Scotiabank · Visa
A free flat 1% card, doubling to 2% at Sobeys banners, Cineplex and Home Hardware. No insurance of any kind and no cap on the earn rates.
Rates and features verified 2026-08-18Full terms and conditionsHow we research cards
What we like, and what we don’t
Worth having
- No annual fee and no fee for additional cards
- Scene+ points are worth exactly one cent, so a point a dollar really is 1%
- 2 points a dollar at Sobeys, Safeway, FreshCo, Foodland, IGA and Thrifty Foods
- 2 points a dollar at Cineplex and at Home Hardware
- No cap is published on any earn rate
- Up to 10 cents a litre in value on Shell fuel with a linked Shell Go Plus account
Watch out for
- The 2 point grocery rate only works at Empire owned stores. Loblaws, Metro, Walmart and Costco earn 1 point
- No travel insurance, no rental car coverage, no purchase protection, no extended warranty. Nothing
- Scene+ is fixed value with no transfer partners, so there is no way to redeem your way to more
- The welcome offer is worth $50
- Anyone who has held any Scotiabank card, including as a supplementary cardholder, in the past two years is excluded
- Statement credit redemptions appear to be worth less than a cent, and Scotiabank does not publish that rate
What this card earns
- Everything else
- 1x
- What we value a point at
- 1¢
The earning fine print
1 point a dollar on everything, and Scene+ points are worth a cent each, so this is a flat 1% card. Two doubled rates exist but neither is recorded above because both are narrow. 2 points a dollar applies at Empire owned grocers only, meaning Sobeys, Safeway, participating IGA, Foodland, FreshCo, Thrifty Foods, Rachelle Bery, Les Marches Tradition and Voila. Every other grocery store, including Loblaws, Metro, Walmart and Costco, earns the base 1 point. 2 points also applies at Cineplex and at Home Hardware. Hotels and car rentals booked through Scene+ Travel earn up to 4 points. No cap is published on any rate.
The welcome offer
- Welcome bonus
- 2,500 points after you spend $250, within 3 months
- Second tier
- 2,500 points after you spend $1,000, within 3 months
- Offer ends
- 2026-11-01
What the offer actually requires
Up to 5,000 points, worth $50, across two tiers inside the same three month window. Not available to anyone who has held any Scotiabank personal credit card as either primary or supplementary cardholder in the past two years, which is a broad exclusion and easy to trip over.
Fees and interest rates
- Annual fee
- None
- Additional card
- Free
- Foreign transaction fee
- 2.5%
- 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
- Not published by the issuer
What the benefits really mean
There is no complimentary insurance of any kind on this card. Scotia Credit Card Protection is an optional paid product, not a benefit. The only Cineplex benefit is the doubled earn rate: there is no free ticket and no concession discount. Scotiabank publishes no income requirement, only a $500 minimum credit limit. Fees come from Scotiabank's general schedule rather than a card specific disclosure.
Our verdict
Fine as a free card if you shop at Sobeys or go to Cineplex regularly, and unremarkable otherwise. A flat 1% with no fee is a reasonable floor, and Scene+ at a fixed cent means you always know what you have.
What you are giving up is everything else. There is no insurance on this card at all, not even purchase protection, which most free cards include. The Tangerine pays 2% on two categories you choose rather than two the bank chose, and also costs nothing. Take this one if you are already in the Scene+ ecosystem.
Cards worth comparing this against
Compare this against every card we track
Where this came from. scotiabank.com product page, welcome kit earning page, credit card fees page. 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.