№ 1
Simplii Financial (CIBC-owned)
Visa
Simplii Financial Cash Back Visa Card
- Bills & Utilities card
★ BEST CARDS FOR STUDENT CASH BACK272 CANADA CARDS TRACKEDDEEP-RESEARCHED · SOURCED · NO BIAS
Best For — Cash-back for students
The best credit cards for student cash back in Canada
For students who want cash back, the best cards are student cards that pay real cash back — flat or on student categories like dining, groceries, and streaming — with no annual fee and good-behavior bonuses for paying on time. We track 272 Canada cards.
The profile
Who this guide is for
- You want simple cash back, not points to value
- Dining, groceries, and streaming are your main spend
- No annual fee is a hard requirement
- On-time bonuses and score tracking motivate you
The shortlist
Top cards for student cash back in Canada
Researched · pending editorial review7 researched
№ 2
BMO
BMO CashBack
BMO CashBack Mastercard for Students
Its grocery and recurring-bill (streaming) categories map directly onto two of this persona's four named traits, and BMO explicitly underwrites the product for applicants with zero income history and no existing Canadian credit file — the strongest approval-odds story of any card here alongside CIBC's student card.
- Cash Back card
□ 4 sources
№ 3
Amex Canada
American Express
SimplyCash Card from American Express
The trade-off is real for a student specifically: Amex merchant acceptance is narrower than Visa/Mastercard in Canada, so campus vendors, some transit systems, and smaller local businesses may not take it — best used as a strong secondary card paired with one of the Visa/Mastercard picks above rather than a sole card.
- Earns 2% on Gas & Fuel
- Cash Back card
□ 3 sources
№ 4
CIBC
Visa
CIBC Dividend Visa Card for Students
Like BMO, CIBC underwrites this product for applicants with no income and no existing credit file, so approval odds are realistically strong for a first-time cardholder. Best suited to a student who eats out or orders delivery regularly and will actually use the SPC+ network — someone who won't shop the partner deals gets a card modestly behind BMO's and Simplii's pure cash-back math.
- C$0/yr annual fee
- Cash Back card
□ 4 sources
№ 5
Tangerine (Scotiabank-owned)
Mastercard
Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card
Real cash, not points, paid out automatically — no redemption steps required.
- Earns 2% on categories of your choice
- Cash Back card
№ 6
№ 7
Scotiabank
Scene+
Scotiabank Scene+ Visa Card (for Students)
Still worth including as the strongest points-based student card researched, for a student who already shops Sobeys-family stores or watches movies at Cineplex regularly and doesn't mind the extra redemption step.
- Dining card
□ 3 sources
Method
How we picked
These picks come from dedicated research for students who want cash back, 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 students who want cash back in Canada?
The best card for students who want cash back in Canada depends on your exact spending and credit. The shortlist above holds 7 cards for this profile, each chosen because it fits students who want cash back: student cards that pay real cash back — flat or on student categories like dining, groceries, and streaming — with no annual fee and good-behavior bonuses for paying on time.
How did you choose these cards for students who want cash back?
These picks come from dedicated research for students who want cash back, 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.