The Short Answer
If you pay your full statement balance every month, a credit card's interest rate costs you nothing. If you don't, it is usually the most expensive thing about the card — more than the annual fee, and often more than the card earns back in rewards.
Of the 120 cards in our catalogue, 114 publish a purchase interest rate. Of those, 87 charge either 20.99% or 21.99%. Only 9 charge less than 15%.
How Credit Card Interest Works in Canada
The interest rate on a card is an annual rate, but it is charged daily. At 21.99%, a balance costs you about 0.06% a day — roughly 60 cents a day for every $1,000 you carry.
Two rules decide whether you pay any of it:
- Pay the full statement balance by the due date and you pay no interest on purchases. Canadian cards give you a grace period of at least 21 days on new purchases, as long as the full balance is paid.
- Carry any balance past the due date and the grace period goes. On most cards, interest is then charged on your purchases from the day you made them, not from the due date.
The rate in our catalogue is the purchase rate. Cash advances and balance transfers usually carry their own, higher rates, and cash advances generally start charging interest the same day, with no grace period at all.
What 21.99% Costs in Dollars
Interest is easier to judge in dollars than in percentages. Here is what an average balance costs over a full year at the rates you will see most often:
| Average balance carried | At 21.99% | At 13.99% | At 10.99% |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500 | $110 | $70 | $55 |
| $1,000 | $220 | $140 | $110 |
| $2,500 | $550 | $350 | $275 |
| $5,000 | $1,100 | $700 | $550 |
These are rounded, simple-interest figures. Interest added to an unpaid balance starts earning interest itself, so the real cost of a balance you never pay down is slightly higher.
Interest Cancels Rewards Fast
This is the part most people miss. Rewards are earned on spending; interest is charged on the balance. When you carry a balance, the second number grows much faster than the first.
Say you spend $1,500 a month on a card that pays 2% cash back. That earns you $360 a year.
At 21.99%, carrying an average balance of about $1,640 costs the same $360 in interest. Carry more than that and the card costs you money, however good its rewards are. Carry $5,000 and you pay around $1,100 in interest to earn $360 back.
So the order of priority is simple. If you carry a balance, the interest rate matters more than the earn rate. If you pay in full, the earn rate matters and the interest rate does not.
The Cards That Charge Less Than 15%
Verified against our catalogue on 14 October 2026.
| Card | Annual fee | Purchase rate |
|---|---|---|
| National Bank Syncro Mastercard | $35 | 8.90% |
| Scotiabank Platinum Amex | $399 | 9.99% |
| Desjardins Flexi Visa | $0 | 10.90% |
| MBNA True Line Gold Mastercard | $39 | 10.99% |
| Desjardins Odyssey Visa Infinite Privilege | $395 | 11.90% |
| MBNA True Line Mastercard | $0 | 12.99% |
| BMO Preferred Rate Mastercard | $29 | 13.99% |
| CIBC Select Visa | $29 | 13.99% |
| Scotiabank Value Visa | $29 | 13.99% |
Three things stand out:
- Two of the lowest rates come with no annual fee. The Desjardins Flexi Visa and the MBNA True Line Mastercard charge less interest than the three $29 low-rate cards, and cost nothing to hold.
- Two premium cards are on the list. The Scotiabank Platinum Amex and the Desjardins Odyssey Visa Infinite Privilege both carry fees near $400 but charge under 12%. They are rewards cards first, so the low rate is a bonus rather than the reason to get one.
- A low-rate card usually earns nothing. Seven of the nine have no rewards program at all. That is the trade: you give up rewards you would mostly lose to interest anyway.
When a Low-Rate Card Pays for Its Fee
A low-rate card with a fee is worth it when the interest it saves is bigger than the fee.
The $29 cards charge 13.99% instead of 21.99%, a gap of 8 percentage points. Carrying an average balance of about $363 over the year saves enough interest to cover the $29.
The same maths applies to the premium cards, at a much bigger number. On interest savings alone, the Scotiabank Platinum Amex's 9.99% covers its $399 fee once you carry an average of about $3,325. Below that, you would need its rewards and benefits to make up the difference.
The Highest Rates
At the other end, three Capital One cards charge 29.9%: the Smart Rewards Mastercard, the Guaranteed Mastercard and the Guaranteed Secured Mastercard. These are cards for building or rebuilding credit, and they are easier to get approved for than most.
That is a fair trade if you use them as intended: small purchases, paid off in full every month, to build a payment history. Carrying a balance on a 29.9% card is the costliest way to borrow on this list — $1,000 carried for a year costs about $300.
If You Are Carrying a Balance Now
A few practical steps, in order of impact:
- Stop adding to it. New purchases on a card with a balance usually start charging interest straight away. Use a different card or debit for day-to-day spending until the balance is gone.
- Pay more than the minimum. Minimum payments are designed to keep you paying for a long time. Your statement shows an estimate of how long the balance would take to clear on minimum payments alone — it is worth reading once.
- Consider a lower rate. Moving to one of the cards above, or using a balance transfer offer, can cut the cost while you pay it down. Balance transfers usually come with a fee and a promotional rate that ends, so check both before you move.
How to Use This
Start with one question: do you pay your card off in full every month?
If yes, ignore the interest rate and choose on rewards. The rewards calculator ranks cards on what they would earn from your actual spending.
If no, the interest rate is the number that matters most. A lower-rate card will save you more than any rewards card can earn, and the table above is the place to start.