Quick overview of the CIBC Adapta™ Mastercard®
The CIBC Adapta Mastercard is a no annual fee credit card that adjusts to your spending each month to get you the most rewards possible, automatically. The innovative product is Canada's first credit card that automatically adapts to your spending habits, delivering 50% more points where you shop most.
Who’s the Adapta™ Mastercard® for?
- Canadians looking for a no annual fee rewards card that maximizes everyday spending
- Shoppers with variable spending patterns across different categories each month
- Consumers who want their credit card to automatically adapt to their lifestyle
- Budget-conscious individuals looking for bonus rewards without category tracking
- People who prefer flexible redemption options for statement credits or financial products
- Cardholders who value practical benefits like roadside assistance over travel perks
Pros and cons
CIBC Adapta™ Mastercard® welcome bonus
The CIBC Adapta™ Mastercard® comes with a basic (but easily achievable) sign-up bonus for new accounts:
- Get 3,000 Adapta Points after your first purchase† and roadside assistance. Then earn 3,000 Adapta Points when you spend $1,000 in the first 4 months.
How to earn Adapta points
The Adapta™ Mastercard® is a unique addition to CIBC’s credit card portfolio, thanks to its adaptive approach to points. The card is more like a U.S.-based rewards card in that cardholders automatically earn 1.5 Adapta points per dollar in their top three spending categories each month.
Cardholders also earn 1 Adapta point per dollar on all other purchases.
Bonus points automatically apply to your top three monthly spending categories across:
- Grocery and drug stores
- Dining and drinks
- Gas and EV charging
- Transit and parking
- Home improvement
- Electronics
- Clothing
- Entertainment
- E-games and subscriptions
- Pet stores
- Health and beauty
- Hotels and motels
How does the Adapta's value potential differ across Canada?
We've analyzed how credit card rewards deliver real value to Canadians, and our research shows significant differences depending on where you live.
Provincial rewards can differ significantly for the following reasons:
- 1 Tax structures: Provinces with higher PST/HST rates (like Quebec) generate more rewards per purchase than tax-free Alberta.
- 2 Cost of living: Higher housing and everyday expenses in British Columbia and Ontario lead to more spending and thus more rewards.
- 3 Regional price differences: Essentials like gas, groceries, and insurance vary dramatically across provinces, affecting which categories become your top three earning categories each month.
Here's how much you can earn on average with the CIBC Adapta Mastercard in your province:
How to redeem Adapta points with the CIBC Adapta™ Mastercard®
Redeeming Adapta™ points is fairly easy (although the redemption options are a little disappointing). Cardholders can redeem points towards a few award options:
- Redeem for statement credits: 1,500 points = $10 when applied to your credit card balance or recent purchases
- Redeem for CIBC financial products: 1,200 points = $10
The ability to redeem points towards account credits offers more versatility than you may think. Beyond a blanket credit to your account, you can also use your points toward a recent purchase before your statement arrives. This offers the same value as other statement credits but provides a great way to adapt your rewards and treat yourself.
Key benefits of the Adapta™ Mastercard®
Perhaps the biggest feature of the Adapta™ Mastercard® is the ability to seamlessly maximize your rewards without any hassle. Cardholders get their purchases automatically calculated by CIBC, with the highest spending category getting 50% more value at 1.5x points per $1 spent.
While the card does not provide rental car insurance, that doesn’t mean the Adapta™ card won’t help you out on the road — far from it. The Adapta™ Mastercard® offers complimentary Dominion Automobile Association (DAA) roadside assistance for the primary cardholder.
This provides access to services such as towing, battery boosting, gas delivery and much more. All told, this perk is valued at $50.
Get a discount every time you fill up at participating gas stations when you link your Adapta™ Mastercard® with Journie Rewards™.
- Gas savings of up to 10 cents per litre when linked with Journie Rewards
Read more: Canada’s best gas credit cards
CIBC Adapta™ Mastercard® insurance coverage
Cardholders can opt for CIBC Payment Protector™ insurance, although this protection requires an additional charge. For a monthly fee of $0.99 cents per $100 of the amount you owe CIBC on your insured card, this insurance covers you should you lose your job or self-employment, through no fault of your own, or become unable to work due to an illness or injury.
Extra benefits of the Adapta™ Mastercard® from CIBC
Another gamechanging feature of the Adapta Mastercard is the unique Touch Card™ design that includes a notch. This enables people who are blind or have low vision to distinguish their payment cards from one another using touch.
Mastercard Touch Card™ was first announced in 2021. The innovative Touch Card was created after input from the Royal National Institute of Blind People in the UK and the nonprofit Visions/Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired in the U.S. Notches were selected instead of Braille, as research indicates that blind users do not use Braille when using their cards, according to Mastercard research.
Mastercard’s Touch Card™ improves accessibility for customers who are blind and partially sighted with innovative, tactile notches — rounded for debit, squared for credit and triangular for prepaid — so anyone can identify their cards with just a touch.
Here’s what Mastercard’s Touch Cards™ look like:.
