Welcome to another Rewards Canada Clash! This time in our Clash of the Credit Cards we have two 5x points giants go against up each other! Those cards are the MBNA Rewards World Elite® Mastercard® and the Scotiabank Gold American Express® Card.
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In this match up we look at over half a dozen criteria to compare the cards against one another along with a head to head detailed table comparison.
Annual Fees
Both the MBNA Rewards World Elite® Mastercard® and the Scotiabank Gold American Express® Card have a $120 annual fee for the primary card. MBNA charges $50 for the first additional/supplementary card and $0 on any additional cards after that. The Scotia Amex Gold charges $29 for each additional/supplementary card.
This round is a tie seeing that the primary card fees are the same and while the Scotiabank Gold Amex does have a lower fee on the first supplementary card, if you need more than one addtional card, MBNA's are no charge.
Welcome Bonus
For the standard sign up bonus there are some slight differences between the cards.
The standard welcome bonus on the MBNA Card is 30,000 points after you make $2,000 in purchases and sign up for paperless e-statements in first 90 days.
The standard bonus on the Scotiabank Gold American Express card is 20,000 points when you spend $1,000 on the card in the first three months of having it.
Currently the Scotiabank Gold American Express card has an increased welcome bonus offer that provides up to 40,000 points. The bonus points are broken down it two parts. The first part awards 20,000 Scene+ points when you spend $1,000 on the card in the first three months and the second part awards an additional 20,000 points if you spend $7,500 in the first year of having the card.
There is also a big difference in the minimum income required to apply for these cards. The MBNA card requires $80,000 personal or $150,000 household versus the Scotia card only requiring $12,000 personal.
With an increased welcome bonus and no annual fee in the first year this category easily goes to the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card.
Interest Rates
With a 19.99% purchase interest rate, the MBNA card comes out slightly ahead by 1 percentage point over the Scotia card's 20.99% while Scotia has a slight edge by 2 points for cash advance interest rates.
The Scotiabank Gold American Express card also features no foreign transaction fees. That's the pesky 2.5% rate that most cards in Canada charge you for conducting transactions in currencies outside of the Canadian dollar. If you have a lot of purchases outside of Canada (whether travelling, online shopping, importing goods for your business) being able to save 2.5% can be a big deal. Do note those foreign purchases made on the Scotia card will earn 1 point per dollar as the accelerated earn rates only work on Canadian dollar purchases.
This category easily goes to Scotia for having no foreign transaction fees.
Features & Benefits
The trade off for offering a lot of points is that both cards don't offer a lot of extra features or benefits.
Being a World Elite Mastercard, the MBNA card it automatically benefits from airport lounge access membership with Mastercard Travel Pass provided by DragonPass and it also has free global Wi-Fi with Boingo (this includes Wi-Fi on WestJet flights).
The primary benefit the Scotia card has outside of No Foreign Transaction fees is that it provides access to Amex Offers. These are typically statement credits or bonus points that are offered throughout the year for using your card at select merchants. We've seen bonuses and credits for places like Amazon.ca, Chapters Indigo and more.
With the lounge access membership and free global wi-fi this category goes to the MBNA since we already classified no foreign transaction in the rates category.
Points Earning & Redemption
Points earning on the two cards are quite similar as is the redemption side of things. Both cards have multiple accelerated earn rates and are promoted for their 5x to 6x points earning on select categories.
The MBNA Rewards World Elite Mastercard earns 5x points on restaurant, grocery, digital media, membership, and household utility purchases while the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card earns 6x points on groceries at their Scene+ grocery store partners such as Sobeys, Safeway and IGA. The Scotia card then earns 5x points on all other grocery purchases plus 5x points on dining and entertainment. This is followed by 3x points on eligible gas, streaming services and daily transit (which includes rideshare, buses, taxis, subway, and more). All other spending on both cards sees an earn rate of one point per dollar spent.
The MBNA card also offers an annual 10% points bonus on all spending up to 15,000 points in total which boosts the 5x points earning to 5.5 and 1 point to 1.1
As you can see the two cards have quite similar top end points earning of a maximum of 6 and 5.5 points with just some slight differences in the purchase categories (ie. household utilities vs. entertainment) Scotia however goes one step further with a mid-level accelerated earn rate of 3x points on gas, transit and streaming services (although MBNA covers streaming services in their 5x points). Either way both cards have some great categories to be earning more points at.
When it comes to redeeming points for travel, both programs are equal in terms of the value of points. That is each point is worth 1 cent towards travel (typically noted as 100 points to $1 or 1,000 points to $10) Thus for travel redemptions the MBNA card provides a 1% to 5.5% return on spending while the Scotia card provides a 1% to 6% return. The big difference between the two cards comes with the flexibility of the redemption.
