First Year Fee Waived with the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card

The Scotiabank Gold American Express Card is offering a nice first year fee promotion. The highlights of the new promotion:

• $99 annual fee (first year fee waived if you apply before February 29, 2016)
• $29 for additional cardholders
• Earn 20,000 sign up bonus points when you spend $1,000 within the first 3 months
• Earn 4 points for every $1 you spent on gas, grocery, dining and entertainment purchases
• Earn 1 point for every $1 spent on all other purchases
• Receive a 35% off the Priority Pass to access worldwide lounges.

Keep in mind that the points that you earn need to be redeemed on travel expenses only. So if you do not travel, then this is not the card for you. What I dislike about this credit card is that you are stuck with these points and you need to retain the credit card to use the points. Therefore, the $99 will eventually kick in if you plan to hold on to this credit card.

The 4 points for every $1 on the categories listed above make this credit card very attractive. Keep in mind that 1 point is worth 1 cent in travel expenses, so you are essentially getting a 4% return on those purchases.

I have heard that you can find ways to continually waive the annual fee if you maintain certain other accounts (chequing, savings, etc.) with Scotiabank, but you may need to continually ask for the fee to be waive year after year. So if you are an existing bank account user of Scotiabank, I would strongly consider this credit card for your portfolio.