Best Credit Card for Chexy After the Scotia Nerf: Pick by the Math

Direct answer: there is no single best card for Chexy anymore — there is a best card for your rent, your fee tolerance, and your existing wallet, and it is decided by subtraction. Chexy charges a 1.75% fee on domestic cards, so any card earning under 1.75% on the payment loses on rate alone, and any card's headline rate means nothing until you confirm the issuer actually counts a Chexy payment in that category. This guide gives you the decision procedure first, then the options, then the one check that settles the question no table can. (The names and rent figures in the examples below are constructed scenes, not real visitors.)

Key facts

What changed on October 22, 2026

Before the change, the Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite was the obvious Chexy card: 4% on recurring bill payments against Chexy's 1.75% fee left a 2.25% net gain on rent. On October 22, 2026, Scotiabank changed how its Momentum cards reward rent and tax payments: they no longer qualify as recurring bill payments and instead earn the regular purchase rate. For the Momentum Visa Infinite, that means rent and tax payments now earn 1% — below the 1.75% fee, turning the same payment from a $49.50 monthly gain on $2,200 of rent into a $16.50 monthly loss on the same math. What matters is the date the charge posts to your card, not the date the bill is due: a charge posting on or after October 22 earns 1%.

Note what did not change: utilities, car leases, daycare, tuition, insurance, wellness, and phone bills still earn the 4% recurring rate on the Scotia card. The nerf is specific to rent and tax payments (merchant categories for rental and government tax payments). That matters for the "should I cancel Scotia" question below — the card lost its Chexy rent edge, not its whole reason to exist.

Decision criteria, in order

Rank any candidate card by these four criteria, in this order. A card that fails the first one is out no matter how good it looks on the others.

  1. Net rate after Chexy's fee. Subtract 1.75% (domestic card) from the earn rate the issuer actually applies to your Chexy payment. Positive means the payment earns; negative means you pay for the privilege. International cards start from a 2.5% fee instead, which changes every answer below.
  2. Whether the category applies. The earn rate only counts if the issuer treats your Chexy payment as a purchase in that category. A 3% "recurring bills" rate that does not apply to your payment is worth 1% base, not 3%. This is the criterion most comparisons skip, and it is the one that decides the TD question.
  3. Caps. A rate with a low annual cap stops earning at the cap. Compare the cap against your annual Chexy spend: $24,000 of annual rent blows past a $15,000 category cap partway through the year, and everything after the cap earns the base rate.
  4. Annual fee, amortized. Spread the fee over your annual Chexy spend. A $139 fee on $24,000 of annual rent is a 0.58% drag — enough to turn a 2% card's +0.25% net into a loss. A fee is only justified if your other spending on the card, or a welcome bonus, already pays for it.

The options, with the math done

The table below uses Chexy's own recommendation list for rent and tax payments through Chexy. Every rate is an issuer term to recheck, never a guarantee, and every net figure subtracts Chexy's 1.75% domestic fee. The TD row carries the verification warning from the key facts: the 3% is TD's published recurring-bills category rate, and whether a Chexy rent payment counts in that category is unverified.

CardRate on billsCapAnnual feeNet after 1.75% fee
Tangerine Money-Back World Mastercard2% (pick "Recurring Bill Payments" as a category)None$0+0.25%
Rogers Red World Elite Mastercard2% (with a Rogers or Fido plan)None$0+0.25%
TD Cash Back Visa Infinite3% on bills — if Chexy rent counts as recurring (unverified, see below)$15,000 / year$139+1.25% on spend under the cap if the 3% applies; −0.75% at the 1% base rate if it does not (both before annual-fee drag)
CIBC Dividend Visa Infinite2% on bills$20,000 / year$120+0.25% before the fee drag
Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite (after Oct 22, 2026)1% on rent and tax—$120−0.75% before the fee drag

Read the table as a ranking, not a recommendation. The two no-fee 2% cards are the only options that keep their full +0.25% net with nothing else to justify — no fee to amortize, no cap to hit. The TD card is the highest net if its 3% applies to your Chexy payments and if your annual Chexy spend fits under the $15,000 cap; above the cap, the excess earns the 1% base rate and loses. The CIBC card's 2% matches the no-fee cards on rate but carries a $120 fee that needs justifying elsewhere. Scotia, for Chexy rent specifically, is out: 1% against a 1.75% fee loses before any fee drag.

