back per C$1
3. 3 Rogers Red World Elite Mastercard — Best with no annual fee: 1.5% on everything, no annual fee — 1.5¢ CAD back per C$1
4. 4 TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card — 1x on everything, C$139 a year — 1.4¢ CAD back per C$1
5. 5 American Express Cobalt Card — 1x on everything, C$192 a year — 1.0¢ CAD back per C$1
6. 6 Scotiabank Gold American Express Card — 1x on everything, C$120 a year — 1.0¢ CAD back per C$1
7. 7 Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite Card — 1x on everything, C$150 a year — 1.0¢ CAD back per C$1
8. 8 CIBC Aventura Visa Infinite Card — 1x on everything, C$139 a year — 1.0¢ CAD back per C$1
9. 9 BMO CashBack World Elite Mastercard — 1% on everything, C$139 a year — 1.0¢ CAD back per C$1
10. 10 The Platinum Card (American Express Canada) — 1x on everything, C$799 a year — 1.0¢ CAD back per C$1
11. 11 American Express Gold Rewards Card — 1x on everything, C$250 a year — 1.0¢ CAD back per C$1
12. 12 Triangle World Elite Mastercard — 1x on everything, no annual fee — 1.0¢ CAD back per C$1
13. 13 National Bank World Elite Mastercard — 1x on everything, C$150 a year — 1.0¢ CAD back per C$1
14. 14 Neo World Elite Mastercard — 1% on everything, C$149 a year — 1.0¢ CAD back per C$1
15. 15 PC World Elite Mastercard — 10x on everything, no annual fee — 1.0¢ CAD back per C$1

The ranking

How we rank

One arithmetic rule, applied by code to our maintained card database. There is no editorial pick, no hand-ordering and no sponsored slot.

• Printed earn rate. The rate Canada issuers actually print in the terms — the base rate on all spending — taken from our maintained database, not from a press release.
• Conservative point value. Every rate is multiplied by our conservative value for the currency it pays, in Canadian dollars. That is what turns a raw multiplier into Canadian cents back per C$1, and it is why a big number in a weak programme does not win here. Every point value we use, published →
• Annual fee. Shown against every card and used to break ties: where two cards pay the same, the cheaper one ranks higher. We never net the fee out of the rate for you, because whether it is worth paying depends on how much you spend.
• Caps and limits. Where a bonus rate stops after a spending cap, the cap is printed. A capped rate is never treated as if it ran all year.
• Pool and cutoff. 22 open Canada cards are in our database; 22 of them print a base earn rate and qualify. The page publishes the top 15 by real value — the cutoff is #15, so 7 qualifying cards did not make it and can be found on the full card list.
• Rotating and pick-your-own categories. Kept out of the headline ranking, because they only pay in the right quarter or with the right election. Issuer-travel-portal-only rates are excluded for the same reason: they pay only if you book through the portal.
• Commission. The ranking code has no access to which cards pay us a commission — the ordering function never reads the affiliate file. Any apply link is attached after the order is already fixed, so it cannot move a card up or down. How that works.

Full methodology, including how each point value is set: how we value points and rank cards →

The honest caveat

Ranked on the base rate you get on all spending; a category card can beat these where you spend heavily. Point values are our conservative mid-range estimates in Canadian dollars. The best card for you depends on where your money actually goes. One more thing worth being explicit about: the "value" column is Canadian cents, not US cents — Canada loyalty currencies are earned and redeemed in Canadian dollars, so we never mix them into a US table. See what each Canadian points currency is worth →

Common questions

More guides

Every guide on this site is built by the same code from the same card database, so the numbers on one page mean exactly what they mean on another. Jump sideways:

All 70 best-card guides → · Best card for a specific store or bill →