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- CIBC Pace It™ feature to create installment plans at lower interest rates
- Enjoy 12 months of Skip+ for free when you link your CIBC card with your Skip account
- Mobile app access
- Zero Liability Protection for unauthorized purchases
- Digital card management through mobile or online banking
- Customizable spend alerts and fraud alerts
- Credit report monitoring alerts
What users have to say about the Adapta Mastercard
Even with the full cash back bonus it comes out to 1% for the highest and 0.6% cashback Dividend infinite at least gets you 4% cashback on gas groceries, 2% on reoccurring bills and then 1% on everything else
Reddit user u/Arthvpate
The CIBC Adapta™ revolutionizes rewards by automatically giving 50% bonus points in your top three monthly spending categories — no selection needed. When life changes, your rewards adapt without lifting a finger.
Tangerine offers a higher 2% cash back, but only in categories you must pre-select and manually update. While this potentially offers better value (compared to Adapta™'s 0.67 to 0.83 cents per point), it demands active management many Canadians neglect.
The Adapta™'s key advantage? You'll never miss rewards when spending shifts unexpectedly. This proves invaluable for those with variable expenses or who prefer a truly hands-off approach to maximizing credit card rewards.
Disclosures:
- *Terms and Conditions apply
10% cash back
Welcome Bonus
$484
First Year Value
$384
Annual Value
Welcome Bonus: Earn 10% cash back for 2 months† (up to $100). Expires Aug 31, 2025
Get this card if you...
- want flexible cash back categories
- want unlimited cash back
- want to avoid paying an annual fee
Annual Fee & Annual Interest Rates
$0
Annual Fee
19.95% - 24.95%
Purchase
19.95%
Cash Advance
1.95% - 19.95%
Balance Transfer
Our Take
The Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card is a no-annual-fee cash back card that allows cardholders to earn a higher cash back rate in two spending categories of their choice, such as groceries, gas, or restaurants, and a lower rate on all other purchases. By opening a Tangerine Savings Account and directing cash back earnings there, a third higher rate cash back category can be added. Additional benefits include purchase assurance and extended warranty protection, with cash back rewards automatically applied monthly.
Eligibility
Good (620 - 670)
Recommended Credit Score
$12,000
Required Annual Personal Income
- No annual fee
- Choose the spending categories where you want to earn the most cash back
- Unlimited cash back—no maximum spending limit for any purchase category
- Cash back is paid out monthly rather than annually
- Periodically includes a special welcome offer where you can get extra cash back
- 1.95% interest on balance transfers for the first 6 months (1% transfer fee applies)*
- Regular cash back rates are still lower than what you can get from a card with an annual fee
- Limited extra perks or benefits beyond the cash back and balance transfer promotion
- Generally not a good fit for shopping at warehouse clubs or wholesale grocers like Costco or Walmart
- Tangerine does not have any physical bank branches
Annual Interest Rates
19.95% - 24.95%
Purchase
19.95%
Cash Advance
1.95% - 19.95%
Balance Transfer
1.95%
Balance Transfer (Introductory)
24.95%
Penalty
Fees
$0
Annual Fee
2.50%
Foreign Transaction
3.00%
Balance Transfer
$3.5
Cash Advance
$25
Over The Limit Penalty
$25
Return Penalty
Rewards cash back
2%
Earn 2% cash back on 2 categories of your choice (e.g. groceries, recurring bills, gas, drug stores, etc.)
3
Get a Tangerine Savings account and add a 3rd 2% cash back category.
0.5%
Earn 0.50% on all your other everyday purchases.
Earn 10% cash back for 2 months† (up to $100).
Our Take
The Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card is a no-annual-fee cash back card that allows cardholders to earn a higher cash back rate in two spending categories of their choice, such as groceries, gas, or restaurants, and a lower rate on all other purchases. By opening a Tangerine Savings Account and directing cash back earnings there, a third higher rate cash back category can be added. Additional benefits include purchase assurance and extended warranty protection, with cash back rewards automatically applied monthly.
Eligibility
Good (620 - 670)
Recommended Credit Score
$12,000
Required Annual Personal Income
- No annual fee
- Choose the spending categories where you want to earn the most cash back
- Unlimited cash back—no maximum spending limit for any purchase category
- Cash back is paid out monthly rather than annually
- Periodically includes a special welcome offer where you can get extra cash back
- 1.95% interest on balance transfers for the first 6 months (1% transfer fee applies)*
- Regular cash back rates are still lower than what you can get from a card with an annual fee
- Limited extra perks or benefits beyond the cash back and balance transfer promotion
- Generally not a good fit for shopping at warehouse clubs or wholesale grocers like Costco or Walmart
- Tangerine does not have any physical bank branches
Annual Interest Rates
19.95% - 24.95%
Purchase
19.95%
Cash Advance
1.95% - 19.95%
Balance Transfer
1.95%
Balance Transfer (Introductory)
24.95%
Penalty
Fees
$0
Annual Fee
2.50%
Foreign Transaction
3.00%
Balance Transfer
$3.5
Cash Advance
$25
Over The Limit Penalty
$25
Return Penalty
Rewards cash back
2%
Earn 2% cash back on 2 categories of your choice (e.g. groceries, recurring bills, gas, drug stores, etc.)
