CIBC · Visa
Business card
Best business card for carrying a balance
No rewards, no fee, and an interest rate tied to prime rather than fixed at twenty percent. Nine free employee cards. Built for a business that borrows on the card rather than one that clears it.
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 nine employee cards included at no cost
- The interest rate is variable against prime, so the best tier sits far below a normal card rate
- The stated personal income requirement is only $15,000
- Sensible for a business that genuinely revolves a balance rather than clearing it monthly
- The rate applies to purchases, not just to cash advances, which is the point of the card
Watch out for
- There are no rewards at all, so every dollar you spend and clear earns nothing
- The 6.95% we show is the best of three tiers, and CIBC decides which one you get
- The rate is variable, so a carried balance costs more the moment prime moves
- You are personally liable for the balance. CIBC calls it personal liability rather than a guarantee, but the exposure is the same
- No travel insurance, no purchase protection, no lounge access
- CIBC does not publish a foreign transaction fee on the product page
What this card earns
- Everything else
- 0%
The earning fine print
There are no rewards on this card of any kind, and CIBC does not pretend otherwise. It is a borrowing card. The interest rate is variable and set against prime, which CIBC published at 4.45% on 18 August 2026. Qualified applicants get prime plus 2.5%, so 6.95% today, and the other two tiers are prime plus 7% and prime plus 13%, so 11.45% and 17.45%. Which tier you land in depends on the credit assessment. Even the worst of the three sits below a standard 19.99% card, and the best is less than half of it.
Fees and interest rates
- Annual fee
- None
- Employee card
- Free
- Employee cards included
- 9
- Foreign transaction fee
- Not published by the issuer
- Purchase APR
- 6.95%
Who can get this card
- Minimum personal income
- $15,000
- Personal guarantee required
- Yes you are personally liable for the balance
What the benefits really mean
CIBC frames this account as personal liability rather than a business personal guarantee. Read that as a difference in wording, not in exposure: the agreement is titled CIBC Business Cardholder Agreement (Personal Liability), and the primary cardholder and the business are jointly and individually liable for the balance. We flag it as requiring a personal guarantee because that is what it means for the owner. Nine employee cards are included at no charge. The purchase rate is variable and tiered at prime plus 2.5%, prime plus 7% and prime plus 13%. We record the best tier, 6.95%, against a CIBC prime rate of 4.45% published on 18 August 2026, so treat the figure as a snapshot rather than a fixed rate. There is no rewards programme and no complimentary insurance.
Our verdict
Most business cards are built for businesses that pay in full and are quietly terrible for businesses that do not. This one is the reverse. Nine free employee cards and a rate that starts at prime plus 2.5% make it the cheapest way to revolve a balance on plastic in Canada, and if your receivables run sixty days that is worth far more than 1.5% back.
Two catches. The tiering: prime plus 13% is a very different card from prime plus 2.5%, and you do not find out which one you have until CIBC decides. And the liability. CIBC calls it personal liability rather than a personal guarantee, which sounds softer and is not: you are on the hook for the balance either way. If your business clears its balance every month, this card is simply worse than any of the free cash back options here, because you are paying for a feature you never use with rewards you never earn.
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Where this came from. cibc.com business credit card pages and cardholder agreement, checked 2026-08-18. 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.