Scotiabank Platinum American Express Card Review

The Scotiabank®* Platinum American Express® Card is the Ultra Premium card offering from the bank's portfolio of Scene+ cards. In the past Rewards Canada has referred to this card as a sleeping giant thanks to great airport lounge access benefits, no foreign transaction fees and for flexibility in travel, grocery, dining and movie rewards.

The review of the Scotiabank®* Platinum American Express® Card is broken down into the following sections:

Overview

The Scotiabank®* Platinum American Express® Card was revamped in 2022 which saw it receive a great flat earn rate for all spending and a no foreign transaction fee benefit. Here at Rewards Canada we rank this card as the fifth best Ultra Premium Card but if you don't need Aeroplan points or benefits for flying with Air Canada, we'd consider it the second best card in the market after Amex's own Platinum Card.

The card is categorized as a Travel Anywhere card which means you don't have to book via Scene+ Travel if you don't want to, you can book any travel how you want when you want and when the charge shows up on your statement you can redeem points against the charge.

Recommend reading: Scene+ is not just for movies – it’s also for travel, groceries & more

Costs & Sign up Features

The Scotiabank®* Platinum American Express® Card has an annual fee of $399 which is the lowest of all the Ultra Premium cards in the Canadian market. Additional (supplementary) cards run $99 each annually.

Right now the card has an increased welcome bonus offer of up to 60,000 Scene+ points. That bonus is awarded as follows:

• Earn 50,000 bonus Scene+ points by making at least $3,000 in everyday eligible purchases in your first 3 months.
• Plus, for a limited time, you are eligible to earn a 10,000 Scene+ point bonus when you spend at least $10,000 in everyday eligible purchases in your first 14 months

Those 60,000 points are worth $600 towards any travel booked on your own or via Scene+ travel.

The interest rate on the card is industry leading for Ultra Premium cards as they only charge 9.99% on purchases, cash advances and balance transfers. The card has a very low minimum personal annual income requirement of only $12,000.

Earning

The card earns Scene+ Points as follows:

• 2 Scene+ points for every $1 charged to your account on all eligible purchases 

Point Valuation Chart

Spending Category	Points earned per dollar spent	Rate of return when booking any travel on your own / Scene+ Travel / Scene+ Groceries / Cineplex / Scene+ Dining Partners / Home Hardware	Rate of return Cash Back
All spending	2	2%	1.33% to 1.398%

Redeeming

The Scotiabank®* Platinum American Express® Card participates in the Scene+ program which provides numerous rewards options for your points. The primary reward is redeeming for travel however you also get the same value when redeeming for groceries, dining, movies and select gift cards. Other redemption options include statement credits, merchandise and gift cards.

Travel

When it comes to travel, you have two options for redeeming your Scene+ points. You can choose to book travel via Scene+ Travel and redeem points during the payment process. When you book via Scene+ Travel you can choose to redeem as little as 1 point for 1 cent off your purchase and can redeem as many points as you like up to the total cost of the booking

You can also choose to book travel on your own and use the Apply Points to Travel redemption option. All you have to do is book your travel how you want with whomever you want. Whether it is aircanada.com, westjet.com, expedia.ca or anywhere else including your trusted travel agent you book with them and when that charge shows up on your statement you simply call up Scotia or go online and redeem points against the charge.

Points are redeemed at a rate of 100 points for $1 with the Apply Points to Travel redemption. That's the beauty of this card and others like it, you don't have to have the full amount of points to begin to enjoy the rewards! If you buy an airline ticket for $600 and have 30,000 points you can choose to redeem those points for a $300 credit which means your flight only cost $300. You also have up to 12 months after the travel charge posts to your account to redeem points so you can continue to pay off that vacation with points up to a year after!

Another benefit of this' book travel on your own' is you can be on vacation and buy travel on the card (say a rail ticket) and then redeem points when you get home.

There are also great non-travel redemption options in the Scene+ program that provide the same value as travel redemptions:

Groceries

You can redeem points right at the till when you shop for groceries at participating Sobeys, FreshCo, IGA, Foodland, Safeway, Les Marches Tradition, and Thrifty Foods locations. The redemption rate is 1000 Scene+ points for $10 off your total.

Dining

Scene+ lets you redeem 500 points for $5 when paying for your meal at Harvey’s, Swiss Chalet, East Side Mario’s, Montana’s BBQ & Bar, Bier Markt, and Kelsey’s Original Roadhouse.

Movies

The original redemption option from the old Scene program is still available in the new Scene+ program and that is movies! This has changed over the past few years and now you simply redeem 100 points for $1.00 towards movie tickets. You can also redeem 500 points for $5 towards food and drinks at the movies or 100 points for $1 off movie rentals or purchases at the Cineplex Store

Home Hardware

Home Hardware will be joining the Scene+ program in May 2024 and they will have the same at the till redemption option seen on groceries of 1,000 points to $10 off your purchase.

Recommended reading: Here are the details on earning and redeeming Scene+ points at Home Hardware

Select Gift Cards

You also have an option to redeem points for gift cards from stores and retailers that participate in the Scene+ program at the same value as all of the above redemption options. For example you can redeem 1,000 points for a $10 Sobeys Gift Card, 5,000 points for a $50 Home Hardware Gift Card and so on.

Points for Credit

Another popular redemption option for those who have any of the Scene+ credit cards is Points for Credit. This is essentially a cash back option. It works in the same way as the any travel rewards option although with a different redemption rate. Basically you apply points to receive a cash back credit on a non-travel charge. The redemption rates are as follows:

Cash Back Credit	Points Required	Rate of Return
$20	3,000	0.667%
$30	4,500	0.667%
$50	7,500	0.667%
$75	11,000	0.681%
$100	14,500	0.689%
$150	21,500	0.697%
$300	43,000	0.698%
$500	71,500	0.699%

 

Right away it doesn't look like those rates a great but you have to remember that you earning 2 points per dollar spent which equates to up to a 1.4% return. Not the highest for cash back rewards but not a bad either. It's nice to know you have this option with the card.

