On June 30th the offer of 15,000 bonus points and first year annual fee was removed from the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card to be replaced with this new offer. The offer is for 30,000 points with your first purchase on the card but you will have to pay the $99 annual fee. How does this offer compare to the previous one? It is actually slightly better than it as the value of those 30,000 points is $300 versus the previous offer of $249 ($150 in points +$99 annual fee waiver). This offer is scheduled to run until October 31, 2014
This card ranked third in the Travel Points Card with annual fee category in our 2014 Top Travel Rewards Credit card rankings. Here are some details on the card:
Scotiabank Gold American Express Card
4 points for every dollar spent on the card at gas stations, grocery stores and on dining and entertainment, 1 point for all other purchases with the card
No blackouts, no points expiry, no seat restrictions and no booking fees
Travel service with access to global concierge specialists
Ability to redeem points at or after booking for travel including airfare, hotel, car rental, cruise and vacation packages. Points can also be redeemed for merchandise and credits to Scotiabank investment and credit products
Highly competitive insurance benefits, such as Travel Emergency Medical (including travelers age 65+) and Rental Car Collision insurance
$99 annual fee (among the most competitive fee for a premium travel reward card currently on the market). Additional card annual fee is $29 and the interest rates are 19.99% on purchases and 21.99% on cash advances, balance transfers and Scotia Credit Card cheques.
For more details or to apply for the card please see here.
Sorry for the late reply.
ReplyDeleteIt will all depend on your spending. The BMO WEMC is essentially 2% on all of your spending where as the Scotia is 4% on gas, grocery and dining/entertainment but only 1% on the rest. If you can figure out your spend on these categories and then the rest of your spend you should be able to come up with an average % back on the Scotia card to see if it is better or worse than the 2% on the BMO
Also the BMO has the Priority Pass lounge access option while the Scotia lets you book travel via any provider and are not limited to a single travel agency like BMO Rewards which means with the BMO the points are required up front even for partial redemptions while the Scotia you can redeem points after the actual booking.
For me personally I would still get the Amex Gold Rewards Card over the Scotia since I like to convert points to Aeroplan and British Airways plus it gives 2 points per dollar on travel spending but if you are not interested in those conversion options or don't actually buy a lot of travel the Scotia or BMO could be better bets.