Disclosure: PaycheckGuru may earn a commission if you open an account through links on this page. This does not affect what we write. Every figure below was checked against Wealthsimple’s own current documentation on 17 August 2026, and where Wealthsimple’s own pages disagree with each other, we say so.
The Wealthsimple credit card gets written about as a 2% cash back card. That is accurate but it is not the decision. The decision is a $240 annual fee that most reviews still describe incorrectly, and two specific ways to make it disappear. One of those ways is a payroll change, which is why we are covering this card at all.
This review reflects the card as it stands in August 2026. That matters more than usual here, because Wealthsimple has changed the fee, the card names, the eligibility thresholds and the fee waiver rules several times since launch, and most of the reviews currently ranking for this card are describing a product that no longer exists.
The short verdict
If you already keep $100,000 or more at Wealthsimple as an individual, or you are willing to move your paycheque there, this is one of the strongest everyday cards in Canada: a flat 2% on everything, no foreign transaction fee, and no cost. Very little else in the Canadian market matches that combination at $0.
If you cannot clear either bar, the card asks $240 a year for a 2% return. That is a real product with a real break-even, and for a lot of people the honest answer is a no-fee card instead.
Three things disqualify it outright for some households: there are no supplementary cards, so a couple cannot share an account; you can only pay the balance from a Wealthsimple chequing account; and if you live in Quebec, most of the travel insurance does not apply to you.
Referral link. A chequing account is required before you can apply for the card, and card approval is separate.
There are three Wealthsimple cards, not one
Wealthsimple renamed its original card and added a third tier in June 2026. Reviews that mention only “the Wealthsimple Visa Infinite” are out of date.
| Card | Cash back | Fee | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visa Infinite 1% (beta) | 1% unlimited | None | Invitation only, no waitlist, virtual card only during beta |
| Visa Infinite + | 2% unlimited | $20/month ($240/year), waivable | Open to anyone who qualifies |
| Visa Infinite Privilege | 2% unlimited | $20/month ($240/year), waivable | Open to anyone who qualifies |
You do not choose your tier. You apply once and Wealthsimple assigns you a card based on income, assets and spending. You also cannot hold more than one Wealthsimple credit card at a time, and there is currently no upgrade path from the 1% beta card to the 2% cards.
The 1% card is a genuinely unusual product: instead of a fixed benefits package, you pick three benefits from a menu of eight at application. Notably, no FX fees is one of the eight choices rather than a standard feature, so a 1% cardholder who wants fee-free foreign spending has to spend one of their three picks on it. Your selections lock for 12 months, and so does the card colour.
Eligibility: four doors, you only need one
This is the single most misreported part of the card. Almost every review still lists income as the requirement. Income is one of four qualifying routes, and you only need to satisfy one of them.
| Meet at least one | 1% (beta) | Visa Infinite + | Privilege |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal income | $60,000+ | $80,000+ | $150,000+ |
| Household income | $100,000+ | $150,000+ | $200,000+ |
| Savings and investments | $250,000+ | $300,000+ | $400,000+ |
| Annual card spend | $15,000+ | $25,000+ | $50,000+ |
Two practical consequences. A self-employed person with modest declared income but $25,000 of annual card spend can qualify for the 2% card. So can someone with a large portfolio and no employment income at all.
Everyone also needs to be a Canadian resident at the age of majority in their province, and to hold an active Wealthsimple chequing account. Wealthsimple runs a soft credit check first, which does not affect your score, and only runs a hard check if you pass and choose to continue. Declined applicants can reapply after 30 days.
One conflict worth knowing about: Wealthsimple’s marketing page still describes the Visa Infinite + as requiring $80,000 personal or $150,000 household income and does not mention the asset or spend routes at all. The help centre, updated more recently, lists all four. If you are close to the line, apply rather than assuming.
If you are working out where you sit against the $80,000 personal income threshold, our income after tax pages show what those gross figures actually look like once payroll deductions come off.
The fee, and why it is really a payroll question
The card costs $20 per month, billed to your statement, which is $240 a year. Quebec residents are billed the $240 annually and up front, at card issuance, with a pro-rated refund of $20 per remaining month if they later become eligible for the waiver.
There are exactly two ways to pay nothing:
- Hold $100,000 or more at Wealthsimple as an individual, measured on net deposits or total assets, excluding business and corporate accounts.
- Direct deposit at least $4,000 into your Wealthsimple chequing account in the previous or current calendar month, up to but excluding your statement date.
The second route is the one worth understanding properly, and it is where nearly every other review stops short.
The $4,000 does not have to be a single deposit, and it does not have to be a paycheque. Wealthsimple identifies qualifying direct deposits by their Payments Canada transaction codes, which covers standard payroll deposits and also government payments including CPP, Old Age Security and Employment Insurance. What does not count is money you push over yourself. An Interac e-Transfer from your existing bank, or a manual transfer, will not trigger the waiver no matter how large it is. This catches people out constantly.
