03 Jan The best American Express credit cards in Canada for 2025
American Express credit cards offer some of the highest earn rates and most rewarding travel perks for credit cards in Canada. Here, we break down the best Amex cards in the country for cash back, travel, no fee and low interest.
Best American Express credit cards in Canada
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Best cash back Amex card
SimplyCash Preferred Card from American Express
Earn a minimum of 2% cash back on all purchases, and 4% cash back on major spending categories.
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Interest Rates:
21.99% purchase, 21.99% cash advance, N/A balance transfer
Welcome offer:
$250 value
Earn a bonus 10% cash back on all purchases for your first 3 months (up to $2,000 in purchases). Plus, earn a $50 statement credit when you make a purchase in month 13. This could add up to $250 in bonus value in your first 13 months.
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Best Amex travel card
Scotiabank Gold American Express Card
Earn up to 6 Scene+ points per $1 spent and access incredible travel perks, including no foreign transaction fees.
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Interest Rates:
20.99% purchase, 22.99% cash advance, 22.99% balance transfer
Welcome offer:
$450 value
Earn up to $950 in value in the first 12 months, including up to 45,000 bonus Scene+ points. To qualify, apply by December 31, 2024.
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Best no-fee Amex card
American Express Green Card
Earn up to 2 Membership Rewards points on every purchase without paying an annual fee.
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Interest Rates:
21.99% purchase, 21.99% cash advance, N/A balance transfer
Welcome offer:
$100 value
Earn 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you charge $1,000 in purchases to your card in the first three months of cardmembership.
Compare popular American Express credit cards
Compare your American Express credit card options with our interactive tool and filter credit cards based on rewards value, annual fees, income requirements and more. Use the tool below to compare credit card options, or keep scrolling for our editors’ top picks.
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Check out the pros and cons of our top American Express card picks across the cash back, travel, low-interest and other categories.
Best cash back American Express credit card
At a glance: The American Express SimplyCash Preferred is one of the best cash back credit cards in Canada, offering a generous 4% cash back on gas and groceries and 2% on all other purchases. There’s no income requirement, making it accessible to a wide range of Canadians.
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Amex SimplyCash Preferred
Annual fee: $120
Welcome offer: Earn a bonus 10% cash back on all purchases for your first three months (up to $2,000 in purchases) and a $50 statement credit when you make a purchase in month 13 (total value of up to $250).
Card details
| Interest rates | 21.99% on purchases, 21.99% on cash advances |
| Income required | None specified |
| Credit score | 725 or higher |
Gold: Best American Express travel credit card
At a glance: The Scotiabank Gold American Express is king among the best travel credit cards in Canada, thanks to its impressive rewards program, comprehensive insurance package and suite of travel perks, including no foreign transaction fees. With a generous welcome bonus and a flexible redemption process to use points for travel and other purchases, it’s perfect for frequent travellers.
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Scotiabank Gold American Express
Annual fee: $120
Welcome offer: Earn up to $950 in value in the first 12 months, including up to 45,000 bonus Scene+ points. Offer ends Dec. 31, 2024.
Card details
| Interest rates | 20.99% on purchases, 22.99% on cash advances, 22.99% on balance transfers |
| Income required | $12,000 per year |
| Credit score | 725 or higher |
| Point value | 1 Scene+ point = $0.01 when redeemed for travel on any airline or hotel (including Airbnbs). |
Silver: Best American Express travel credit card
At a glance: The impressive high earn rate of the American Express Cobalt, particularly in the popular food category, makes it a standout credit card for those who vacation often. For travel category—which includes rewards for flights, transit, gas and even rideshares purchases—offers a high-rate for earning rewards.
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American Express Cobalt
Annual fee: $156
Welcome offer: Earn 1,250 points for each month you spend $750, up to a maximum of 15,000 points.
Card details
| Interest rates | 21.99% on purchases, 21.99% on cash advances |
| Income required | None specified |
| Credit score | 725 or higher |
| Point value | 1 Amex Membership Rewards point = $0.01 when redeemed with the Flexible Points Travel Program, $0.015 on average with the Fixed Points Travel Program, and up to $0.02 with airline points transfers. |
Best no-fee American Express credit card
At a glance: Think of the American Express Green Card as the Cobalt’s mini-me. Like the Cobalt, this card lets you earn flexible Amex Membership Rewards points that you can redeem for travel and cash rewards—except it has no annual fee.
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American Express Green Card
Annual fee: $0
Welcome offer: earn 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you charge $1,000 in purchases to your card in the first three months of cardmembership.
