Visa Infinite vs. Visa Infinite Privilege: What Are the Differences?

When you’re looking to add a new card to your loyalty wallet, and you’re in the market for something a little more premium, you’ve likely looked at the Visa Infinite and Visa Infinite Privilege options that are on offer.
While both types of Visas are available through multiple Canadian banks and have a minimum income requirement, the Visa Infinite Privilege cards set that access barrier all the way up at a six-figure personal income requirement.
Given this, one would assume that these high-end cards offer considerably more than their Visa Infinite relatives, which require a considerably more approachable minimum personal income requirement — but is this actually the case?
In this article, we’ll compare the differences across all relevant areas to see which type of Visa suits you best.

Visa Infinite vs. Visa Infinite Privilege
Here is how Visa Infinite cards and Visa Infinite Privilege cards compare, category by category.
Minimum Income Requirements
As mentioned above, Visa Infinite cards and Visa Infinite Privilege cards both require that you meet a minimum income threshold in order to be eligible.
These minimum income requirements are:
- Visa Infinite: $60,000 personal or $100,000 household
- Visa Infinite Privilege: $150,000 personal or $200,000 household
As you can see, to be eligible the Visa Infinite Privilege tier of cards, you need a whopping 2.5x the personal income requirement requested by the Visa Infinite tier, making these cards inaccessible to most people.
Annual Fees
In terms of annual fees, you can expect the following ranges across all Canadian banks:
- Visa Infinite: $99 to $150 (occasionally waived for the first year)
- Visa Infinite Privilege: $395 to $599
It’s worth noting that some banks offer a partial rebate on the Visa Infinite Privilege annual fee if you’re a member or if you hold a specific type of account.
That said, these are still considerable expenses just to have a credit card, so let’s continue our exploration of these cards to see if these fees are justified and if these are cards you could keep year after year.
Available Card Options
There are over 20 different Visa Infinite cards available through banks and credit unions in Canada, while, comparatively, there are only around 10 Visa Infinite Privilege cards.
From this we can understand that there is more diversity in the Visa Infinite offerings and their characteristics than there is with the Visa Infinite Privilege cards.
Most notably this means that there is more choice in rewards programs at the Visa Infinite tier, including different programs available within the same bank. For example, both CIBC and RBC offer three different Visa Infinite cards for three different rewards programs.
Reward Programs
Across the range of Visa Infinite cards, there are around 15 different rewards programs available.
However, at the Visa Infinite Privilege level, your choices go down to 7 different rewards programs.
The types of rewards that you can earn with either a Visa Infinite card or a Visa Infinite Privilege card include:
- Cash back
- Travel programs (e.g., Aeroplan, British Airways Avios, CIBC’s Aventura, and RBC’s Avion)
- Lifestyle programs (e.g., Scotiabank’s Scene+)
- Bank rewards programs (e.g., BMO Rewards and TD Rewards)
Visa Infinite cards are available in all of these categories, while Visa Infinite Privilege cards are limited to the latter three.
Additionally, it’s worth noting that overall the Visa Infinite Privilege cards are essentially designed with a traveller in mind since the additional perks and benefits that come with Visa Infinite Privileges tend to be travel focused. (More on this below.)
Welcome bonuses
Both Visa Infinite cards and Visa Infinite Privilege cards offer welcome bonuses to new cardholders if they can meet set spending requirements.
These bonuses are often structured in a way so that you earn the full advertised welcome offer in multiple chunks over the course of your first year as a card member. They also typically include an anniversary bonus that requires you keep the card into the second year if you want to earn the full bonus.
As we would expect, the welcome offers tend to be higher for Visa Infinite Privilege cards than for Visa Infinite cards, but unfortunately, the spending requirements attached usually match this increase.
For example, let’s look at two cards from different tiers that both earn Aeroplan points: the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card and the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Card.
TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card: Welcome offer of up to 50,000 Aeroplan points
- Earn 10,000 points when you make your first purchase;
- Earn 15,000 more points when you spend $3,000 within the first 90 days;
- Earn a one-time anniversary bonus of 25,000 points when you spend $12,000 within the first 12 months.
TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card: Welcome offer of up to 100,000 Aeroplan points
- Earn 20,000 points when you make your first purchase;
- Earn 30,000 more points when you spend $12,000 within the first 180 days;
- Earn a one-time anniversary bonus of 50,000 points when you spend $24,000 within the first 12 months.
As you can see, the Visa Infinite Privilege offers twice the points, in exchange for twice the spending: $24,000 in the first year, compared with $12,000 for the Visa Infinite.
Earning rates
In terms of earning rates, Visa Infinite Privilege cards tend to have higher earning rates compared to their same-family Visa Infinite cards.
It’s not really possible to compare earning rates across multiple rewards programs since the value of most currencies is not fixed and can fluctuate considerably depending on how they’re redeemed.
With this in mind, for this category, we’re exclusively comparing the earning rates between the two tiers within the same bank and the same rewards program to demonstrate the incremental differences in earning rates.
Example 1
Let’s compare the earning rates of the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* Card and the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege* Card.
| Spend Categories | BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* Card | BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege* Card |
|---|---|---|
| Groceries | 5x | 5x |
| Gas | 5x | 5x |
| Dining out | 5x | 5x |
| Transit | 5x | 1x |
| Beauty/drugstore | 1x | 5x |
| Travel | 1x | 5x |
| Everything else | 1x | 1x |
In this chart, we can see that the Visa Infinite Privilege option offers an extra elevated category and also appears to be focused on higher value categories, like travel, with more earning potential.
Example 2
Looking at the earning rates available with the CIBC Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card and CIBC Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card, we can see a similar pattern to above:
| Spend Categories | CIBC Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card | CIBC Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card |
|---|---|---|
| Groceries | 1.5 points per $1 | 1.5 points per $1 |
| Gas | 1.5 points per $1 | 1.5 points per $1 |
| EV charging | 1.5 points per $1 | 1.5 points per $1 |
| Dining out | 1 points per $1 | 1.5 points per $1 |
| Travel | 1 points per $1 | 1.5 points per $1 |
| Air Canada purchases | 1.5 points per $1 | 2 points per $1 |
| Everything else | 1 points per $1 | 1.25 point per $1 |
Once again, we’re seeing slightly elevated earning rates for the Visa Infinite Privilege card, especially focused in more premium areas like dining out and travel.
Redemption options
Interestingly, redemption options for Visa Infinite cards and Visa Infinite Privilege cards are the same across the board with one exception.
With the CIBC Aventura Visa Infinite Privilege Card, you’re allowed to book business class award flights using the CIBC Aventura Flight Rewards Chart. Cardholders with all other Aventura cards are only able to book economy class award flights.
Insurance Coverage
When it comes to insurance coverage, both card tiers offer fairly comprehensive packages, but Visa Infinite Privilege cards tend to expand and improve on what’s offered by their Visa Infinite counterparts.
To get an idea of how your insurance coverage could improve if you were to select a Visa Infinite Privilege card instead of a Visa Infinite card, let’s look at the coverage offered by the RBC Avion Visa Infinite and the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Privilege.
| Coverage | RBC Avion Visa Infinite | rbc avion visa infinite privilege |
|---|---|---|
| Travel medical insurance | up to 15 days | up to 31 days |
| Trip cancellation insurance | $1,500 | $2,500 |
| Trip interruption insurance | $5,000 | $5,000 |
| Common carrier travel accident insurance | $500,000 | $500,000 |
| Flight delay insurance | $500 | $500 |
| Delayed baggage insurance | $500 | $500 |
| Lost/stolen baggage insurance | $500 | $2,500 |
| Auto rental/loss insurance | $65,000 – 48 days | $85,000 – 48 days |
| Hotel/motel burglary insurance | $2,500 | $3,000 |
| Extended warranty | 1 year | 2 years |
| Purchase protection | 90 days | 120 days |
| Mobile device insurance | $1,500 for 1 year | $1,500 for 1 year |
As you can see from the chart above, there are a few coverage areas that receive a boost when you’re a Visa Infinite Privilege cardholder, such as a longer term for your travel medical insurance and higher values for trip cancellation, lost/stolen baggage, and hotel/motel burglary insurance.
