Scotiabank American Express Gold rewards card – My one month experience

A few months ago, I received a pre-approved American express gold reward card from Scotiabank with more than 45 000 bonus rewards points ($450 value) and no annual fee for first year, worth $99. At the same time, I received another credit card offer, Aeroplane via infinite, from TD bank with some bonus points.

After a short comparison analyst, I accepted the offer from Scotia Amex gold and received the card on May 10, 2014. So, today (June 11, 2014), after one month of use, is a good time to see whether I should keep the card or not.

I earned 48 100 points / $481 worth of travel credit with Amex

As of June 10, 2014, I earned 2600 ($26) points and I was given 15 500 bonus points (worth $155) for travel related purchases. Also, I will be getting another 30 000 ($300) rewards points when I make a minimum of $100 in travel-related purchase using the Amex card.

All together, I will have around 48 100 ($481) points that can be used to purchase any travel-related service any where I want.

Other benefits

Also, Scotia Gold American express card came packed with the following travel insurances: there are some terms and conditions to use them, but I didn’t read all the documents.

• Travel emergency medical insurance
• Trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance
• Flight delay insurance
• Lost luggage and delayed luggage insurance
• Hotel/motel burglary insurance
• Rental car collision/loss damage insurance
• Common carrier travel accident insurance

Please note I haven’t yet used any of the above insurances, I will update the information if I use them.

I was a little disappointed with grocery spending

The pre-approval letter states “4 rewards points for every $1 spend at gas, grocery, dining and entertainment”, and I received 4x points for gas, dining/fast food and entertainment, but not for groceries.

I do most of my grocery shopping at Warlmart, Costco or No Frills/ Lablaws stores, but for Scotia Amex card Walmart and Costco stores are not considered as grocery, thus I earned only 1x point for the money I spent there. And, Lablaws chains don’t accept American express.

I won't go for other expensive stores to collect 4x points.

Not all stores accept Amex card

Here is the list of stores accept American express card:

• Tim Hortons (4x points)
• Domino’s pizza (4x points)
• McDonalds (4x points)
• Shell gas station (4x points)
• ESSO gas station (4x points)
• Pizza Pizza (4x points)
• Metro/ food basics (4x points)
• Wal-mart supercentre (1x point)
• Costco (1x point)
• Napolis Restaurant, Ottawa (4x points)
• The bay stores (1x point)
• Canadian tire store (1x point)
• Bath & bath works (1x point)
• Winners (1x point)
• Sears (1x point)

Hers is the list of stores didn’t accept the card when I tried to use it:

• Giant tiger
• Lablaws / No frills
• Some MacDonald in rural areas

I haven’t yet used the card in many other stores in Canada. I will try it and update these two lists accordingly.

My plan with the Scotia Amex card

I will use this card for a year or two, and if I can't get enough points to cover at least the annual fees of $99 per year, then I will cancel it; however, I have estimated that I can earn more than 30 000 points per year with my regular purchases like gas, groceries and other necessary stuffs.

What to do with 48 100 travel points? May be I will use them to go for a short vacation 😀