Worked example: $2,000 a month of rent (constructed scene)

Take a renter paying $2,000 a month — $24,000 a year — through Chexy on a domestic card. The fee is 1.75%, or $35 a month and $420 a year. Against that:

The welcome bonus, where a card offers one, is the real lever in the first year — it can outweigh months of thin margins. But a welcome bonus is a one-time issuer offer with its own spend conditions, not part of the ongoing rate math. Do not let it decide a card you will hold for years; decide on the ongoing net, and treat the bonus as a first-year sweetener.

The one check that settles it: the verification procedure

No table can tell you whether your issuer counts your Chexy payment in a bonus category, because the answer depends on how the payment is coded and on your issuer's category rules. For TD specifically, this is unverified territory: TD's published rate is 3% on recurring bill payments, but whether a Chexy rent payment counts as one has not been confirmed. Run this procedure instead of assuming:

  1. Make a small test payment first. Do not switch a full month's rent to a new card on the strength of a table. Route one small Chexy payment through the candidate card.
  2. Check the statement, not the marketing. When the charge posts, look at how it is treated: does it post as an ordinary purchase (not as a cash-like or cash-advance transaction), and does the cashback accrue at the category rate or at the base rate? The statement's earn line is the evidence; the card's advertising page is not.
  3. Confirm the category, then commit. If the test payment earns at the category rate, the card treats Chexy payments the way you need, and the table's net math applies to you. If it earns at base rate, the card's headline rate does not apply to your Chexy payments — re-rank it at base rate and pick again.
  4. Recheck after any issuer change. Category rules change — Scotia's October 22 change is the proof. A card that earns today may not earn after the next terms update, so recheck the statement line a few times a year, not just once.

The same procedure applies to every card in the table, not just TD. Tangerine's 2% requires "Recurring Bill Payments" to be one of your chosen categories — if you never selected it, you earn the base rate. Rogers' 2% requires a Rogers or Fido plan. The table's rates are conditional in exactly these ways, which is why the procedure, not the table, is the decision.

When a new card will not help

Frequently asked questions

Does the TD Cash Back Visa Infinite earn 3% on Chexy rent payments?

Unverified. TD's published category rate is 3% on recurring bill payments, but whether TD counts a Chexy rent payment as a recurring bill payment has not been confirmed. Run the verification procedure in this guide — a small test payment and a statement check — before assuming the 3% applies.

Is a 2% card enough to come out ahead on Chexy?

Barely, on rate alone: 2% earn minus Chexy's 1.75% domestic fee leaves +0.25% before any annual fee. It wins only if the card has no annual fee or the fee is already justified by other spending.

Should I cancel my Scotia Momentum card?

Not on Chexy's account alone. The October 22, 2026 change removed rent and tax payments from the 4% recurring rate, but utilities, car leases, daycare, tuition, insurance, wellness, and phone bills still earn 4% on the card. Move rent and tax off it; judge the card on everything else it still earns.

Does the annual fee change the answer?

Yes. Spread the fee over your annual Chexy spend: a $139 fee on $24,000 of annual rent is a 0.58% drag, which turns a 2% card's +0.25% net into a loss. A no-fee 2% card keeps the full +0.25%.

Pick by subtraction, then verify

The short version: move rent and tax off Scotia, rank the replacements by net rate after the 1.75% fee, amortize the annual fee over your yearly rent, and verify the category with a test payment before committing a full month's rent. And if you are setting Chexy up for the first time, start with the referral correctly — open a link before you create the account, or the $25 never tracks. The referral code guide covers that pre-flight, and the rent setup guide covers the payment flow itself.

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Disclaimer: links on this site are user-submitted and NOT guaranteed valid. This site is not affiliated with Chexy. Reward amounts, rates, caps, and fees follow each card issuer's own terms and Chexy's own terms and can change; the figures on this page were checked against Chexy's Help Centre on 2026-11-01. Final reward eligibility is determined solely by your card issuer.