Direct answer: Chexy charges 2.5% when you pay with an international card, against 1.75% on a domestic Canadian card — and the higher fee only pays when your card earns more than 2.5% on the payment after any foreign-transaction fee your issuer adds. A high-earning foreign card with no FX fee can still come out ahead; the same card with an FX fee usually cannot; and a card that earns nothing loses 2.5% every month, referral tiers or not. Run the two checks below before your first charge, because the fee is charged on every payment, not once. (The rent figures below are constructed scenes, not real visitors.)
| Card | Chexy fee | On $2,000 rent |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic Canadian card | 1.75% | $35.00 |
| International card | 2.5% | $50.00 |
The gap is $15 a month on $2,000 rent — $180 a year — for the same payment, and it is charged every month, not once. What makes a card "international" is where it was issued: a Canadian card held by someone living abroad is still domestic, and a US or other foreign card used to pay Canadian rent is still international, even if the landlord and the apartment are in Canada. If you hold both kinds of card, the branch is chosen per payment by the card you put on file, so the fee decision is really a card decision.
Take a constructed renter paying $2,000 a month with a foreign card that carries no foreign-transaction fee. The net result at different earn rates:
| Card earn rate | Earned per month | Chexy fee | Net per month | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0% | $0 | $50.00 | −$50.00 | Loses every month |
| 1% | $20.00 | $50.00 | −$30.00 | Still loses |
| 2% | $40.00 | $50.00 | −$10.00 | Close, still loses |
| 3% | $60.00 | $50.00 | +$10.00 | Pays, barely |
| 4% | $80.00 | $50.00 | +$30.00 | Pays clearly |
Read the table as a threshold, not a recommendation: the break-even earn rate is exactly 2.5%, and most everyday cards earn 1–2% — below the line. The only foreign cards that clear it are ones earning 3% or more on this kind of payment, and the earn rate that matters is the rate your card actually pays on Chexy payments, not its headline rate on another category. A card advertising 4% on groceries and 1% on everything else earns 1% here unless Chexy payments fall in a bonus category — and the one check that settles whether a card earns on Chexy payments at all lives on the best-card page.
Chexy's 2.5% is not necessarily the whole cost of paying with a foreign card. Your rent is a Canadian-dollar amount, and if your card's home currency is not CAD, your issuer converts the charge — and many issuers add a foreign-transaction fee for that conversion, on top of Chexy's fee. The wall summary does not state your issuer's fee, because it is your card's term, not Chexy's — check your card's fee schedule before you assume the 2.5% is all you pay.
The arithmetic, as a constructed example with a stated condition: if your card charges a 2.5% foreign-transaction fee, the total cost is 2.5% (Chexy) + 2.5% (issuer) = 5% — $100 a month on $2,000 rent — and the card would need to earn more than 5% to come out ahead, which no ordinary earn rate does. The same card with no foreign-transaction fee needs only to beat 2.5%. That one card feature — FX fee or no FX fee — moves the break-even point by the full FX fee, so it is the first thing to check, before the earn rate. Two common shapes: a travel card with no FX fee and a high earn rate can clear the bar; a standard card from the same issuer, same earn rate, with an FX fee, cannot.
If either check comes back unknown, do not set up the recurring payment yet: an unknown earn rate plus an unknown FX fee is a payment you cannot price, and the first charge lands four business days before the due date, leaving little room to unwind it. The full pre-flight for a first Chexy payment — payee, setup timing, and the 4-business-day rule — is a separate checklist; the two checks above are the international-card additions to it.
This page does not state a tier ladder for the international fee, a post-cap rate, or any issuer's FX fee, because none of those is stated on the wall summary this page is drawn from. It does not name a card to use: earn rates and FX fees are per-card terms that change, and the right card is the one whose own terms clear the threshold above. And its figures are Chexy's terms as summarized on the wall, which can change without notice: if the wall and Chexy's own terms ever disagree, Chexy's terms govern and this page is stale.
Not stated. The tier ladder — 1.5% at 3 referrals, 1.0% at 5, 0.5% at 10 — is stated for the domestic fee. Do not assume the same steps cut the 2.5% international fee; check Chexy's current terms.
Yes, but only when the card's earn rate on the payment, minus any foreign-transaction fee your issuer adds, is above 2.5%. A card earning 4% with no foreign-transaction fee nets +1.5%; the same card with a 2.5% foreign-transaction fee nets −1%.
A card issued outside Canada. The fee branch follows the card's issuing country, not where you live or where the landlord is — a Canadian card held by someone abroad is still domestic, and a US card used for Canadian rent is still international.
No. The $25 is a one-time credit per completed referral. It softens the first payment's cost once, but the 2.5% fee applies to every payment after that, so a losing monthly rate stays losing.
The 2.5% fee is charged on every payment, so a card that clears the threshold is a decision that keeps paying — and a card that does not is a loss that keeps repeating. If your card clears it, the $25 referral credit does not change the math, but it does soften the first payment: open a referral link before you create your Chexy account, complete your first payment in the app, and you and your referrer each get $25. If your card does not clear it, no link fixes the monthly loss — switch cards first, then sign up through a link.
Find a Chexy referral link on the wall →
Disclaimer: links on this site are user-submitted and NOT guaranteed valid. This site is not affiliated with Chexy. Reward amounts and terms follow Chexy's own referral terms and can change; the figures on this page match the Chexy wall's current summary.