A little over a month ago we let you know about the upcoming
Scotiabank More Rewards Visa Card. Well the card is now officially available and becomes the top no fee travel points card out there! Most of this post is a rehash of
our post from April but with a few more details as we now know the full extent of what the card offers and isn't much different than what we knew back in April. We reached out to More Rewards first of all to see when you redeem points for travel if you need the full amount (see the WestJet offer below of 117,173 points) and the answer is no. You can redeem as little as 100 points and pay the rest with cash. Seeing that you can earn up to 6 times points on the card this means you would only have to spend a minimum of $16.67 to start redeeming. That's pretty low! What we also learn from today's release is that the card has no additional benefits or insurance offers.
Not even purchase protection or extended warranty. Scotia reached out to us to let us know the card does come with purchase protection and extended warranty benefits. We guessed it would have had at least the those two but I guess to be able to offer up to 2.54% return on a no-fee card there needed to be sacrifices somewhere! Not a huge deal seeing that for many a no-fee card is typically their secondary or tertiary card in their wallet.
One big addition to program since April as well is Petro Canada! This means you'll earn the 6 points per dollar when you use this card at Petro Canada in addition to the normal More Rewards points earn (can't find that on the website yet)
The rest of this post is a copy of our April post as it covers this card well:
The card will earn 6 More Rewards points per
dollar spent on the card at Save-On-Foods and other participating More
Rewards partner locations, plus 4 More Rewards points on every dollar
spent anywhere else with the card.
Now the earn listed above is strictly with spend on the card and does
not include what you will earn when you swipe your More Rewards loyalty
card along with it. So without the additional points earned from the
More Rewards loyalty card what will the return be like for the points
earned on the credit card only? Pretty darn good for a no fee card! We
went onto the More Rewards website and tried out their travel bookings
to see how many points would be required.
Here are WestJet flights between Calgary and Toronto
And a hotel in Banff:
Assuming you only use this new Visa card at only More Rewards partners,
you'll earn all your points at the 6 points per dollar rate. If we look
at the redemption amounts above you are effectively earning a
2.54% return
on all your spending. That is huge compared to the competition! Most
travel cards on the market that aren't tied into a frequent flyer or
frequent guest program are between 1.5% and 2% with some pushing 2.33%
on select redemptions and Scotia's Gold Amex earning 4% on select
category purchases. Plus you have to remember this card has no annual
fee!
More realistically however is the mix of spending on this card as when
you shop at non More Rewards partners you'll earn 4 points per dollar.
Still at 4 points per dollar you are getting a
1.695% return which
places it in with the competition listed above. But when you look at
its no-fee competitors that only offer 1.25% or less this card blows
them out of the water! It looks like our 2017 Top Travel Rewards Credit
Cards will have a new champion for the no-fee Travel Points credit card
category! And we're not even including the extra points you can earn for
swiping your More Rewards loyalty card at any of the program's
partners.
The credit card itself will also act as your More Rewards Loyalty Card
so you won't have to pull out two cards when shopping at More Rewards
partners thus automating the double dip for you.
As we said in our April post, hats off to Scotiabank and More Rewards for breaking the mold in the no fee travel points credit card category! You've made an extremely strong earning credit card here!
For more details on the card or to apply for it visit here.
