The revamped Scotiabank Platinum American Express Card debuted on July 1st along with a new best ever welcome bonus offer! The card's revamp takes place in the earn rates, benefits and insurance offered. It is now has a flat earn rate across all spending, no foreign transaction fees and now offers mobile device insurance.
The Changes
No Foreign Transaction Fees
Moving this card inline with Scotia's other premium cards the Scotiabank®* Platinum American Express® Card no longer has a 2.5% foreign currency transaction fee. This provides a wealth of savings for those who make a lot purchases outside of Canada, whether it is while travelling, online shopping or even importing goods. If my math is correct the Scotiabank Platinum American Express Card becomes the 15th credit card (including prepaid cards) to now offer No FX fees in Canada.
New 2 Scene+ points per dollar flat earn rate
The new earn rate that kicked in at the start of July
1, 2022 sees the Platinum Card earning 2 Scene+ points per dollar spent on all eligible
purchases. There are no caps in place
on the 2 points per dollar earn rate.
Essentially this card has become a 2% cash back card on all purchases when you use your points to redeem for travel, dining or in the near future for groceries. And speaking of travel, that 2 points per dollar earn rate is also awarded on foreign purchases, so you are earning the points and saving on the foreign currency conversion fee making this card a very strong contender for purchases outside of Canada with what essentially equates to a 4.5% return.
Mobile Device Insurance
The next change to the card has been the addition of Mobile Device Insurance. You will now get coverage for new mobile devices that you buy on the card on or after July 1, 2022.
The New Welcome Bonus Offer
The Platinum Card sees a record high offer of up to 60,000 Scene+ points. 50,000 points are awarded when you spend $3,000 on the card in the first three months of having it and 10,000 more comes to you when you spend $10,000 on the card in the first 14 months.
What else does the card feature
The card retains all of its other insurance coverage including 31 day out of province travel medical coverage up to age 65 and 10 days for those 65 and over. It also provides Priority Pass Membership with 10 free annual lounge visits for the primary cardholder and 4 visits for supplementary cardholders. As it is an American Express card it also receives access to Plaza Premium lounges. Those 10 lounge visits are worth US$320 which basically covers the annual fee on this card!
Wrapping it up
At a time when most credit card issuers are going away from flat rate points earning to the accelerated category model its nice to see a bank go the other direction. For years the the best card in Canada and it was a simple
2% return card so we know that model works and Scotia is banking on that. You can also tell Scotia is targeting the world traveler with this card by having that good earn rate, no FX fees and the
really good lounge access program. This is really a card to consider if you travel lots outside of Canada or if you make a lot of purchases (online, importing etc.) in foreign currencies.
Learn more about and apply for the Scotiabank Platinum American Express card here.
This
post was sponsored by Scotiabank. The views and opinions expressed in
this article, however, are purely those of Rewards Canada.
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