3
Get a Tangerine Savings account and add a 3rd 2% cash back category.
0.5%
Earn 0.50% on all your other everyday purchases.
Earn 10% cash back for 2 months† (up to $100).
The CIBC Adapta™ automatically awards 1.5 points per dollar in your top three monthly spending categories without any selection required, with one point elsewhere. It includes practical benefits like roadside assistance and purchase protection.
Neo offers higher 5% cash back, but only at partner merchants in their network. All other purchases earn just 0.5% cash back. The card integrates with Neo's financial app ecosystem for a digital-first experience.
For consistent rewards without changing where you shop, Adapta™ delivers better everyday value. Neo works best if you already frequent their partner businesses and prefer managing finances through an app.
Disclosures:
-
Neo Credit and Neo Secured Credit cards are issued by Neo Financial™ pursuant to license by Mastercard International Incorporated.
$243
First Year Value
$0
Annual Value
Get this card if you...
- already have a savings account with Neo so you can earn more cash back
- are a smart shopper who is good at checking for Neo partners to earn more rewards
- want to avoid paying a high annual fee
Annual Fee & Annual Interest Rates
$0
Annual Fee
19.99% - 29.99%
Purchase
22.99% - 31.99%
Cash Advance
Our Take
The Neo Financial Mastercard is a no-annual-fee credit card that offers cash back rewards on everyday purchases, with higher rates available when shopping at participating partners. Cardholders can redeem cash back at any time without minimum balance requirements, and the card is accessible to Canadians nationwide, including Quebec.
Eligibility
Fair (300 - 619)
Recommended Credit Score
- No annual fee
- Cash back rewards on purchases
- Even more cash back potential with 10,000 Neo partners
- Potentially high APR
- Tiered cash back rates make it harder to unlock max earn rates
Annual Interest Rates
19.99% - 29.99%
Purchase
22.99% - 31.99%
Cash Advance
Fees
$0
Annual Fee
Rewards cash back
Up to 4%
Earn up to 4% cashback on gas and groceries, no matter where you pay for them.
Up to 1%
Earn up to 1% cashback on everything else
Up to 15%
Earn up to 15% cashback at participating partners with new offers added regularly.
Up to 5%
Visit any of Neo's 10,000 partners and earn an additional average of 5% cashback on top of your everyday cashback.
Our Take
The Neo Financial Mastercard is a no-annual-fee credit card that offers cash back rewards on everyday purchases, with higher rates available when shopping at participating partners. Cardholders can redeem cash back at any time without minimum balance requirements, and the card is accessible to Canadians nationwide, including Quebec.
Eligibility
Fair (300 - 619)
Recommended Credit Score
- No annual fee
- Cash back rewards on purchases
- Even more cash back potential with 10,000 Neo partners
- Potentially high APR
- Tiered cash back rates make it harder to unlock max earn rates
Annual Interest Rates
19.99% - 29.99%
Purchase
22.99% - 31.99%
Cash Advance
Fees
$0
Annual Fee
Rewards cash back
Up to 4%
Earn up to 4% cashback on gas and groceries, no matter where you pay for them.
Up to 1%
Earn up to 1% cashback on everything else
Up to 15%
Earn up to 15% cashback at participating partners with new offers added regularly.
Up to 5%
Visit any of Neo's 10,000 partners and earn an additional average of 5% cashback on top of your everyday cashback.
Other Adapta™ versions
CIBC offers two versions of the Adapat™ Mastercard®, with higher incomes enjoying access to the CIBC Adapta™ World Mastercard®. The World Mastercard® version offers greater access to travel insurance as well as additional discounts through Mastercard®’s global hotel collection and more.
Here’s how the income requirements differ:
- CIBC Adapta™ Mastercard®: $15,000 (household) income required
- CIBC Adapta™ World Mastercard®: $50,000 (personal) or $80,000 (household) income required
There's also a student version of the card, the CIBC Adapta™Mastercard for Students. The CIBC Adapta Mastercard and its student version share the same core rewards structure but differ in several important ways that cater to their respective audiences.
Here's how they differ:
- The student version differs in that it has no income requirements, making it more accessible than the full-fat, regular version of the card
- For the student card, Canadian students can get a credit limit of up to $5,000, while international students are limited to a maximum of $2,000.
Is the CIBC Adapta™ Mastercard® worth it?
The CIBC Adapta™ Mastercard® stands out thanks to its unique approach to rewards. The card's innovative feature — automatically adjusting to provide 50% more points in your top spending categories each month — maximizes rewards without requiring any manual tracking or management.
While the redemption value (approximately 0.67 to 0.83 cents per point) isn't the highest available in Canada, the included roadside assistance ($50 value) and accessible welcome bonus provide substantial added value. This means the card proves particularly useful for shoppers with differing spending habits, as it allows them to shop without needing to actively monitor categories or manage their rewards strategy.
Eligibility requirements
- Age: Age of majority in your province or territory (18+)
- Residence: Canadian resident
- Credit score: Good credit
- Income: $15,000 (household)
