Scotiabank · American Express
Best all-rounder
Five points a dollar on groceries, dining and entertainment with no foreign transaction fee, for $120. Nothing else here does all three. The catch is that it is an Amex, so it will be refused where a Visa would not.
Rates and features verified 2026-08-18Full terms and conditions
What we like, and what we don’t
Worth having
- No foreign transaction fee, which is rare below a $150 annual fee
- 5 points a dollar on groceries, dining and entertainment; 3 on gas, transit and streaming
- Low $12,000 income requirement for a card this good
- Fee is fully rebated with a Scotiabank Ultimate Package chequing account
Watch out for
- American Express acceptance is still patchy at Canadian grocers and small merchants
- The advertised 6x on groceries only applies at Empire banners: Sobeys, Safeway, FreshCo and Foodland. Everywhere else it is 5x
- Accelerated earning stops after $50,000 of calendar-year spend
- Travel medical drops from 25 days to 3 days the year you turn 65
- Scene+ points are fixed at one cent, so there is no transfer partner to squeeze more value out of
What this card earns
- Groceries
- 5x
- Gas
- 3x
- Dining and restaurants
- 5x
- Recurring bills and subscriptions
- 3x
- Transit
- 3x
- Entertainment
- 5x
- Everything else
- 1x
- Bonus rates apply up to
- $50,000 of annual spending after that, the base rate
- What we value a point at
- 1¢
The earning fine print
6 pts/$1 applies only at Empire-banner grocers (Sobeys, Safeway, FreshCo, Foodland and others); all other eligible grocery stores earn 5 pts/$1, which is the rate recorded here so the site does not overstate spending at Loblaws, Metro or Walmart. Streaming earns 3 pts/$1. Accelerated rates apply to the first $50,000 of qualifying purchases per CALENDAR year (1 January to 31 December, not the card anniversary); everything above that earns 1 pt/$1. Travel earns 1 pt/$1 at base; the advertised "4x travel" requires booking hotels or car rentals through Scene+ Travel.
The welcome offer
- Welcome bonus
- 30,000 points after you spend $2,000, within 3 months
- Second tier
- 20,000 points after you spend $7,500, within 12 months
- Offer ends
- 2026-11-01
What the offer actually requires
The advertised "up to $950 in value" is a composite of the 50,000 bonus points plus projected first-year earn and savings, not a bonus. The two tiers run on different clocks: 3 months for tier 1, 12 months for tier 2.
Fees and interest rates
- Annual fee
- $120
- Additional card
- $29
- Foreign transaction fee
- None
- Cash advance fee
- $5
- Dishonoured payment fee
- $48
- Purchase APR
- 21.99%
- Cash advance APR
- 22.99%
- Balance transfer APR
- 22.99%
- Balance transfer fee
- 1%
Who can get this card
- Minimum personal income
- $12,000
Insurance and benefits
- Travel medical
- $1,000,000 first 25 days of a trip
- Trip cancellation
- $1,500
- Trip interruption
- $1,500
- Flight delay
- $500
- Baggage delay
- $1,000
- Mobile device
- $1,000
- Rental car damage waiver
- Included
- Purchase protection
- Included
- Extended warranty
- Included
- Concierge
- Included
What the benefits really mean
Travel medical drops from 25 consecutive days to 3 consecutive days at age 65+. Lounge access is a DISCOUNT on a Priority Pass membership, not complimentary access, so has_lounge_access is FALSE. The $120 fee can be rebated in full with a Scotiabank Ultimate Package chequing account ($40 with Preferred), which is an account-package benefit rather than a first-year waiver.
Our verdict
This is the card we would hand to someone who wants one card and does not want to think about it again. The earn rates are close to best-in-class on the categories most people actually spend on, and dropping the foreign transaction fee at this price point is unusual enough to be the deciding factor on its own. On $5,000 of travel spending it saves $125, which is more than the annual fee.
The honest caveat is acceptance. If your regular grocery store does not take American Express, most of the reason to hold this card evaporates. Check that before you apply, not after.
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Where this came from. scotiabank.com product page, fees page, rates page and welcome-kit COI. We take every figure from the issuer’s own pages, never from another comparison site, and we leave a field blank rather than guess at it.