Credit cards · Card review
Amex Cobalt review
The best earn engine in Canadian cards — 5× on food and drink feeds Membership Rewards faster than anything else on the market. The price is paid in fine print: zero coverage at 65+, no trip cancellation at all, and a points currency whose value depends on how well you redeem.
Best for: Food-heavy households under 65 who will redeem toward travel or transfers
Pros
- 5× on restaurants, stand-alone groceries and delivery — to a generous $2,500/month
- Membership Rewards transfer to airline partners, where values can exceed 1¢
- No income requirement; $15.99 monthly fee structure softens the $192/yr
- 3× streaming and 2× gas/transit cover the rest of daily life
Cons
- Travel medical EXCLUDED at 65+ — certificate-verified, like every Amex
- NO trip cancellation or interruption coverage at any age
- Amex acceptance gaps — several major grocers don’t take it
- Points halve in value as plain statement credit
Who the Cobalt is
Cobalt is Amex Canada’s mass-market weapon: a charge-style rewards card aimed at people whose biggest flexible spending is food. Its 5× on “eats and drinks” — restaurants, bars, stand-alone grocery stores, food delivery — runs to a combined $2,500 of monthly spend, which almost no household exhausts. A $1,200/month food budget produces roughly 72,000 points a year from that category alone.
The points are Membership Rewards, the most flexible currency in Canada: fixed-value redemptions around 1¢, or transfers to airline programs where careful redeemers routinely beat that. The ongoing welcome (1,250 points per month with $750 of spend, to 15,000 in year one) is modest — this card’s case is the steady state, not the signup.
The earn math on real spending
On our standard household mix, Cobalt’s annual points haul translates to roughly $600–$960 of travel value at $1,000–$1,600 of monthly food spend — figures no cash-back card matches at full redemption value. Taken as statement credit instead, the same points are worth about half, which drops Cobalt into the pack alongside the uncapped 4% cash cards.
That’s the honest fork: Cobalt is the best card in Canada for people who treat redemptions as a small hobby, and an overpriced one for people who want money to just show up. Know which you are before paying $192 a year.
The insurance fine print
Two certificate-verified gaps. First, the Amex-wide age cliff: an insured person is defined as “age 64 or under on the departure date” — at 65+, the travel medical simply doesn’t exist. Second, unique to Cobalt even within Amex: there is no trip cancellation or interruption coverage at all, at any age. Flight delay, baggage and rental coverage are present; the two benefits people most expect are not.
Practical wallet design: earn with Cobalt, but book trips on a card that carries cancellation coverage — or buy it standalone. The full certificate-by-certificate table is on our retiree cards page.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Amex Cobalt cost?
Annual fee: $192 — $15.99/month ($191.88/yr); supplementary $0 (up to 9). Purchase rate 21.99%; cash advances 21.99% (escalates after missed payments). Foreign transactions: Not published on the card page — confirm in the cardmember agreement (typically 2.5%). All figures verified at American Express’s own pages on June 12, 2026 — compare the field on our main card table.
What are the Amex Cobalt’s earn rates — with the caps?
5× on eats & drinks — restaurants, stand-alone grocery, food delivery (combined $2,500/month cap). 3× streaming · 2× gas/transit/rideshare · 1× else (+1 on Amex Travel Online). Caps are where card marketing goes to die — our worked household math prices every major card through its caps.
Does the Amex Cobalt include travel medical insurance?
15 days if 64 or under ($5M) · 65+: EXCLUDED entirely — certificate-verified. Card medical attaches to holding the card in good standing (the trip doesn’t need to be charged to it), but trip cancellation/interruption benefits do require paying with the card. The full certificate-verified age-cliff table is on our retiree cards page.
Who can get the Amex Cobalt?
No income requirement. Current welcome offer: 1,250 pts per monthly period with $750 spend — up to 15,000 in year 1; ongoing, former Cobalt members excluded. Offers change without notice — confirm on the issuer’s page before applying.
The bottom line
For an under-65, food-heavy household that enjoys redeeming well, Cobalt is simply the strongest earn engine in the country and worth every dollar of its fee. Past 65, or for cash-first simplicity, the case collapses — see how it stacks against its stablemate in Cobalt vs Gold and against the cash field on the cash-back page.
Educational review, not credit advice or an offer of credit. Facts verified at American Express’s own pages (insurance from certificates where stated) on June 12, 2026; offers, rates and terms change without notice — confirm on the issuer’s page before applying. Quebec residents may see different offers and rates.