Credit Cards With No Foreign Transaction Fees in Canada

The Short Answer

Five Canadian credit cards charge no foreign transaction fee: the Scotia Gold Amex, the Scotia Passport Visa Infinite +, the Wealthsimple Card, the Scotiabank Platinum Amex, and the Scotia Passport Visa Infinite Privilege.

That is five out of the 122 cards in our catalogue, and four of the five come from Scotiabank. Everyone else charges you to spend in another currency — usually 2.5%, sometimes more.

What the 2.5% FX Fee Actually Costs

The fee is a percentage added to every purchase made in a currency other than Canadian dollars. It applies after the network converts the amount, so it stacks on top of the exchange rate you already received. The fee applies to all purchases made in a foreign currency, be that a software subscription billed in US dollars, or anything bought with money that is not Canadian dollars.

Let's say that you spent $6,000 this year in foreign currency. That includes a trip to Europe, a yearly subscription to a US-dollar software product, and other miscellaneous purchases.

The table below breaks down how much you pay in foreign exchange fees on that $6,000, where the card's FX fee ranges from 0% to 3%.

That is $150 in FX fees for no additional gain.

The FX fee goes unnoticed in most cases. An annual fee is deducted once and you see it, because it arrives as a single large chunk on one statement. The FX fee arrives in fragments, buried inside the total of each transaction, and without realising it you can pay more in FX fees on a no-annual-fee card than the annual fee on a card that waives them entirely. The Scotia Gold Amex is only $120 a year. It does not just save you the FX fee either: it adds travel insurance, purchase protection and mobile device coverage, and earns 6 Scene+ points per dollar at grocery stores.

Every Card in Canada With No FX Fee

Verified against our catalogue on 5 October 2026. Fees and earn rates change, so check the issuer before you apply.

Two things in that table deserve a closer look.

The Scotia Gold Amex is the cheapest way into this group at $120, and it is not a stripped-down card — 6% back on groceries is competitive against cards with no FX advantage at all. Its income requirement is just $12,000, the lowest on the list and matched only by the $399 Platinum. That bar is low enough for a student with part-time income or a retiree on a fixed income to qualify, not only full-time earners — which is unusual for a card that waives foreign transaction fees at all.

The Wealthsimple Card's $240 is billed as $20 a month, and Wealthsimple waives it if you hold $100,000 in assets with them or deposit $4,000 a month. If you already bank there and meet the criteria that makes the annual cost $0, this is the obvious choice. Wealthsimple uses the Visa network, which makes the card the best travel companion.

Note that the $150,000 figure applies to the Visa Infinite Privilege tier listed here, and income is not the only route to it — Wealthsimple also accepts $50,000 in annual card spend or $400,000 in assets held with them. Wealthsimple issues a lower Visa Infinite + tier as well, with an easier bar, which is the one most applicants will qualify for.

Why Four of the Five Are Scotiabank

Because waiving the FX fee is a bank-level decision, not a card-level one.

Look at the other end of the table and the pattern repeats. Every Neo Financial card in our catalogue charges 3%. Every ATB Financial card charges 2.9%. Both Brim cards charge 1.5%. Issuers pick a number and apply it across the lineup. The real question is which banks decide to compete.

Right now, in Canada, that is Scotiabank — and Wealthsimple, which is not a bank in the traditional sense and is using the card to pull assets onto its platform.

The practical consequence is concentration. Four of the five options come from one issuer, so if a Scotiabank card does not suit you — you already hold one, or you were declined, or you simply prefer another bank — the entire rest of the market is a single card. And that card, the Wealthsimple, requires an active Wealthsimple chequing account, so it comes with a banking relationship attached whether you wanted one or not.

The Cards That Charge More Than 2.5%

Six cards charge above the standard rate, and none of them advertise it.

Most of these are no-fee cards, which is the trade being made: nothing at the front, more at the till. On $6,000 of foreign spending these cards take $174 to $180 a year in FX fees — on a card you are holding precisely because it has no annual fee. Worth knowing before you pack one for a trip, especially since a no-fee card is exactly the sort of thing people take abroad as a backup.

The two Brim cards sit on the other side at 1.5%, the only cards in the catalogue between zero and standard.

Does the Annual Fee Cancel Out the Savings?

Often, yes. The fee saving only matters against what you pay for it.

Take the Scotia Gold Amex at $120 against a no-fee card charging 2.5%:

• At $2,000 of foreign spending a year, you save $50 in FX fees and pay $120. You are $70 worse off before rewards.
• At $4,800, the saving is $120 and you break even on the fee alone.
• At $6,000, you save $150 against a $120 fee — $30 ahead, plus the grocery and dining earn you get the rest of the year.

So the break-even on FX fees alone is roughly $4,800 of foreign spending a year for a $120 card. For the $599 Passport Privilege it is about $24,000 — which no normal traveller reaches, meaning that card has to justify itself on its 10 annual lounge visits and travel coverage, not on FX.

That break-even is purely the FX number, though, and it is the harshest way to read these cards. They are not blank between trips: the Scotia Gold earns 6 Scene+ points per dollar on groceries and 5 on dining all year, on spending that has nothing to do with foreign currency. Count that earn and the fee is usually covered long before the FX saving is even counted. The $4,800 figure is the point at which the FX saving alone pays the fee — in practice, the card is ahead well before that.

This is the part most articles skip. A no-FX card is not automatically cheaper. It is cheaper above a threshold, and the threshold scales with the annual fee. Run your own numbers in the rewards calculator rather than trusting a ranking.

Who Shouldn't Bother

If your foreign spending is under roughly $2,000 a year, this entire category is a distraction. The fee you would avoid is $50, and you will pay more than that for the privilege. A good no-fee cashback card earning well on groceries will put more in your pocket than a no-FX card you use abroad twice.

If you travel once a year and mostly spend cash, same conclusion.

And if the reason you are reading this is a single large purchase in US dollars, compare the cost against your bank's own conversion before applying for anything. One $3,000 purchase carries $75 in FX fees — real money, but less than a year of the Wealthsimple Card's fee if you do not qualify for the waiver.

The people who genuinely benefit are those with steady foreign spending: cross-border shoppers, anyone with US-dollar subscriptions or suppliers, people who travel several times a year, and anyone splitting their life between two countries. For them, $150 a year is recurring, invisible, and entirely avoidable.

If you want the broader picture on travel cards, including coverage and lounge access, our best travel credit cards in Canada page ranks the full set on merit.