No Canadian issuer publishes an approval rate, and none publishes the credit score it wants. Of the 98 personal credit cards we track, exactly one records a credit score band and none records a minimum score. What issuers do publish is a short list, and it is worth knowing exactly how short.
This article is about published requirements. It is not a prediction of whether an application will succeed, and nothing on this site estimates one, because an estimate would be a number we invented about a decision somebody else makes.
Income Is the One Requirement That Gets Published
Forty three of the 98 cards publish a minimum personal income and forty publish a household figure instead or as well. Fifty five publish no personal income requirement at all.
| Stated minimum personal income | Cards |
|---|---|
| $80,000 | 13 |
| $60,000 | 10 |
| $0, stated explicitly | 7 |
| $150,000 | 4 |
| $12,000 | 4 |
| Not published | 55 |
The pattern behind those numbers is the card tier rather than the issuer. Infinite and World Elite tier cards carry income requirements set by the network, which is why $60,000 personal or $100,000 household recurs across issuers who otherwise share nothing. Below that tier, most cards simply do not state a figure.
Stated Zero and Not Stated Are Different Things
This is the distinction that matters most and the one most comparison sites erase. Seven cards state a minimum income of $0. Fifty five state nothing.
A card that affirmatively says there is no income requirement, as CIBC does on its student cards, has made a promise you can rely on. A card that never mentions income has told you nothing, and the issuer is still going to look at your income. Treating the second as though it were the first is how a comparison ends up ranking a card as “easiest to qualify for” on the strength of the issuer having said less. On this site a blank is recorded as a blank at every layer, and the seven explicit zeros sort ahead of the fifty five silences.
What Almost Nothing Publishes
- Credit score. No card in our database publishes a minimum. One records a described band. Every “you need 725 for this card” figure online is somebody reverse engineering from anecdotes.
- Approval rate. Nothing. No Canadian issuer publishes one, which is why this site has no such column and no sort that implies one.
- Length of credit history, or the number of recent applications. Both are widely believed to matter. Neither is published as a rule by any issuer here.
- Existing debt limits. Not published, though issuers plainly look at them.
The Rules That Are Published and Get Missed
Quebec Is Excluded From Some Cards
Four of the personal cards we track are not available to Quebec residents at all: the Cathay World Elite Mastercard powered by Neo, the Home Trust Secured Visa, the MBNA True Line Mastercard and the Simplii Financial Cash Back Visa. This is a hard eligibility rule rather than a preference, and it is usually one line on a terms page.
A Few Cards Require an Existing Relationship
Three cards require you to already hold an account with the institution. That is a genuine barrier and it is published, so it is recorded.
Secured Cards and Cards That Accept Poor Credit
Two cards in our database are secured, meaning a deposit is held against the limit, and four state that they accept applicants with poor credit. That is six cards out of 98 for anybody rebuilding, which is a thin part of the Canadian market and worth knowing before assuming there is a wide choice.
Business Cards Ask a Different Set of Questions
Business cards are underwritten on the business, so the personal income line is usually blank on all of them. What matters instead is whether a personal guarantee is required, which is common, and how long the business has been trading. Both are recorded on the business comparison.
How We Rank Ease of Qualifying, and What It Is Not
The directory offers an “easiest to qualify for” sort. It is not a prediction and it does not use a score, because there is no data that would support either. It ranks on the barriers issuers actually state, in this order:
- Secured cards first, then cards that state they accept poor credit.
- Then stated minimum income, personal where given, household where that is the only figure published.
- Requiring an existing account with the institution adds a small penalty.
A card that states $0 income sorts ahead of a card that never mentions income, for the reason above. When that sort is active the page says in plain words what it is ranking on, because a sort called “easiest” that quietly means “said the least” would be worse than no sort at all.
What This Means Before You Apply
Two practical consequences follow from how little is published. The first is that the published income figure is a filter rather than a threshold: meeting it does not mean approval, and it is the only published rule you can check yourself. The second is that an application is a hard credit check whatever the outcome, so applying widely to see what sticks has a cost, and the information that would let you avoid it does not exist publicly.
You can see your own credit report free from both Canadian bureaus, and checking it yourself is a soft inquiry that does not affect anything. That is the one piece of the picture you can actually get.
Every card in the directory records what its issuer publishes about eligibility and leaves the rest blank. How we research sets out what we refuse to publish and why approval rates are on that list.
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