The Scotiabank Gold American Express Card allows you to redeem your Scene+ points for any travel you book yourself, that is you can go book travel on aircanada.com, westjet.com or with virtually any other travel business and use the poitns for that purchase. In a nutshell, you book and pay for the travel via the provider you want to use and once the charge shows up on your statement you can redeem points towards it. You have up to 12 months after that charge post to redeem towards it.
You can also choose to book via Scene+ travel and redeem your points right at the point of purchase. Scene+ Travel is operated by Expedia and may provide better or worse pricing than you can find on your own. That's what is great about this flexibility - you can shop around and see what the best deal is for you!
Compare this to the MBNA Card which for travel you have to redeem points via MBNA Rewards. This means you have less flexibility when compared to Scotia. We'd still consider this a decent mid-level flexibility as you can basically book any travel (flights, hotels, packages etc.) and MBNA does state they will price match.
The caveat with this is you can only redeem as many points as you have in your account at time of booking. Not that that is a bad thing but you don't have the opportunity to further fund your travel after the fact like you do with Scotia.
Technicallyspeaking you can go out and buy any travel you want on the MBNA card and then use the cash back redemption option (see below) This still provides a relatively decent value that is better than many cards in the market but you are losing value compared to booking via MBNA Rewards.
Both cards also offer cash back redemption options. The MBNA card's statement credit option is 120 points to $1 which works out to a 0.83% to 4.167% return (4.167% is better than a lot of travel and cash back cards in the market!) The Scotia card has a tiered cash back option that provides 0.667to 0.699 cents per point redeemed. That makes the cash bank return for this card range from 0.667% to 4.19%.
The MBNA card also has one other excellet redemption option and that is for gift cards. In fact, the MBNA Rewards program has some of the best redemption rates for gift cards out of all program. For example if you redeem for e-gift cards from The Gap, Banana Republic, Saks off 5th or The Bay - they actually provide a slightly better value than the top end travel redemption rate noted above!
The Scotia card on the other hand has a few more redemption options available. Notably for groceries, home improvement, movies and dining. All of those options can be redeemed for at the same rate as travel thus when you redeem your points at the till at a Sobeys store, Home Hardware, Cineplex Theatre or a Harvey's restaurant you are retaining the same 1% to 6% return. Same goes for using the points for gift cards for any of the Scene+ partners. After this you can also redeem Scene+ points for merchandise and non Scene+ partner gift cards but your rate of return (point value) drops.
In the most important round of all, the cards are quite close but given the flexibility in travel rewards and the no loss in value when redeeming for groceries, movies and dining the Scotiabank Gold American Express takes it!
Insurance
Both cards offer really good travel and other insurance coverage but the Scotiabank card does provide more than the MBNA Card. The Scotiabank Gold American Express card includes trip cancellation, trip interruption and hotel/motel burglary insurance whereas the MBNA card does not. The MBNA card does however provide mobile device insurance while the Scotia card does not. Finally the Scotiabank card has slightly better out of province medical insurance and car rental coverage than seen on the MBNA card.
It is pretty clear that this category goes to the Scotiabank Gold American Express for the better overall coverage.
Recommended Reading:
Guide to picking a Points Earning Machine
Check it out here
Conclusion
Here we have two cards that Rewards Canada classifies as Points Earning Machines that provide some big bang for your buck on many everyday spending categories. With no foreign transaction fees, the potential fo more value from its points, extra flexibility in its rewards plus a better insurance package, the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card flexes it muscles and hands the MBNA card a loss. In the end this is not to detract from the MBNA card - it is a really awesome card and ranks as the 5th best overall card in Canada but the 4th place ranked Scotia card is just a bit better overall.
I do want to note that if you are someone who shops frequently at a location that does not accept Amex, most notably Loblaw family of grocery stores, then of course the outcome would be different and the MBNA card should be the front runner for you.
The winner of this clash is: Scotiabank Gold American Express Card
Key factors in the Scotiabank Gold Amex Card's win:
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- More value and flexibility for points redemptions
- Better insurance benefits
- Lower income requirements
Here is a direct side by side comparison of the two cards in this clash!
