Leaked – Mega Changes Are Coming to the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card

Huge Changes for Scotia Gold Amex Card

Sites like Reddit had leaked about new updates coming to the Scotiabank Gold American Credit card starting August 1, 2019. If this leaked news is true, Scotia Gold Amex will be in direct competition with the American Express Cobalt credit card.

Today, I will briefly l discuss these changes (assuming the leaked information is true) and will provide my insights on the new (after changes) Scotia Gold Amex card.

Annual Fee

Annual will go up to $120 from $99. Additional card annual fee will not change and remains at $29.

Rewards Structure

Now: 4x Gas, Grocery, Dining, Entertainment | 1X Everything Else

Aug 1 Onward: 5X Grocery, Dining, Entertainment | 3X Gas, Daily Transit, Select Streaming |1X Everything else

Foreign Transaction Fees

Now: 2.5%

Aug 1 Onward: 0%

Travel Insurance Changes

Travel Emergency Medical: 65> age will lower from 10 days to 3 days.

Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption: Amount will lower from $2,500 each to $1,500 each

Price Protection

This insurance will no longer be offered after August 1, 2019.

Everything else not mentioned above is not changing. As you can see, with these changes Scotia is trying to capture a significant chunk of the Canadian credit card market and they are expecting to grab a lot of Amex Cobalt customers.

One difference in points compared to Amex Cobalt is that Scotia Points are not convertible to Marriott Bonvoy (and then to 44 frequent-flyer program airline miles such as Aeroplan, Avios).

However, the Amex Cobalt Card does not provide as many benefits as the Scotiabank Gold Amex does. For example, Amex Cobalt does not offer concierge service, trip cancellation insurance, zero foreign currency fee, and many more.

In the past, the Amex Cobalt card was the only card in Canada that provided 5X rewards on some categories. Now that we have Scotia Gold Amex competing, plus it’s giving a lot more than Cobalt, consumers will have to take a hard look to decide which card to keep.

I do have an Amex Cobalt Card, but I haven’t decided yet whether to keep it or cancel it after August 1 and replace with Scotia Gold Amex.

I have a video on what I discussed above and you can watch it here: Changes Are Coming to the Scotiabank Gold American Express Credit Cards Another credit card which is changing also is the Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite. I will talk and video about this shortly.

Joint Mortgages – The Positives And The Pitfalls

What Is A Joint Mortgage?

First Published: July 2, 2009 ADawnJournal.com

Taking out a mortgage is an almost indispensable part of buying a house for many individuals. Those of us who have been party to a windfall via inheritance, as a prize or a bonus may be able to pay directly by cash to own the house we want. The rest of us will need, as most people do, to find a mortgage that suits our needs and our means.

Mortgage borrowing is quite unlike any other kind of borrowing. The amounts are higher than any typical loan or credit line, and consequently the term of the loan will usually be longer. As the term is longer, this means the scope for default is consequently larger. With the larger scope for defaulting on a mortgage comes the need for banks to cover themselves before lending. The outcome of this is that if you cannot meet mortgage payments, your home is at risk.

With the higher level of commitment and its knock-on effect on just about everything you could possibly think of, the amount of thinking that needs to go into taking out a mortgage naturally will increase. Although all you really want is to buy a house, you need to stop and think about what the best way of going about things will be. Can you afford to take a mortgage that will secure you the house you really want? How sure are you that the payments you can make today will be affordable five years from now, or ten years, or twenty? If borrowing to buy a house will really over-stretch you, you may need to take a different angle.

The angle that people will traditionally take – if they find that their borrowing ability is not conducive to buying a house alone – is to look at taking a joint mortgage with someone else. If the house purchase is part of a couple, married or otherwise, trying to set up home together, then there may be an obvious situation. In some couples, though, only one is gainfully employed and eligible to get a good mortgage deal. In others, it may be that one of the partners has poor credit history, which will lead any lending institution to either decline the application or at the very least put restrictive terms on it.

Some people will choose to co-sign for a mortgage with a parent or other older relative. In these cases, assuming that the elder party is “young enough”, there is a lot of scope for a good deal. However, it is important to realize that although a joint mortgage brings in two different incomes, two different histories and two different brains, it also encompasses two different personalities – and if at any point those two personalities start to clash, there will be problems in the operation of the account that could make an individual look like the most secure borrower of all. If borrowing as joint mortgage account holders it is important to take account of this, and make sure the loan is flexible.

Auckland Travel Blog: Part 2

New Zealand Travel Blog: Auckland Highlights & Impressions

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 1

The President Hotel in Downtown Auckland

After getting off the SkyBus, it took me about 5 minutes to reach the President Hotel, which is located in the Central Business District (CBD) in the heart of downtown Auckland.

