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.