Basics |
 MBNA Rewards World Elite® Mastercard® |
 Scotiabank Gold American Express® Card |
|---|---|---|
| Card Type | Travel Points | Travel Points |
| Annual Fee | $120 | $120 |
| Limited Time Annual Fee Offer | None | Yes, first free on primary card |
| Additional Card Fee | $50 for first card, $0 any additional | $29 |
| Interest Rate | 19.99% Purchase 22.99% balance transfers / 24.99% Cash Advance |
20.99% Purchase 22.99% Cash Advance |
| Foreign Transaction Fee | 2.5% | 0% |
| Income Requirements | Minimum Income $80,000 (individual) or $150,000 (household) |
Minimum Income $12,000 |
Points Earning |
MBNA Rewards World Elite® Mastercard® |
Scotiabank Gold American Express® Card |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Welcome Bonus | 30,000 points | 20,000 points |
| Welcome Bonus Value* | $300 | $200 |
| Limited Time Welcome Bonus | None | 45,000 points |
| Limited Time Welcome Bonus Value* | N/A | $450 |
| Renewal or Additional Bonus | 10% extra points awarded on your birthday for your spending over the previous 12 months (Capped at 15,000 points) | N/A |
| Travel Purchases | 1 point per dollar spent | 1 point per dollar spent |
| Grocery Purchases | 5 points per dollar spent^ | 6 points per dollar at Sobeys, Safeway, etc. 5 points per dollar spent at all other grocery stores (in Canada only) ^ |
| Dining Purchases | 5 points per dollar spent^ | 5 points per dollar spent (in Canada only)^ |
| Entertainment Purchases | 1 point per dollar spent | 5 points per dollar spent (in Canada only)^ |
| Gas & Transit Purchases | 1 point per dollar spent | 3 points per dollar spent (in Canada only) ^ |
| Digital Media, Membership & Household Utility Purchases | 5 points per dollar spent^ | 3 points per dollar spent (in Canada only) |
| All Other Purchases | 1 point per dollar spent | 1 point per dollar spent |
| ^ Annual cap on bonus category spending | $50,000 per category ($250,000 in total) | $50,000 |
| Value of points per $1 spent* | 1 to 5 cents (1.1 to 5.5 cents with the Birthday Bonus) |
1 to 6 cents |
| *Valuations are based upon redeeming the points for the any travel redemption - see the next section for cash back and other redemption options | ||
Redemption/Exchange Options |
MBNA Rewards World Elite® Mastercard® |
Scotiabank Gold American Express® Card |
|---|---|---|
| Miles/Points deposited to | MBNA Rewards | Scene+ |
| Travel Redemption Value | 100 points = $1 | 1,000 points = $10 (minimum redemption is 100 points) |
| Exchange Options | None | None |
| Cash Back Redemption option | 120 points = $1 statement credit | 3,000 points = $20 statement credit 4,500 points = $30 statement credit 7,500 points = $50 statement credit 11,000 points = $75 statement credit 14,500 points = $100 statement credit 21,500 points = $150 statement credit 43,000 points = $300 statement credit 71,500 points = $500 statement credit |
| Value of points for cash back redemptions | 0.83% to 4.15% | 0.67% to 4.2% |
Benefits |
MBNA Rewards World Elite® Mastercard® |
Scotiabank Gold American Express® Card |
|---|---|---|
| Airport Lounge Access Membership | Yes | No |
| Free Global Wi-Fi | Yes | No |
| Amex Offers | No | Yes |
Insurance |
MBNA Rewards World Elite® Mastercard® |
Scotiabank Gold American Express® Card |
|---|---|---|
| Common Carrier Travel Accident Insurance | $1,000,000 | $500,000 |
| Flight Delay Insurance | 4 hours up to $500 per person |
4 hours $500 in total |
| Delayed Baggage Insurance | 4 hours up to $1,000 per person |
4 hours $1,000 in total |
| Lost / Stolen Baggage Insurance | Yes up to $1,000 per person |
Yes $1,000 in total |
| Damaged Baggage Insurance | None | None |
| Trip Cancellation Insurance | None | $1,500 per person (up to $10,000 per trip) |
| Trip Interruption Insurance | None | $1,500 per person (up to $10,000 per trip) |
| Travel Medical Insurance up to 64 years old | 21 Days | 25 Days |
| Travel Medical Insurance 65+ | None | 3 Days |
| Auto Rental/Loss Damage Insurance | 31 Days Up to $65,000 MSRP |
48 Days Up to $65,000 MSRP |
| Hotel / Motel Burglary Insurance | None | Yes Up to $1,000 |
| Purchase Protection | 90 Days Up to $60,000 lifetime |
90 Days Up to $60,000 lifetime |
| Price Protection | No | No |
| Extended Warranty Plan | Yes Up to 1 extra year |
Yes Up to 1 extra year |
| Mobile Device Insurance | Yes Up to $1,000 |
None |
| Link to Apply |
This clash was first posted on April 5, 2023
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