Scotiabank launches new Travel Rewards Debit Card

http://www.scotiabank.com/ca/en/0,,11889,00.html#debit

A few years ago you had several options to earn rewards on debit card purchases but those options dwindled away. It was a trend that happened in Canada and in the U.S.. Now we are starting to see a comeback in being able to earn rewards on the debit side of purchases here in Canada and the latest entrant into the market is the Scotiabank Debit Passport Card.

Launching today, the Scotiabank Debit Passport Card earns up to 1 Scotia Rewards point for every $5 spent and is available with a bonus introductory offer of up to 10,000 points. There are three different chequing accounts you can have with Scotia that come with the Scotiabank Debit Passport Card.

As the points are Scotia Rewards points they can be combined with the points earned on any Scotia Rewards earning credit cards like the Scotia Gold American Express card or the ScotiaGold Passport Visa card.

The up to 10,000 point introductory bonus is awarded as such:

  • 5,000 Scotia Rewards points will be added to your Scotia Rewards Account
    when you open an Eligible Account (Scotia One Account, Basic Banking
    Account, Basic Banking Plan, Student Banking Advantage Plan, Getting
    There Savings Account for Youth) with a Passport ScotiaCard within the
    offer period and set up a payroll deposit or a total of 2 pre-authorized
    transactions (PATs).
  • New Scotia One Accounts will receive an additional 5,000 Scotia Rewards
    points with set up of payroll deposit or 2 PATs worth a minimum of $25.

This offer runs until November 30, 2017.

Scotiabank who are branding themselves the Bank of Rewards is really going after the rewards market with their current portfolio of credit cards and rewards options on bank accounts that now have two offerings: SCENE Points or Scotia Rewards points. The latter can be used to redeem for travel, Scotia Rewards Points for Credit, and much more. The travel redemption rate is 100 points = $1 towards travel booked via Scotia Rewards unless you hold the American Express version of the Scotia cards where you can book any travel with any provider and get a statement credit towards that travel. At 1 point per $5 spent the points won’t rack up very quickly on their own but that’s the whole points, it’s meant as icing on the cake if you hold one of the credit cards that does earn lots of points and this is incentive to not only hold a credit card with Scotia but to bank with them as well.

Click here to learn more about the new Scotibank Debit Passport Card