CIBC · Visa
A free student card that earns Aeroplan points and includes rental car cover. Half the advertised welcome bonus needs $10,000 of spending on a card with a $5,000 limit.
Rates and features verified 2026-08-18Full terms and conditionsHow we research cards
What we like, and what we don’t
Worth having
- No annual fee, and CIBC publishes a $0 income requirement
- 1 Aeroplan point a dollar on gas, EV charging, groceries and Air Canada
- Rental car collision and loss damage insurance, which is rare on a free student card
- Aeroplan points transfer at the same value as the premium Aeroplan cards, so a student earns real currency
- Points can be earned twice at Aeroplan partners and retail partners
Watch out for
- The advertised 10,000 point welcome bonus needs $10,000 of purchases, on a card whose limit is capped at $5,000
- International students are capped at a $2,000 limit, which puts most of the bonus out of reach
- It is an Air Canada card with no travel medical insurance
- Everything outside the bonus categories earns 1 point per $1.50
- CIBC does not publish the coverage amounts or age limits on the insurance it does include
What this card earns
- Groceries
- 1x
- Gas
- 1x
- Travel
- 1x
- Everything else
- 0.67x
- Bonus categories at once
- 1 you choose which
- What we value a point at
- 2¢
The earning fine print
1 Aeroplan point per $1 spent on eligible gas, electric vehicle charging, groceries, and Air Canada purchases. All other purchases earn 1 point per $1.50 spent; earn_base is recorded as 0.67 points per dollar solely as the direct arithmetic restatement of the issuer's own '1 point per $1.50' wording, not as an estimate. Additional points can be earned twice at 150+ Aeroplan partners and 170+ retailers via the Aeroplan eStore, which is a program feature rather than a card earn rate. No earn cap is published.
The welcome offer
- Welcome bonus
- 2,500 points
- Second tier
- 2,500 points after you spend $1,500, within 4 months
What the offer actually requires
Headline 'up to 10,000 Aeroplan points (up to $200 in travel value)' is three separate tranches, and the largest one is a full year away. Tier 1: 2,500 points on first purchase (no dollar threshold published). Tier 2: 2,500 points for spending $1,500 or more during the first 4 monthly statement periods. Tier 3 (does not fit the two-tier schema): 5,000 points paid on the account anniversary and only if net purchases reach $10,000 in the first 12 months. An unrealistic threshold for most students given the $5,000 credit limit, so the realistically attainable bonus is 5,000 points, not 10,000. No offer end date published.
Fees and interest rates
- Annual fee
- None
- Additional card
- Free
- Foreign transaction fee
- 2.5%
- Purchase APR
- 21.99%
- Cash advance APR
- 22.99%
- Balance transfer APR
- 22.99%
Who can get this card
- Minimum personal income
- $0
Insurance and benefits
- Rental car damage waiver
- Included
- Purchase protection
- Included
- Extended warranty
- Included
What the benefits really mean
Embedded: Purchase Security and Extended Protection Insurance, Common Carrier Accident Insurance, and Car Rental Collision and Loss Damage Insurance. Coverage dollar amounts, day limits and age limits are NOT PUBLISHED on the product page. No travel medical, trip cancellation, trip interruption, flight delay or baggage coverage. Credit limit capped at $5,000 for Canadian students, $2,000 for international students. HEADLINE vs SUBSTANCE: 'up to 10,000 Aeroplan points' requires $10,000 in net purchases in 12 months for the final 5,000, but the card's credit limit is capped at $5,000 ($2,000 for international students). Half the advertised bonus is effectively out of reach for a typical student. This card carries rental car collision/loss damage but NO travel medical. An Air Canada-branded card that will not cover a student who gets sick abroad. Income published as $0 by CIBC. APRs are client-side placeholders on the product page; taken from CIBC's catch-all rate row which does not name student cards. Quebec residents pay 21.99% on cash advances/balance transfers and no per-transaction cash advance fee. Insurance coverage amounts are entirely unpublished on the issuer page. Do not populate them from aggregator sites.
Our verdict
Aeroplan points are the most valuable currency a Canadian student can realistically earn, and this is the only free way in. At our valuation the points are worth two cents each, so a point a dollar on groceries and gas is effectively 2% back, which beats every cash back student card here. The rental car cover is a genuine surprise on a free card.
The welcome offer is where CIBC oversells. The final 5,000 points need $10,000 of purchases in a year, and CIBC caps student credit limits at $5,000, or $2,000 for international students. Reaching it means paying the card off several times over and spending nearly everything on it. Treat the realistic bonus as 5,000 points, not 10,000, and the card still holds up.
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Where this came from. CIBC product page for fees, earn, bonus, insurance and credit limits; CIBC student credit cards hub for income/enrolment; CIBC Credit Card Summary of Annual Interest Rates and Fees (current as of August 1, 2026) for APRs and 2.5% FX fee.. We take every figure from the issuer’s own pages, never from another comparison site, and we leave a field blank rather than guess at it.