The best credits cards in Canada for 2025

RWRDS Canada is pleased to reveal our annual top travel rewards and cash back credit card rankings for 2025!

Canada’s longest running credit card rankings have entered their 17th year with newly crowned champions in the No Foreign Transaction Fee Credit Card and Small Business Travel Rewards Credit Card categories. Whether a person favours travel rewards or cash back rewards, Rewards Canada’s 24 years of industry research allow us to provide detailed and authoritative rankings of the five best cards across ten categories (8 travel, 2 cash back).

Why are RWRDS Canada’s rankings highly regarded and the most trusted?

Nearly 24 years of coverage and research of Canadian credit cards and loyalty programs.
Full analysis of the earn to burn ratio + monthly/annual spending caps + potential for outsized value (We look at both sides of the equation: 5 points per dollar means nothing if the redemption rate is bad!)
We take into account all possible travel redemption options including the type of travel you can redeem for (flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, vacation packages etc.)
We take into account where you can fly to or stay, partnerships, conversion options and more
We look at card benefits, insurance coverage, costs and everything in-between
We are unique in that travel rewards cards are also considered in our cash back rankings as some have more rewarding cash back options than true cash back cards

For a eighth straight year, the American Express Cobalt Card takes the top prize in Reward Canada’s Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards Ranking as it is the best card to use to build up a flexible travel rewards balance that provides big redemption value including cash back. Other travel card winners include the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card as the best airline card and the Scotia Passport Visa Infinite Card being crowned as the new No Foreign Transaction Fee card champion.

On the cash back side, the SimplyCash Preferred Card from American Express continues its multi-year run as the top fee based card while the Rogers World Elite Mastercard remains as the best no annual fee cash back credit card for the second year in row.

In addition to the Cobalt Card taking home “Best Overall Travel Reward Card’ honours, the remaining seven categories that travel cards are ranked in are: Travel Points with annual fee, No Fee Travel Rewards, Airline, Hybrid (flexible currency), No Foreign Transaction Fee, Ultra Premium and Small Business Travel Rewards. The credit cards are evaluated by key factors including cost, flexibility, partnerships, rate-of-return, benefits and redemption options.