You can also redeem Scene+ points for merchandise directly from Apple and Best Buy or via their own merchandise catalog. There is also an option to redeem for gift cards for dozens of non-Scene+ merchants. All these additional redemption options come in at a lower value than redeeming for those detailed in this review but they are nice to have them as an option as well!

Features and Benefits

The Scotiabank Platinum American Express Card has several key features and benefits that on their own can pay for the card's annual fee and more!.

No Foreign Transaction Fees

In the card's 2022 revamp came the news this card would join several other Scotia cards in not charging a fee on transactions made in foreign currencies. On average most cards in Canada charge a 2.5% fee (some are even higher) on purchases that are not in Canadian dollars so with this card you expect to save that amount.

This card actually works out to be one of the best No FX fee options in Canada since you still earn 2 points per dollar spent and don't pay the 2.5% foreign transaction fee on your purchases outside of Canada, whether those are while you are travelling or ordering something from outside the country.

Airport Lounge Access

The card provides access to over 1,300 business class lounges in over 130 countries around the world thanks to its complimentary Priority Pass Standard Membership. On top of this you also receive 10 annual lounge access passes. With each entry into a lounge costing US$32 via Priority Pass those 10 passes are worth US$320 alone and the membership itself typically runs between US$69-$99 per year.

American Express Experiences

As with all American Express Cards the card comes with American Express Experiences which includes Front Of The Line® Advance Access, Front Of The Line® Reserved Tickets, Front Of The Line® E-Updates, Special Offers & Experiences for all Cardmembers and Social Access for all Cardmembers.

Amex offers

As with all American Express Cards the Scotiabank Platinum American Express Card receives Amex Offers. These exclusive limited time offers sent out to cardmembers to receive statement credits or bonus points for using their card at select merchants. Depending on your shopping habits these offers alone can provide enough savings in a year to cover the annual fee on the card if not more! You can learn more about this feature in Rewards Canada's Guide to American Express Canada 'Amex Offers'

Insurance

The Scotiabank Platinum American Express card comes with a very strong insurance package that includes the following:

• Out of Province/Country Emergency Medical Insurance (31 days for those under age 65, 10 days for 65+)
• Trip Cancellation Insurance
• Trip Interruption Insurance
• Flight Delay Insurance
• Baggage Delay Insurance
• Lost or Stolen Baggage Insurance
• Car Rental Theft and Damage Insurance
• Hotel Burglary Insurance
• $500,000 Travel Accident Insurance
• Purchase Protection Plan
• Buyer's Assurance Protection Plan
• Mobile Device Insurance

 

What is good about this card

The flat earn rates is quite good! With 2 points per dollar awarded on all spending you essentially have yourself a 2% return card. This is great for those people who make a lot of purchases in non-accelerated earn rate categories where competing cards may only award 1 or 1.25 points per dollar.

No Foreign Transaction Fees! Whether you travel lots outside Canada, shop online a bunch from the U.S. or import goods for your business, being able to save 2 to 3% on each transaction is a huge deal (and you'll still earn 2 points per dollar)

The Scene+ program's redemption options are another good thing about this card. The range of flexible rewards options that retain the maximum value make this card attractive for those looking to redeem for travel, groceries and more.

The lounge access is great! This benefit pays for the card itself and more. Many cards provide annual lounge access membership and some even provide free passes but none offer as many as this card does with its 10 annual passes.

What is not so good about this card

There isn't too much that is bad about this card. Probably the biggest sticking point will be that it is an American Express card which means lower acceptance over Visa or Mastercard. While American Express keeps closing the gap on the two big issuers there are still some notable merchants you can't use your American Express card like Loblaw's family of grocery stores, Wendy's and Costco.

No accelerated earn rates on select spending categories. This card used to have them but Scotia decided to go with one increased base earn rate. So, while you won't earn 5x points in some categories you will earn 2x points in all those other categories where cards are only earning 1x points. It is a bit of trade off with this card.

Not a lot of extra benefits - yes, the benefits you do get are great and extremely valuable based on the low $399 annual fee (low for an Ultra Premium Card that is). It would be nice to see something like an annual travel credit or something similar added as a benefit. Many of this card's direct competitors offer additional benefits, credits and more but those cards do tend to charge higher annual fees.

Who should get this card

• Consumers with a lot of spend in categories that tend to not have accelerated earn rates on other cards.
• Consumers who travel semi-frequently knowing they'll use most or all of the lounge passes but don't need something as expensive as Amex's own Platinum Card.
• Consumers who like having multiple redemption options with their points and not losing value of their points across most of those options.
• Consumers who bank at Scotia and want to keep all financial products with one bank
• Consumers with a lot of spend outside of Canada

Conclusion

The Scotiabank Platinum American Express Card is a hidden gem in the Canadian rewards credit card market. It doesn't get a lot coverage as it tends to be overshadowed by other Ultra Premium Cards like The Platinum Card from American Express and the Aeroplan Infinite Privilege or Reserve Cards. But, if you don't need Aeroplan points or the extra bells and whistles that Amex's own Platinum card provides, this is the perfect Ultra Premium card for you.

 

Latest card details:

Other cards to consider if you are looking at this card:

• American Express® Gold Rewards Card®
• The Platinum Card® from American Express
• BMO Eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege Card
• CIBC Aventura Visa Infinite Privilege Card
• RBC Avion Visa Infinite Privilege Card
• TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Card
  

This review was first posted on June 21, 2023 and is updated on a regular basis.

 

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