To the point
Are you looking for a credit card with no minimum income requirement? Some credit cards in Canada have no minimum income requirement.
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Why a minimum income requirement for some credit cards?
It’s a well-known fact: an exciting credit card welcome offer appears, but when you apply, you realize that you don’t meet the minimum income requirement.
You should know that each credit card network(American Express, Mastercard, Visa) imposes some criteria on its partner institutions(American Express Canada, BMO, BNC, HSBC, Scotia, etc.) to issue credit cards to their customers.
For example, a World Elite Mastercard will require an $80,000 personal income or a $150,000 household income, regardless of the institution issuing it. This will be the case, for example, with these three popular credit cards:
For example, a Visa Infinite credit card will require a $60,000 personal income or a $100,000 household income, regardless of the institution issuing it. This will be the case, for example, with these three popular credit cards:
To summarize quickly, these income criteria were requested by the merchants. Whenever you purchase at a store with your credit card, an interchange fee is charged to the merchant. You don’t see this fee, but the merchant does (and has already integrated it into the selling price)!
And the higher-end the credit card, the higher the interchange fee. Thus, by asking for a minimum income, the merchant wishes to ensure that the purchases made by customers are more likely to bring them a higher volume of purchases. This offsets the higher interchange fee for these customers.
While some institutions are more careful about this income criterion, others are less so. Or they will offer premium cards to their long-time customers or those with other products(chequing accounts, mortgages, etc.).
But there are credit cards that do not require a minimum income.
No minimum income required for these credit cards
Within the three networks, many credit cards do not require a minimum income. Here are some examples.
American Express Credit Cards
The American Express network provides credit cards to two institutions in Canada: American Express Canada and Scotiabank.
At Scotiabank, a $12,000 minimum income is required to apply for American Express cards, including the Scotiabank Gold American Express® Card.
On the other hand, most American Express Canada credit cards will not require a minimum income. Besides, the credit score may be lower than the one required by Mastercard or Visa credit card issuers.
The most popular cards that require no minimum income can earn you cash back, Aeroplan points, Marriott Bonvoy points, AIR MILES Reward Miles or Membership Rewards points. And these cards are accepted in more places than you might think!
Here is a selection of 7 credit cards having no minimum income requirement:
Mastercard and Visa credit cards
The Mastercard and Visa networks provide credit cards to many institutions in Canada such as BMO, NBC, Capital One, Desjardins, HSBC, MBNA, RBC or Scotia.
Your best bet for finding a no-income credit card at these institutions will be to look for:
For example, the BMO® CashBack® Mastercard®* for students or BMO® AIR MILES®† Mastercard®* for students have no minimum income requirement. However, the same non-student credit cards require a minimum income of $15,000.
The same applies to the SCENE VISA Card or HSBC MastercardMD +Rewards Card. And some credit cards will be called “guaranteed approval,” like Capital One. But don’t expect to get any rewards with this type of credit card.
Here is a selection of 7 credit cards having no minimum income requirement:
Conclusion
To find your next credit card, you could use our credit card comparison tool (there is a filter for the income criteria).
As you can see, you don’t need to have a minimum income to start earning reward points.
What’s more, you could start with one of the no minimum income credit cards and then be offered a product switch to a premium card by the issuer. This offer is usually made after one year based on your credit card spending. And here, you could then get a premium credit card without having the minimum income required!