So the question is not whether you can move $4,000 a month. It is whether you can get your employer’s payroll system to send $4,000 a month. If you are paid bi-weekly, that means roughly $1,847 net per pay period, or about $2,000 semi-monthly. Our payroll calculator will tell you what actually lands from a given salary, which is the number that matters here, not your gross.
Wealthsimple’s institution number is 703 and its transit number is 00001. Some payroll platforms still have not added institution 703, which is a known friction point rather than a rare one.
What changed on 28 April 2026
Until April 2026, being attached to a Premium or Generation household waived the credit card fee. That ended. Household status no longer waives anything. You now need $100,000 in your own name or a qualifying direct deposit of your own.
Anyone who already had the household waiver before 28 April 2026 keeps it, in Wealthsimple’s words, until further notice.
This change produced the sharpest criticism the card has attracted. On RedFlagDeals, one poster described adding a card for a parent attached to their Premium household, seeing the fee shown as waived while on the waitlist, then being charged after signing up, and getting three different answers from support before cancelling. That is one account rather than a pattern, but the structural point stands: a spouse or parent who was covered by your household status is not covered any more, and the marketing language around no annual fee does not make that obvious.
The break-even, if you are paying
At 2% back, $240 of fees requires $12,000 of annual spending, or $1,000 a month, just to reach zero. Everything above that is profit.
Spend $2,000 a month and you earn roughly $480 a year against $240 of fees, netting $240. That is a real return, but compare it honestly: the same $24,000 of spending on a no-fee 2% card would net $480, and on a no-fee 1.5% card would net $360. Paying the fee only makes sense if the absent FX fee, the insurance or the lounge access is worth the difference to you.
Cash back posts to your Wealthsimple chequing account after each statement period, and you can also redeem it manually at any time into a stock trading, crypto or managed investing account, including a TFSA or RRSP. It cannot be redeemed directly into an RESP or RRIF. Cash back does not apply to cash-like transactions, refunds, fees or adjustments.
No foreign transaction fee is the underrated part
Most Canadian cards add 2.5% to foreign currency purchases. Wealthsimple adds nothing. On $4,000 of foreign spending, that is $100 you simply do not pay, and it stacks on top of the 2% cash back.
The category is thin. Very few Canadian cards drop the FX fee, and most that do earn 1% or 1x. Earning 2% with no FX surcharge is close to unique. Note that the payment network still applies its own currency conversion rate, which is not a fee Wealthsimple controls or waives.
Insurance, and the Quebec problem
Both 2% cards include purchase security up to $1,000 per occurrence to a $10,000 cardholder maximum for 90 days, an extended warranty that doubles the manufacturer’s repair period up to one additional year, and mobile phone insurance up to $1,000 per claim with a $50 deductible, capped at two claims per 12 months and conditional on paying your phone bill with the card.
Travel coverage splits by tier. The Visa Infinite + carries up to $1,000,000 in out-of-province emergency medical, the Privilege carries $2,000,000. Both are limited to the first 14 consecutive days of a trip and to people under 65, which are meaningful restrictions that get glossed over. Delayed and lost baggage runs to $1,000 on the Infinite + and $1,250 on Privilege. Flight delay coverage of up to $1,000 per occurrence was added in 2026. Only the Privilege tier includes rental car collision and loss damage, up to $65,000 MSRP for rentals of up to 31 days, and only the Privilege tier includes airport lounge access through Visa Airport Companion.
One inconsistency to be aware of: Wealthsimple’s comparison table lists Visa Infinite + trip cancellation at up to $1,000 per eligible person, while the detailed section of the same help centre article lists $1,500 per eligible person. Both agree on the $3,000 per trip maximum. Check the certificate of insurance before relying on the per-person figure.
If you live in Quebec, read this part twice. Out-of-province emergency medical, trip cancellation and interruption, delayed and lost baggage, and flight delay insurance are all unavailable to Quebec residents. What remains is purchase security, the extended warranty and mobile phone insurance. A Quebec resident buying this card as a travel card is buying the 2% and the absent FX fee, and essentially nothing else. That is still a decent proposition, but it is a materially different product from the one sold on the marketing page, and it is the most under-reported fact about this card.
What cardholders actually say
Sentiment splits cleanly along the fee line, and has done since launch.
Among people who get the card free, it is close to universally liked. Forum posters who hold Premium status and were matched to the Privilege tier describe the combination of no annual fee, travel insurance, no FX fees, 2% back and lounge passes as straightforwardly worth it. One RedFlagDeals poster called the Privilege card, when free, an amazing card. The application process is repeatedly described as quick, and the virtual card is available in the app immediately while the physical card takes about seven business days.
Among people who would pay, the mood is sour, and has been since the fee doubled from $120 to $240 in late 2025. Reddit users in the Wealthsimple subreddit told Money.ca at the time that they would not get the card if the fee were not waived, and that the increase made it no longer competitive. One RedFlagDeals commenter reached for the word enshittification to describe a fee doubling that arrived before the card was even generally available. A recurring and more measured criticism is that the insurance package does not match what major bank Visa Infinite cards offer at similar or lower cost, and that six lounge passes on the top tier is thin.