Perks and Benefits
In the perks and benefits category, we see the same trend that we saw across the other categories — namely that the Visa Infinite cards give you some solid offerings from which the Visa Infinite Privilege cards expand.
Additionally, some Visa Infinite Privilege cards offer annual travel and/or dining credits that can help offset the high annual fees and make the cards more appealing long-term and in general.
To look at an example, here’s a comparison of the perks and benefits offer by the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card and the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card.
| Perks & Benefits | TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card | TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card |
|---|---|---|
| Free checked bags on Air Canada flights | X | X |
| NEXUS credit | X | X |
| Free airport lounge access, including Maple Leaf Lounges | X | |
| Annual Worldwide Travel Companion Pass | X | |
| Concierge service | X | X |
| Visa Infinite services (exclusive access to experiences and entertainment) | X | X |
| Priority airport services (check-in, boarding, etc.) | X | |
| Discount on Avis/Budget car rentals | X | X |
| Free eSIM through GigSky | X | X |
| Visa RSVP Rewards | X | X |
As we’ve seen across all the other categories, both cards offer a nice selection of benefits, with the Visa Infinite Privilege upping the ante in terms of travel perks.
To really dig in to all the benefits offered by either tier of card, you can always take a look at the Visa Infinite benefits and the Visa Infinite Privilege benefits on their associated websites. Just keep in mind that these lists will not include the additional benefits that are offered by each bank and partnered reward program.
So Which Card Should You Choose?
If you qualify for a Visa Infinite Privilege card, they’re usually most valuable when chosen thoughtfully with a good understanding of how you’ll use them to earn and redeem points and take advantage of any perks and annual credits.
However, since they command high annual fees, high income requirements, and a considerable spend requirement to earn the welcome offers, these cards are not particularly accessible.
Comparatively, Visa Infinite cards come in with much lower annual fees and income requirements, all while offering fairly similar earning rates and many of the same benefits.
The Visa Infinite level is definitely the sweet spot where you can earn rewards and build your loyalty wallet without having to be too strategic.
This is also the level where benefits really start to be noticeable – especially compared to the Visa Platinum level, which typically offers fewer perks and benefits and lower earning rates.
In the end, we think that the Visa Infinite cards are the more versatile and accessible option; however, a Visa Infinite Privilege card can also be powerful addition to any rewards wallet — just make sure you do your research before applying.
Bottom Line
Visa Infinite cards and Visa Infinite Privilege cards are popular choices thanks to their solid benefits packages, diverse choice of banks and reward programs, and the wide acceptance of Visa around the world.
Luckily, there’s loads of options among this family of cards, so if you’re in the market for a new addition to your wallet, you’re sure to find something that suits your rewards style.
Read on about some of your options in a handful of our head-to-head comparisons below:
- Head-to-Head: CIBC Aventura Visa Infinite vs. Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite +
- Head to Head: Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite +* Card vs Scotiabank Gold American Express Card
- Head to Head: RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card vs Scotia Passport Visa Infinite + Card
- Head to Head: CIBC Aventura Visa Infinite Card vs RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card
Frequently Asked Questions
Which banks offer Visa Infinite cards?
Which banks offer Visa Infinite Privilege cards?
What rewards programs are available with Visa Infinite and Visa Infinite Privilege cards?
What income do I need to qualify for Visa Infinite vs. Visa Infinite Privilege?
Which Visa benefits come with both tiers?
What does the Visa Infinite Privilege tier add?
Does a Visa Infinite Privilege card include airport lounge access?
What is the annual fee difference between the two TD Aeroplan cards?
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