American Express
Free, with 2% on gas and groceries and an unusually good 1.25% on everything else. The grocery bonus stops after $300 of cash back a year.
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 no fee for additional cards
- 1.25% on all other spending, well above the 0.5% base rate most free cards offer
- 2% on gas at stand alone stations and 2% on groceries at stand alone grocers
- 5% on everything for the first three months, up to $2,000 of purchases
- Cash back is credited once a year with no minimum redemption
Watch out for
- The 2% grocery rate stops once you have earned $300 of cash back, which is $15,000 of groceries
- The cap is on cash back rather than spending, which is easy to misread
- "Stand alone" excludes Costco, Walmart and most superstores from the 2% rates
- The cap resets on your card anniversary rather than in January
- American Express acceptance is narrower than Visa or Mastercard
- Amex does not publish the interest rate or the foreign transaction fee anywhere we could reach
What this card earns
- Groceries
- 2%
- Gas
- 2%
- Everything else
- 1.25%
- Bonus rates apply up to
- $300 of annual spending after that, the base rate
- Bonus categories at once
- 2 you choose which
The earning fine print
Issuer wording: 2% cash back on eligible gas purchases at stand-alone gas stations in Canada; 2% cash back on eligible grocery purchases at stand-alone grocery stores in Canada 'up to $300 cash back annually'; 1.25% on all other eligible purchases with no limit. Conservative reading: the $300 cash back cap is stated only against the grocery category (equivalent to $15,000 of grocery spend); once reached, groceries revert to 1.25%. No cap published on the gas category. Amex states 'the cash back calculation resets annually' on the Cardmember anniversary date, not the calendar year. Stand-alone store/station requirement excludes warehouse clubs, superstores and grocery departments inside other retailers. Interest, annual fees, cash-equivalent transactions and third-party payment services do not earn.
The welcome offer
- Welcome bonus
- $100 after you spend $2,000, within 3 months
What the offer actually requires
Amex publishes: 'Earn a bonus 5% cash back on all purchases for your first 3 months (up to $2,000 in purchases)' = up to $100 in bonus cash back. This is an accelerated intro rate capped at $2,000 of spend, not a lump-sum bonus. No offer end date published.
Fees and interest rates
- Annual fee
- None
- Additional card
- Free
- Foreign transaction fee
- Not published by the issuer
- Purchase APR
- Not published by the issuer
Who can get this card
- Minimum personal income
- Not published by the issuer
Insurance and benefits
- Purchase protection
- Included
- Extended warranty
- Included
What the benefits really mean
Travel Accident Insurance $100,000 AD&D when common carrier tickets are charged in full; Purchase Protection up to $1,000 per occurrence for 90 days; Buyer's Assurance extends the manufacturer's warranty up to one additional year. No emergency medical, no trip cancellation/interruption, no rental car CDW, no mobile device coverage. Up to 9 supplementary cards at no fee (age 13+). Plan It instalment plans available (monthly fee applies). Headline '2% on groceries' is capped at $300 of cash back per year, then drops to 1.25%; the cap is on cash back, not spend, so it is easy to misread as a $300 spend cap. Cap resets on the cardmember anniversary, not the calendar year. 'Stand-alone' gas station / grocery store requirement excludes Costco, Walmart and most superstores from the 2% rates. The '5% welcome offer' is a 3-month accelerated rate capped at $2,000 of spend (max $100), not a cash bonus. Amex does not publish the purchase APR, cash advance APR or FX fee for this card on any open web page. Do not populate from third-party review sites.
Our verdict
The 1.25% base rate is what makes this card worth holding. Most free cash back cards pay 0.5% outside their bonus categories, so a card that pays 1.25% on absolutely everything with no fee attached is doing something the rest of the free market does not.
The 2% rates are more conditional than they look. "Stand alone" grocery store rules out Costco, Walmart and most of the superstores where Canadians actually buy food, and the $300 cash back ceiling means the grocery bonus is worth at most $75 more than the base rate. Treat this as a strong 1.25% card with a small grocery kicker, not as a 2% card, and it is one of the better free cards in this comparison.
Cards worth comparing this against
Compare this against every card we track
Where this came from. Amex Canada benefits page (americanexpress.com/en-ca/benefits/simplycash-card/), Amex Canada no-annual-fee cards page and cash-back cards page (fee $0, earn rates, welcome offer), Amex Canada Cardmember Agreements index confirming the SimplyCash CMA. The main product page is consent-gated and would not render; APRs and the FX commission live in the separate 'information box and disclosure statement' Amex does not publish openly, so they are NOT PUBLISHED.. 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.