Card details
| Interest rates | 21.99% on purchases, 21.99% on cash advances |
| Income required | None specified |
| Credit score | 725 or higher |
| Point value | 1 Amex Membership Rewards point = $0.01 when redeemed with the Flexible Points Travel Program, $0.015 on average with the Fixed Points Travel Program, and up to $0.02 with airline points transfers. . |
Best low-interest American Express credit card
At a glance: The American Express Essential Card is a good low-interest credit card for Canadians who want to save on interest charges. And with a low annual fee of $25, it’s an affordable option for managing everyday expenses.
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American Express Essential Card
Annual fee: $25
Rewards: Does not offer rewards.
Welcome offer: None at this time.
Card details
| Interest rates | 12.99% on purchases and 12.99% on cash advances |
| Income required | $15,000 per year |
| Credit score | 725 or higher |
About American Express Membership Rewards
American Express Membership Rewards is one of the most valuable and flexible rewards programs for credit cards in Canada. But to make the most of it, it’s important to understand how Membership Rewards (MR) points work and how much MR points are worth.
Travel redemptions
Travel is one of the most popular ways to redeem any of American Express points programs, partly because of how flexible American Express made it for cardholders. There are several ways to make the most of your points, and you don’t need to use Amex’s in-house travel agency. You can redeem points for purchases booked directly from an outside airline, hotel and/or travel agency.
American Express Flexible Travel
The most simplified travel redemption comes from the Flexible Travel points program, where each point is worth $0.01 towards flights, hotel stays, car rental, vacation packages and cruises. You can redeem points for travel in flat increments of 1,000 points (worth $10).
American Express Fixed Travel
If you’re looking to maximize your points value and score great travel deals, you might want to use the Fixed Travel points program. It allows you to redeem points for round-trip flights out of Canada, based on a regional rewards chart.
Point values vary depending on the flight and region you’re travelling to, with each region requiring a minimum number of points in exchange for a maximum price ticket. And you may have to pay upfront and get a refund for the ticket.
For example, say you’re flying from Toronto to Montreal (a short-haul flight within Canada). According to the rewards chart, you’ll need a minimum of 15,000 points, which can cover up to a maximum $300 of a flight ticket’s base price (not including taxes). If you find an airline ticket at $350 ($250 plus $100 in taxes), you would need to redeem 15,000 points and pay $350 (total price of the ticket). Then, American Express would refund you $250—the base price of the ticket, not including taxes. Ultimately, you would pay 15,000 points plus $100 out of pocket for the $350 ticket, which works out to $0.0167 per point—far greater than the $0.01 per point value you’d receive in the Flexible Points program.
Transfer options
One of the benefits of American Express Rewards is the ability to transfer your points to six different frequent flyer programs, often at favourable ratios. For example, you can transfer 1,000 Membership Rewards points for 1,000 Aeroplan Points at a one-to-one ratio. The value of Aeroplan Points fluctuates. But, depending on which flight you redeem them for and how well you optimize your trip, you can reap as much as $0.02 to $0.04 per point, especially on business class flights. The right transfers can boost your rewards values.
Transfers don’t just apply to airlines. You can transfer either Membership Rewards to hotel partners including Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors. Point values and transfer ratio fluctuate by program, so do you may have to do some math to find out what is the very best deal for you.
Statement credits
If you’d rather spend points on your everyday buys, you can. Although the value for points here is not as good as with the travel rewards. When using a statement credit, 1,000 points equals $7 (which is $0.007 per point). You may want to stick with a cash back credit card instead of a travel rewards card, since cash rewards cards offer redemptions values on everyday spends and credits.
Gift cards and merchandise
If you just want to cash in your points for a gift card or merchandise, with American Express Membership Rewards you can do that. The values on merchandise vary dramatically. So, getting a good deal may, again, take a bit of math. You can expect around $0.0075 per point on gift cards.
Amex acceptance in Canada: Is it really an issue?
If you read up on American Express cards, you’ll notice warning about limitations around how widely accepted these cards are. It’s true Mastercard and Visa cards can be tapped at more places, especially outside of North America. But the stigma around American Express may be a bit overblown.
American Express is accepted at more than 96,000 places across Canada, including most department and big box stores like The Bay, Walmart, Canadian Tire, Home Depot among others. It’s also accepted at thousands of restaurants and cafés, including a large number of fast food and chain restaurants, as well as food delivery apps. Metro and Sobeys grocery stores accept American Express, but Costco and Loblaw-banner stores do not. Shoppers Drug Mart, some independent restaurants and several smaller mom-and-pop shops do not take American Express either.
Where does this leave you?
Rather than forgoing the valuable rewards and perks found with many American Express cards, our advice is to carry at least two cards with you. Bring your American Express along with another no-fee Visa or Mastercard, just in case.
