№ 1
BMO
Mastercard
BMO Preferred Rate Mastercard
- C$29/yr annual fee
- Low Interest card
- Balances from other BMO credit card accounts are not eligible to transfer
★ BEST CARDS FOR BALANCE TRANSFER272 CANADA CARDS TRACKEDDEEP-RESEARCHED · SOURCED · NO BIAS
Best For — 0% balance-transfer cards
The best credit cards for balance transfer in Canada
For people transferring a balance, the best cards are cards with the longest 0% balance-transfer windows — up to ~35 months interest-free — so you can move existing card debt and pay down principal instead of interest, minding the transfer fee. We track 272 Canada cards.
The profile
Who this guide is for
- You have card debt on a high-interest card
- You want the longest possible 0% transfer window
- You'll weigh the 2–4% transfer fee against interest saved
- You have a plan to clear the balance within the 0% period
The shortlist
Top cards for balance transfer in Canada
Researched · pending editorial review6 researched
№ 2
CIBC
Visa
CIBC Select Visa Card
Quebec residents get the balance-transfer fee waived entirely per CIBC's terms — a genuine additional saving not modeled in the headline number below.
- C$29/yr annual fee
- Low Interest card
- Balance-transfer fee is waived entirely for Quebec residents per CIBC's terms
WelcomeTransfer your credit card balance and get 0% interest for up to 10 months with a 1% transfer fee
№ 3
Scotiabank
Scene+
Scotiabank Value Visa Card
- C$29/yr annual fee
- Balance Transfer card
- A Scotiabank Value Visa for Students variant exists with a similar low-rate structure
№ 4
MBNA
Mastercard
MBNA True Line Mastercard
The card carries no annual fee, which is a genuine, permanent advantage over Scotia/CIBC/BMO's fee-waived-only-in-year-one structure.
- C$0/yr annual fee
- Balance Transfer card
- Not available to Quebec residents
WelcomeWelcome offer: You could get a 0% promotional annual interest rate (“AIR”)† for 12 months on balance transfers✪ completed within 90 days of account opening.
№ 5
National Bank of Canada
Mastercard
National Bank Syncro Mastercard
Confirm directly before transferring, since an undisclosed fee would change the math.
- Low Interest card
№ 6
RBC
Visa
RBC RateAdvantage Visa
It ranks last here mainly on data confidence rather than product quality. Worth a direct call to RBC to confirm current terms and your specific quoted rate before transferring a balance here, since the final number is fully credit-score-dependent rather than a fixed published rate.
Annual fee—Fee not confirmed
Research pick
Method
How we picked
These picks come from dedicated research for people transferring a balance, which drew on issuers' published terms and independent sources — listed under “sources” on each pick. The order is the research's. Every fee, welcome offer and earn rate shown on a pick is the figure our catalogue holds for that card, the same one its card page shows. Nothing here is pay-to-rank. Business cards appear only on business guides, student cards only on student guides, and prepaid cards on none. A figure we do not hold is shown as “Not confirmed”, never as a zero. Each researched shortlist is marked as pending editorial review until the site's editor approves it.
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Questions
Frequently asked
What is the best credit card for people transferring a balance in Canada?
The best card for people transferring a balance in Canada depends on your exact spending and credit. The shortlist above holds 6 cards for this profile, each chosen because it fits people transferring a balance: cards with the longest 0% balance-transfer windows — up to ~35 months interest-free — so you can move existing card debt and pay down principal instead of interest, minding the transfer fee.
How did you choose these cards for people transferring a balance?
These picks come from dedicated research for people transferring a balance, which drew on issuers' published terms and independent sources — listed under “sources” on each pick. The order is the research's. Every fee, welcome offer and earn rate shown on a pick is the figure our catalogue holds for that card, the same one its card page shows. Nothing here is pay-to-rank.
Why do some cards show no annual fee figure?
Because we hold no confirmed figure for it. Our fee column used to default to zero, and many cards still carry a zero that no check has confirmed — so a zero on its own cannot be told apart from a field nobody filled in, and printing “C$0” there would invent a price. A card shows a fee where a positive one is on record, or where a zero was confirmed against the issuer's terms; otherwise the slot reads “Not confirmed”, and the issuer's own page is the place to check before you apply.
How are these cards ranked?
In the research's order. The figures on each pick come from our catalogue, and each card's review page marks which of them a published document states.