The NEW Scotiabank GM Visa Card

Scotiabank has introduced its new GM Visa Card. This credit card seems to have come out of thin air, because there does not seem to be much anticipation for it. That being said, I am always happy to see new credit cards being introduced to the market to help with the competition. So let’s take a look at how competitive this credit card really is:

  • No annual fee
  • Earn 5% cash back in GM Earnings on the first $5,000 spent annually on all purchases
  • Earn 2% cash back in GM Earnings on purchases after the first $5,000
  • Save up to 20% at participating AVIS car rental locations worldwide.

Note that if you cancel your account, you will lose all your earnings within 90 days of closure, so the no annual fee solves this issue, because you can keep this credit card for as long as you want. But why would you want to keep this credit card?

The 5% cash back on the first $5,000 in annual purchases (approximately $416 per month) gives a maximum of $250 cash back. Then you only earn 2% cash back on any additional purchases.

For every $1 in GM Earnings, you can receive $1 off the purchase price or lease down payment of a new Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, or Cadillac.

At first glance, I can see why most people will find this credit card useless, because of the restricted reward options. This credit card would definitely not influence my decision on which car to buy, but if you knew with absolute certainty that you will be buying a GM car at some point in time, then this credit card is worth it to have. Even earning the 2% cash back is very good for people who do not like paying annual fees. At the very least, you can just maximize the 5% cash back every year (until you buy a new car), and then just put the excess of $5,000 spending on another credit card.

Recommendation: I would have liked to see us having the ability to redeem our GM Earnings for car maintenances expenses at the GM dealerships. Another great reward option is to be able to use the GM Earnings to pay the month lease payments for one of their cars. These two additional rewards would actually make the credit card much more worthwhile for GM car owners/users to have.

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