When I booked this hotel months ago, this used to be a Best Western Hotel. Then all of a sudden, while I was in Melbourne I received an email from Best Western Australasia that the President Hotel had decided to leave the Best Western Group. My options were to either book another Best Western Hotel in Auckland or stay with the President Hotel as they would honour already booked reservations, so I decided to keep my reservations at the President hotel.

The President Hotel is nothing fancy but an OK hotel. The lobby area was unimpressive and so was the room. My room had a window, but I was not able to open the curtains and enjoy the sunlight because another building was blocking any sort of view whatsoever and it was the backside of that building, so it was very dark.

The best feature of this hotel is its location. I had no problem grabbing coffee or food because within a block or two there are many restaurants and street food vendors. There was even a Countdown – NZ Supermarket right next door where I went many times to buy whatever I needed.

I never got to try the hotel’s dining or buffet breakfast in the hotel because it made no sense when so many options to eat were available right next door.

Another feature I enjoyed was that I was able to keep an eye on the street sitting inside the lobby, so I wouldn’t miss my tour pickup. The Sky Tower is visible from the hotel and you can walk to it within a few minutes.

How To Take Time For Yourself

Taking Time for Yourself and Personal Development

When you are having trouble developing yourself into the person you want to be, one of the biggest reasons may be that you are not taking time for yourself. You need to take time for yourself because that will allow you to look inwards at yourself and determine what it is that you want. Personal development is very important if you want to be successful and a big part of that is through taking time for yourself. While part of personal development is working with others, a large part of it is ensuring that you are also looking at yourself and doing things for yourself. So, here are some ways that you can take time for yourself.

1. Each day, whether it is for five minutes or one hour, stop what you are doing and relax. Just sit back and think about what is going on in your day, what is going on in your life and enjoy the quiet. After you do this a few times you will begin to enjoy the time and even look forward to it.

2. Take time to be optimistic about your life. This means that you take time to think about your life and if you are having problems in your day, then determine what you could do to make it better. Think about things that make you happy and what you can do to ensure you keep being happy. Be optimistic during the time you take for yourself and before you know it, that optimism will spread to other parts of your life.

3. During the time you take for yourself, look at your goals and what you want to do with your life. Think about your goals and how you are going to reach them. Think about the things that make you happy and think about what you are going to do to ensure you reach your goals. Taking time for yourself is a lot about goal setting because you can sit back and determine what goals you want to reach and how you are going to reach each of those goals.

4. Talk to your friends and family and let them know that you are taking time for yourself. Tell them that this time is for your personal reflection and that means no interruptions. Do not take phone calls from anyone and ensure those in your house know to leave you alone.

5. During your time, turn off the television, turn off the computer and sit down so you can be in your own mind. This keeps distractions from becoming a problem and it keeps you from worrying about things, or thinking about anything beyond what you need to.

Personal development will change your life but you need to make time for it and that means making time for yourself. Do not skimp on time for yourself because you want to ensure that you do everything right and reach the goals you want. Time for yourself allows you to think, plan and implement towards that end.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Simplepersonaldevelopment.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com. This article originally published on the above website on June 5, 2010.

Amazon Echo Dot with Alexa Made My Life Easier

My Top Commands for Amazon Alexa

Amazon Echo Dot products provide a pathway to the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for ridiculously low prices. I picked up 2 Echo Dots (2nd and 3rd Generation) for only $25 and $40 on sale. Since I unboxed my Echo Dots, my world has changed, as Alexa took lots of tasks and worries out of my everyday life.

You can watch my Amazon Alexa Echo Dot Review here. There are so many things Alexa can do and she is always improving. Some of features I have been using since I brought her home:

Flash Briefing – I added 3 of my favourite news feeds together and Alexa will play them together when I say “flash new” or “flash briefing”.

Start My Day – This is another command where you can add several items and Alexa will play them one after another once you command her to “start my day”. I added a random fact, news feed, weather, and my calendar under this command.

When Should I Leave – You tell Alexa your public transit stop numbers and she will tell you the next 2 schedules when the bus or streetcar will leave. Alexa can only save one bus stop, so I saved the one I use most. For all others, you can tell her the numeric bus stop numbers. I see there is room for Alexa to improve, so you can only tell her your intersections, instead of stop #s.

Set Up Timer, Alarm, Reminder – Setting up alarms or reminders are so easy now. I don’t need to go through all those settings on my phone.

I also use features like weather, wind chill, and currency conversion frequently. I am learning more about Alexa and will share my experiences on this site and on my YouTube Channel.