How We Rank Credit Cards

Canadian Credit Cards is run by one independent owner and launched in October 2026. This page describes how ratings and list order on the site work. The numbers below are imported from the same module that scores every card.

The most recent card verification date in our data is October 9, 2026.

What we cover

The site currently lists 35 credit cards from 11 issuers. That count is the number of cards in our data file, not an estimate. We do not hold, test, or apply for these cards. Details are taken from each issuer's public product page.

Ratings

Every card gets a score out of 5, to one decimal place. Each component is mapped onto 0–5 with fixed thresholds; the overall score is the weighted average of included components, rounded to one decimal place only at the end (component scores shown on this page are displayed to one decimal for readability). Adding or removing an unrelated card cannot change another card's score. Affiliate URLs are never an input.

If a required field is missing, that component is either scored as 0 or dropped with the remaining weights rescaled, as noted below. We do not fill in typical values for null fields.

Net annual value

50%

Estimated annual rewards on the spend profile below, minus the listed annual fee. Welcome bonuses are not included here. Rewards use the same earn-rate parser and point valuations as the spending calculator. Fixed scale: -$200 maps to 0; $300 maps to 5.

Welcome bonus

15%

First-year only. We take the listed dollar amount in the welcome value field, or convert a listed point amount using this site’s point valuations. That field is the bonus itself (cash or points), not first-year earnings, fee waivers, or bundled credits. That figure is then multiplied by 0.5 so a one-time bonus does not dominate ongoing value. $200 counted maps to 5. If no dollar or point amount can be parsed, this component is 0 — we do not invent a value from prose such as “5% extra on first $2,000”.

Foreign transaction fee

10%

0% scores 5; each percentage point subtracts 1, so a listed 2.5% fee scores 2.5. If the fee is not listed (null or omitted), this component is dropped and the other weights are rescaled. We do not assume 2.5% for a card that does not list a fee. Compare tables show the listed fee, or “Not listed” — never “2.5% (typical)”.

Insurance & perks

15%

Presence only: 8 checklist items, each equally weighted, with no invented dollar values. An item counts if an included insurance row or a key perk matches it (not lounge only). Optional add-ons with included: false do not count. Combined labels (for example “Purchase Security & Extended Warranty”) can satisfy more than one item. Matching includes wording such as “Car Rental Insurance”, “Rental Vehicle Insurance”, lounge “visits”/“passes”, and “mobile device” in key perks.

Purchase interest rate

10%

12.99% or lower scores 5; 20.99% scores 3; 26.99% or higher scores 0, with linear interpolation between those points. If purchase APR is null, this component is dropped and the other weights are rescaled.

Spend profile

Net annual value uses this assumed typical monthly credit-card spend ($1,450 / month, $17,400 / year). It is not a Statistics Canada household budget. StatCan's 2023 Survey of Household Spending reports average household food-from-stores of $8,659/year and restaurants of $3,351/year (The Daily, 21 May 2025), but those totals include cash, debit, and other tenders. We use a smaller card-only mix so grocery, gas, and dining bonus rates are represented without pretending this is a national average.

The spending calculator starts with the same numbers, but you can change them there. Ratings always use this published profile, with Costco-specific earn rates turned off.

Category	Monthly	Annual
Groceries	$500	$6,000
Gas	$200	$2,400
Dining	$150	$1,800
Travel	$50	$600
Recurring bills / streaming	$150	$1,800
Everything else	$400	$4,800

