Best cashback credit cards in Canada
Financial institutions offer a wide array of Cashback programs:
- Flat rate cash back: very easy to track and understand. Basically all your purchases are at the same rate;
- A modular cash back rates based on categories (for instance they will provide more cashback for certain categories mostly Groceries, recurring bills or Gas). To be able to compare these type of Cards with a flat rate credit card I made certain assumptions. See below!
To assess fairly these credit cards, here’s my key assumptions:
- Based on Statistics Canada data: an average household spends 11% on Groceries and 15% on Transportation. I assumed that recurring bills constitute 4% of the monthly expenditures of a household.
Comparison table – Credit cards with no annual fee
| Credit Card |
| American Express SimplyCash – 1.25% on all your purchases Promo: 2.5% Cashback in your first 3 months (up to $150 in Cashback) |
Tangerine Money-Back – 2% in up to 3 categories of your choice (including groceries, gas & more) and 0.5% on everything else |
BMO CashBack Mastercard – 3% on groceries; 1% on recurring bills and 0.5% on everything else Promo: 5% Cashback in your first 3 months (up to 75$) and no annual fee in the first year |
Our recommendation: American Express SimplyCash
For 20,000 $ expenditures per year, you will be getting 250$ cash back on American Express SimplyCash which is higher that other similar cashback cards.
Comparison table – Credit cards with annual fee
| Credit Card |
American express SimplyCash Preferred – 2% on all your purchases (Annual fee 99$) Promo: 10% Cashback in your first 4 months (up to $400 in Cashback) |
Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite – 4% on groceries & recurring bills; 2% on gas & daily transit and 1% on everything else (Annual fee 120$) |
Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite Card – 4% on groceries and recurring payments, 2% on gas and daily transit and 1% on everything else (Annual fee 120$) Promo: 10% Cashback in your first 3 months (up to $200 in Cashback) and no annual fee in the first year |
BMO CashBack World Elite Mastercard – 5% on groceries, 4% on transit, 3% on gas, 2% on recuring bills and 1% on everything else (Annual fee 120$) Promo: 10% cashback in your first 3 months (up to 130$) and annual fee waived |
TD CashBack Visa Infinite – 3% on groceries, gas & recurring bills and 1% on everything else (Annual fee 120$) Promo: 6% cashback on all purchases for the first 3 months (up to 120$) and no annual fee waived first year |
Our recommendation: American express SimplyCash Preferred