Scarcity was a long-running complaint. Wealthsimple’s CEO said publicly that a credit card was the most requested product in the company’s history and that 100,000 clients had been invited by the end of 2025, which against a client base in the millions explains a lot of frustrated waitlist posts. That has now resolved: Wealthsimple’s help centre states plainly that anyone can apply. Reviews still telling you to join a waitlist are stale.
Wider Wealthsimple service complaints on Trustpilot, which skew heavily negative and centre on account holds, frozen funds and slow support, are worth knowing as context. They are mostly about the investing and crypto side rather than the card, but slow support giving inconsistent answers is a theme that also shows up in card-specific fee disputes.
Where the card genuinely falls short
- No supplementary cards. There is no way to add a spouse or authorized user. Each person applies on their own income and credit. For households that consolidate spending on one account, this alone can rule it out.
- Chequing account lock-in. You must hold a Wealthsimple chequing account, and it is the only account you can pay the balance from. You cannot push a payment from an external bank’s bill-pay screen. Money has to land at Wealthsimple first.
- No welcome bonus. None on any tier, which is unusual for a Canadian card at this fee level.
- Bill pay does not earn. Wealthsimple’s in-app bill pay draws from chequing, not the card. Paying rent or property tax needs a third-party service whose fees will eat most of the 2%.
- Not for credit building. There is no secured version, and the income and asset floors exclude students, newcomers and anyone rebuilding credit.
- Metal card is individual only. The metal card requires $100,000 in your own name. Reaching $100,000 through a household does not qualify you.
How it compares
Against the Rogers Red World Elite Mastercard: if you are a Rogers, Fido or Shaw customer, the Rogers card returns an effective 3% when cash back is applied to those bills, with no annual fee. On domestic spending the Rogers card wins outright. It charges the standard 2.5% FX fee, so Wealthsimple wins on foreign spending.
Against the Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite: both drop the FX fee. Scotiabank gives six lounge passes on its standard tier for a fee in the $150 range, where Wealthsimple reserves lounge access for the Privilege tier and its much higher thresholds. If you want lounge access and cannot reach Wealthsimple Privilege, Scotiabank is the better buy. If you can get Wealthsimple free, Wealthsimple is.
The pattern is consistent: this card is excellent at $0 and mediocre at $240.
Check your eligibility with Wealthsimple
Referral link. The initial eligibility check is a soft credit check and does not affect your score.
Should you get it
Yes, if you already hold $100,000 or more at Wealthsimple individually, or your net pay is comfortably above $4,000 a month and you are willing to move your direct deposit. In either case you get a flat 2% card with no FX fee for nothing, and that is hard to beat.
Probably, if you spend well over $12,000 a year, travel internationally with any regularity, and live outside Quebec. The fee clears and the FX saving is real.
No, if you would pay the full $240 on moderate spending, you need a card your partner can share, you are a Rogers customer whose spending is mostly domestic, or you are building credit.
One caution worth stating plainly. Moving investments to Wealthsimple purely to clear the $100,000 threshold and dodge a $240 fee is the tail wagging the dog. Where your long-term savings sit should be decided on its own merits. Switching a direct deposit is a much smaller commitment and is easily reversed, which makes it the sensible route for most people.
Frequently asked questions
Does applying hurt my credit score?
The initial eligibility check is a soft check and does not. A hard check runs only if you pass and continue with the application.
Can I get the fee waived by being in a Premium household?
Not any more. That ended 28 April 2026. Existing household waivers granted before that date are being honoured.
Is there still a waitlist?
No. Wealthsimple’s help centre states that anyone can apply. The 1% beta card is separate and remains invitation only.
Can I add my spouse to my card?
No. Supplementary cards are not offered on any tier.
What is the tap limit?
$250 per transaction on the physical card. There is no tap limit when paying from a digital wallet. Single and daily transaction limits are $50,000.
What interest rate does it charge?
20.99% on purchases and 22.99% on cash advances and cash-like transactions. Miss the minimum payment by the due date for two consecutive months and those rise to 25.99% and 27.99%.
Do Quebec residents get the travel insurance?
No. Emergency medical, trip cancellation and interruption, baggage and flight delay coverage are all unavailable in Quebec. Purchase security, extended warranty and mobile phone insurance still apply.
Sources and verification
Fees, eligibility thresholds, insurance limits, interest rates and transaction limits in this review were taken from Wealthsimple’s credit card product page and from its help centre articles on applying for the card, premium benefits for the Visa Infinite + and Privilege cards, and premium benefits for the Visa Infinite 1% beta, all checked on 17 August 2026. Community sentiment is drawn from the RedFlagDeals Wealthsimple Visa Infinite thread and from Money.ca reporting on reaction in the Wealthsimple subreddit to the 2025 fee increase. Competitor comparisons reference published terms for the Rogers Red World Elite Mastercard and the Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite.
Card terms change frequently. Confirm current details on Wealthsimple’s own page before you apply.
Referral link. Confirm current fees and eligibility on Wealthsimple’s own credit card page before you apply.
Last verified: 17 August 2026.