The short version
A card's score is the sum of seven components, each measured against the best figure any card in the same class actually publishes. A card that returns $900 a year in a class where the best returns $1,200 takes three quarters of the earn component. That is the whole idea.
Two consequences worth stating plainly. Scores are only comparable within a class, which is why the class is printed next to every number. And scores move when the market moves: if a better card launches, the denominator shifts and every score in that class changes without anyone editing anything.
What we score, and how much it counts
| Component | Weight | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|
| Earn value at the reference spend | 30 | annual reward value at $2,500/month on the class profile, as a share of the best in class |
| Net annual cost | 20 | annual fee less quantifiable annual credits, as a share of the lowest net cost in class |
| Travel insurance | 15 | the existing coverage score, rescaled against the best in class |
| Welcome bonus, first year | 10 | cash value of the bonus, as a share of the best in class |
| Airport lounge access | 10 | complimentary visits per year, as a share of the most in class |
| Foreign transaction fee | 8 | all or nothing: the fee is either waived or it is not |
| Redemption flexibility | 7 | whether the currency transfers to outside programs, is fixed-value, or is cash |
| Total | 100 |
Earn is the largest single component but deliberately under half. A card bought for lounge access and insurance is not mis-sold; it is sold on something an earn rate cannot express.
The reference spender
Earn value has to be measured against somebody's spending. We use $2,500 a month, the same figure every case study on this site defaults to, split across categories as follows. The same split is applied to every card in a class, so no card is measured against a spending pattern chosen to flatter it.
| Category, per month | Personal | Business |
|---|---|---|
| Groceries | $450 | — |
| Groceries at a partner banner | $150 | — |
| Dining and food delivery | $350 | $250 |
| Gas and EV charging | $200 | $250 |
| Transit, rideshare and parking | $75 | $75 |
| Travel, booked anywhere | $75 | $200 |
| Travel, issuer portal | $75 | $75 |
| Co-brand partner airline | $50 | $75 |
| Entertainment | $100 | — |
| Streaming | $50 | — |
| Drugstore | $75 | — |
| Recurring bills | $150 | $200 |
| Everything else | $650 | $725 |
| Co-brand partner hotel | $50 | $50 |
| Office supplies | — | $300 |
| Shipping | — | $150 |
| Accounting and bookkeeping | — | $150 |
| Total | $2,500 | $2,500 |
This is the biggest judgment in the model. Nothing else here moves scores as much as the shape of that spending. If your grocery bill is triple ours and you never fly, the card that suits you is not necessarily the one at the top of our table.
The travel line is split four ways because that is where cards actually compete: booked anywhere, through the issuer's own portal, on a co-brand partner airline, and at a co-brand partner hotel group. A card with no portal or co-brand rate simply earns its ordinary travel rate on those lines. It is not penalised for lacking a bonus, only for not having one.
The classes
A $799 premium travel card and a no-fee cash back card are not cross-shopped, and putting them on one scale would only report which is cheaper. Cards are scored against their own class instead.
| Class | Definition | Cards |
|---|---|---|
| premium-travel | Personal travel card, annual fee $300 or more. | 9 |
| midtier-travel | Personal travel card, annual fee $1 to $299. | 26 |
| no-fee | Personal card, no annual fee. | 4 |
| cashback | Personal card whose primary return is cash rather than a loyalty currency. | 10 |
| business-travel | Issued to a business and sold on travel benefits: a loyalty currency, lounge access, a waived FX fee, or travel insurance. | 12 |
| business-cashback | Issued to a business and sold on return rate: cash back or a fixed-value currency, with no travel benefits to speak of. | 1 (not ranked) |
A class needs at least 4 cards before we publish a ranking for it. Below that, every component is a share of the best in class, so a class of one would score full marks on everything by construction.
What points are worth
Earn rates are meaningless until points become dollars. Each currency carries one figure, used for every card that earns it, so a revaluation moves every affected card at once. These are the same numbers published in our reward values guide — typical redemptions, not best cases.
| Currency | Value per point | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scene+ | 1.00¢ | Fixed value | 1 point = 1 cent applied to travel booked through Scene+ Travel, or as a statement credit against a travel purchase charged to the card. Grocery and merchandise redemptions run below this; travel is the site's reference redemption. |
| RBC Avion | 1.14¢ | Transfers out | Avion transfers to airline partners, where premium-cabin redemptions reach the ceiling. The typical figure reflects a mixed redemption, not the best case. |
| WestJet Rewards | 1.00¢ | Fixed value | Effectively fixed value against WestJet fares. Does not transfer out. |
| More Rewards | 0.43¢ | Fixed value | 0.43 cents via the travel portal. Grocery redemption sits near the 0.12 floor, which is why RBC quotes 20,000 points as $30 in groceries. |
| Amex Membership Rewards | 1.50¢ | Transfers out | Transfers to Aeroplan, Avios, Flying Blue, Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton. The typical figure assumes a mixed transfer, well below the premium-cabin ceiling. |
| Aeroplan | 1.40¢ | Transfers out | Dynamic award pricing. The typical figure reflects a mixed economy and premium redemption. |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 0.70¢ | Transfers out | Hotel points. Transfers to airline partners at 3:1, which is why it is marked transferable despite the low typical value. |
| TD Rewards | 0.50¢ | Fixed value | Fixed value against travel booked through Expedia For TD. 200 points = $1. Does not transfer out. |
| BMO Rewards | 0.67¢ | Fixed value | Fixed value against travel through the BMO Rewards portal. 150 points = $1. Does not transfer out. |
| VIPorter | 1.50¢ | Fixed value | Redeemable on Porter, Air Transat via the joint venture, and Alaska transborder itineraries with a Porter segment. Earn partners exist but it does not transfer out. |
| À la carte Rewards | 1.00¢ | Fixed value | 1 cent each redeemed for travel through the À la carte Rewards portal. |
| Asia Miles | 1.30¢ | Transfers out | Site estimate of 1.3 cents per mile, taken from the Cathay card page. Not in the points-reward-values table; add it there so the two surfaces stay tied. |
| United MileagePlus | not published | Fixed value | No house value published for MileagePlus, on the card page or in points-reward-values.html. Left null on purpose: a card on an unvalued currency is unscorable rather than scored off a number nobody chose. |
| CIBC Aventura | 1.00¢ | Fixed value | Site estimate: ~1 cent per point on travel booked through the CIBC Rewards Centre, matching the value the programs/aventura hub quotes. The Aventura Airline Rewards Chart prices flights in fixed point bands with a maximum ticket price per band, so a fare near the top of its band can return more; statement-credit and merchandise redemptions sit near the floor. Listed in the points-reward-values table (0.50 / 1.00 / 1.50) so the two surfaces stay tied. Does not transfer out. |
| MBNA Rewards | 1.00¢ | Fixed value | MBNA publishes the schedule: 100 points per $1 toward travel, 120 points per $1 for cash back or charity, so 1.0 cent on travel and 0.83 cents as cash. Points do not expire while the account is open. Does not transfer out. Listed in the points-reward-values table (0.83 / 1.00 / 1.00). |
Cash back cards need no conversion: their rates are already percentages of dollars. A currency with no published value means any card earning it is not scored, rather than scored off a number nobody chose.