Store-, portal-, and per-litre-only earn lines are skipped, as in the calculator. Compare-table “Top Earn Rate” also excludes those store-locked lines, or labels them “(store-specific)” if nothing general remains. Lines we cannot parse (for example a vague “up to” rate with no cap) are also skipped rather than excluding the whole card. If nothing usable remains, rewards are $0.
If a card lists more than one conflicting base earn rate (eligibility-dependent, for example 2% vs 1.5% on all other purchases), we do not guess which rate applies: estimated rewards are $0 and a parser note explains why.
Category matching is narrow: “food delivery” does not apply the dining bonus unless the line also names restaurants or dining; “streaming” or “food subscriptions” do not treat all recurring bills as a bonus category; “À la carte Travel” (a booking portal) does not count as general travel spend.
Some issuer caps apply to total monthly account spend, not only the bonus categories. The calculator applies a cap to the earn line it is attached to. For National Bank World Elite, we encode 5× groceries and restaurants on the first $2,500 of gross monthly account purchases, then 2× — approximating the issuer’s total-account-spend threshold as a combined grocery+dining cap.
Points convert to dollars at the valuations on the calculator page: issuer-published cash or fixed-value rates where they exist, and labelled estimates for Aeroplan and Marriott Bonvoy. RBC ION+ Avion Premium points (172 pts = $1 travel) are valued separately from Avion Elite (100 pts = $1).

Insurance checklist

Each matched item is 1/8 of this component, then scaled to 0–5:

Travel emergency medical
Trip cancellation or interruption
Flight delay or baggage
Auto rental collision
Purchase protection
Extended warranty
Mobile device insurance
Airport lounge access

Worked example: Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card

This block is computed from the live card data at build time, not hardcoded. Current score: 2.8 / 5. Card page.

net annual value = $213 rewards − $0 fee = $213

Groceries: $6,000 spend → $120 (2% cash back on 2 categories of your choice (3 with Tangerine Savings))
Gas: $2,400 spend → $48 (2% cash back on 2 categories of your choice (3 with Tangerine Savings))
Dining: $1,800 spend → $9 (0.5% cash back on All other purchases)
Travel: $600 spend → $3 (0.5% cash back on All other purchases)
Recurring bills / streaming: $1,800 spend → $9 (0.5% cash back on All other purchases)
Everything else: $4,800 spend → $24 (0.5% cash back on All other purchases)

Component	Input	Score	Weight
Net annual value	$213 rewards − $0 fee = $213	4.1	50%
Welcome bonus	$100 listed × 0.5 = $50 counted	1.3	15%
Foreign transaction fee	2.5%	2.5	10%
Insurance & perks	0 of 8 checklist items	0.0	15%
Purchase interest rate	20.95%	3.0	10%

How lists are ordered

Different pages order cards in different ways. None of them change the order based on affiliate links or ads.

Best-for category pages

Category pages such as cash back, travel, and no annual fee include cards tagged with that category. Most lists use overall score, highest first. Two categories use a simpler sort:

Low interest: purchase APR, lowest first (missing rates last; overall score is the tie-breaker)
No annual fee: net annual value on the published spend profile, highest first (overall score is the tie-breaker)

Issuer pages and compare

Issuer pages list that issuer's cards by overall score, highest first. The compare table defaults to the same order. You can also sort there by name, annual fee, or purchase interest rate, and filter by category, issuer, network, and fee.

Homepage featured cards

The homepage shows a short curated set of cards marked as featured in our data (currently 6, up to six). Featured is a flag, not a calculated score.

Spending calculator

The spending calculator is separate from the rating. You enter monthly spend; modelled cards are ranked by estimated net annual value (rewards minus annual fee, plus an optional welcome bonus). Cards the calculator cannot model are left out of that ranking rather than guessed. Ratings still assign those cards a score, using $0 rewards when no general-spend rate can be applied.

Where the data comes from

Card details are taken from issuers' public product pages. Each card has a source URL and a last-verified date. Card pages show both.

We do not claim a fixed review schedule. When a listing is checked against its source page, the last-verified date is updated.

How the site is funded

Apply links may earn an affiliate commission if you click through and are approved for a card. Affiliate programs are being applied for; none are live yet. Apply buttons use an affiliate URL when one is set, and otherwise go to the issuer's public page. The site may also show ads.

Rankings and ratings do not use affiliate status. The rating formula, featured flags, category order, and the calculator never look at whether a card has an affiliate link.

See the advertiser disclosure for the same points in more detail.

Questions or errors

If something on this page or a card listing looks wrong, please contact us. Corrections are welcome.