Rules we hold ourselves to
No invented tiers
Every component is a share of the best figure observed in the class, never a bucket ladder. Buckets smuggle a judgment in through the boundaries: if $1,500 is one tier and $1,499 another, someone chose that line. A proportion of what cards actually publish is a statement about the market and nothing else.
Missing is not zero
If we have not verified a fact a card cannot be scored without, the card is not scored at all. It gets a plain "not scored" note saying which fact is missing. Publishing a number for a card whose lounge access we never looked up would be worse than publishing nothing.
A class of one is not a ranking
Below four cards, a class cannot produce an honest score: every component is a share of the best in class, so a class of one scores full marks on everything by construction. Those cards show as not scored, with the reason.
Components a class does not compete on are dropped
If no card in a class offers lounge access, that component is removed and its weight is spread across the rest rather than costing every card in the class the same ten points. "This card has no lounge access" and "no card in this class has lounge access" are different claims, and only the first says anything about the card.
Unlimited is not a number
A card with open lounge access takes full marks for that component but is excluded from setting the ceiling, because if unlimited were the denominator every finite figure would score zero against it.
One-time rebates are not annual value
A first-year fee waiver is a discount you receive once. Recurring credits, like an annual travel credit, are subtracted from the fee every year. Treating a one-year waiver as permanent would flatter those cards forever.
The fit score
The site carries a second number, and the two are easy to confuse because both are out of 100. The fit score answers “how well does this card do one specific job”, such as groceries, Air Canada flying or business travel, so a single card carries a different fit score in every table it appears in. The card score on this page answers “how does this card stand against others of its type”, once, across all seven components.
The fit score is computed by fit-score.cjs from the same card facts and the same point values as the card score. Four components add to 100:
| Component | Weight | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|
| Earn in the category | 45 | the card’s best rate on the table’s yardstick categories, converted to an effective return at the currency’s typical value, as a share of a 6% return |
| Welcome bonus | 20 | cash value of the first-year bonus at the same typical value, as a share of $1,200; an unpublished or variable offer scores neutral (half marks) |
| Annual fee | 20 | the listed fee before any credits or rebates: $0 takes full marks, $599 or more takes none, straight line between |
| Ease of qualifying | 15 | no income requirement takes full marks; a personal income gate of up to $20K takes 90%, $60K takes 70%, $80K takes 55%, $150K takes 30%, above that 15% |
Fixed references: a 6% effective return, a $1,200 welcome and a $599 fee each mark the end of their scale. Point values are the typical values in the table above, the same ones the card score uses. A currency with no published value is held out of every fit table, not guessed.
Because a fit table mixes classes on purpose (a $599 lounge card and a no-fee starter card can both be Aeroplan cards), its components are scaled against fixed references rather than the best in class. Who appears in each table is a rule over the card facts, never a hand-picked list: every card we cover lands in the table for each job it qualifies for, and each row shows the card score beside the fit score.
They will disagree, and that is expected: a card can be the best in Canada at one job and unremarkable overall, or solid everywhere and top of nothing. Use the fit score when you know the job you are buying for and the card score when you are choosing between cards of the same kind. Every card we cover appears in the full rankings.
What the score does not know
It does not know whether American Express is accepted where you shop. It does not know that a program might devalue next year, or that you find one bank's app unbearable. It does not price a companion voucher, elite status, or a concierge, because those are worth wildly different amounts to different people and any number we picked would be fiction dressed as arithmetic.
Those things are real, and they are why every card page carries a written verdict alongside the number. The score is a starting point for comparison, not a recommendation.
Money and independence
Some links on this site are affiliate links, and we may earn a commission when you apply through them. The score is computed from the data files linked above and has no input for commission, partner status, or anything else commercial. You can check that yourself: the inputs and the formula are both published, so if a score looked bought, the arithmetic would give it away.
When this changes
Scores are recomputed whenever the underlying facts change. Each card page shows the date its facts were last verified against the issuer. If an issuer changes an earn rate and we update it, every score in that class moves the same day, including the scores of cards we earn nothing from.