Capital · Credit Cards · Scotiabank
No Foreign Fee,
And No Foreign Bonus.
Scotiabank waives the 2.5 percent foreign transaction fee outright on this card, and drops foreign spending to the base one point per dollar at the same time. Every figure here is off Scotiabank, read 6 September 2026.
The Scotiabank Gold American Express Card costs $120 a year, $29 per supplementary card, and requires $12,000 of personal income. Scotiabank states it will not charge foreign transaction fees on foreign currency transactions, only the exchange rate applies. It earns six Scene+ points per dollar at Sobeys banner grocery stores and one on everything else. Not advice.
Foreign Transaction Fee
Scotiabank waives the usual 2.5% outright.
At Sobeys Banners
Sobeys, Safeway, FreshCo, Foodland, IGA and more.
Accelerated Cap
Calendar year, 1 January to 31 December.
Income Floor
The lowest on this list by a wide margin.
What The Card Is
Read off Scotiabank on 6 September 2026, in their words before mine.
The Foreign Fee Waiver Is Written Broadly
Scotiabank states “We will not charge you Foreign Transaction Fees on foreign currency transactions, including purchases, only the exchange rate applies.” Its own fee schedule then lists this card among those “for which there is no foreign currency conversion fee”. Including purchases is inclusive language, so purchases are one member of a wider set rather than the boundary of it.
Foreign Spending Earns The Base Rate Only
Scotiabank states that for purchases made in foreign currency “you will only earn 1 Scene+ Point for every $1 charged” once converted. You save the 2.5 percent and give up as much as five points of accelerated earn. It is an excellent foreign spending card and a poor foreign rewards card.
Six Points Is One Grocery Family
The six times list is Sobeys, IGA, Safeway, Foodland, FreshCo, Voilà, Chalo! FreshCo, Thrifty Foods, IGA West, Les Marchés Tradition, Rachelle Béry and Co-Op. Every one is an Empire or Sobeys banner. Loblaws, No Frills, Metro, Walmart and Costco are not on it and fall to the five times other grocery rate at best.
The Cap Is Calendar Year, Not Anniversary
Scotiabank states the accelerated rates apply to “the first $50,000 in purchases … calculated annually from January 1st to December 31st each year”. A card opened in October gets a truncated first cap period.
The Arithmetic On $120
Where the fee comes back, at Scotiabank’s own published point values.
Every Published Redemption Is A Cent A Point
Travel at 100 points per $1, groceries at 1,000 points for $10, dining at 500 points for $5, Home Hardware at 1,000 for $10, Shell fuel at 1,000 for $10. Scotiabank publishes no redemption route worth more than a cent, so six times is six percent and no more.
The Fee Comes Back At $2,000 Of Grocery Spend
Six percent of $2,000 is $120. On a card where the income floor is $12,000, that is a low bar.
The Waiver Is Worth 2.5 Percent Of Everything Foreign
On $5,000 of foreign spend the waiver saves $125, which alone clears the fee. Set against that, the drop to one point costs up to $250 of forgone accelerated earn on the same spend, so the waiver is the reason to hold it, not the earn rate.
The Welcome Offer Runs In Two Tranches
Up to 30,000 points for at least $2,000 of eligible purchases in the first three months, and a further 20,000 at $7,500 in the first year. The headline $950 is mostly projection, not bonus.
The Case Against Carrying It
Same standard as every other page here.
Travel Medical Falls To Three Days At Sixty Five
Scotiabank states up to $1,000,000 of emergency medical for 25 consecutive days under age 65 and 3 consecutive days at 65 and older. Three days is a weekend, and for anyone near that age it removes travel medical as a reason to hold the card.
Priority Pass Is A Discount, Not A Membership
Scotiabank’s wording is a discount on a Priority Pass membership. It is not included lounge access and it is not a number of included visits. The discounted price and the per visit fee are not stated.
Scotiabank Is Serving A 2016 Disclosure From A Live URL
A disclosure statement dated effective August 1, 2016 is still reachable on scotiabank.com and shows a $99 fee, a 19.99 percent rate and a 2.5 percent foreign currency conversion fee. Every headline figure in it is wrong, including the one this card is sold on.
Two Grocery Lists On The Same Site Do Not Match
The card footnote and Scotiabank’s participating stores page differ on whether Lawtons Drugs is included. A six percent rate that depends on a list should have one list.
How It Sits In A Stack
Not advice. How this card reads next to the others published here.
It Is The Only Card Here With No Foreign Fee
Every other card on this list charges 2.5 percent, where the figure is published at all. That is the whole argument for this one.
It Is An Amex, With The Amex Constraint
Six points at a grocery store that does not take Amex is zero points. The same argument that qualifies the Cobalt qualifies this.
The Income Floor Makes It The Accessible One
$12,000 of personal income against $80,000 for a World Elite and $150,000 for the Infinite Privilege. It is the easiest card on this list to qualify for and it is not the weakest.
What Could Not Be Confirmed
In circulation, and not on the issuer page. Printed rather than dropped.
Whether The Waiver Covers Cross Border Charges Billed In Canadian Dollars
A foreign merchant that bills you in Canadian dollars is the most likely real world gap in a no foreign fee claim, and Scotiabank’s superseded 2016 disclosure charged 2.50 percent on exactly that case. No current page on scotiabank.com addresses it either way, and the current Foreign Currency Conversion section of the card’s Disclosure Statement could not be located. Reported as unresolved.
Whether The Waiver Reaches Foreign Currency Cash Advances
The footnote’s wording would appear to reach them, but no Scotiabank page says so. Cash advance fees and cash advance interest apply regardless.
The Statement Credit Conversion Rate
Scotiabank offers a points for credit redemption and publishes no conversion rate for it. Every other route is a cent a point. This one is unknown.
All figures read off Scotiabank’s own Canadian pages and linked PDFs for the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card on 6 September 2026: annual fee $120 and supplementary cards $29 a year, minimum personal income of $12,000 a year, a stated waiver of foreign transaction fees on foreign currency transactions with only the exchange rate applying and the card listed on Scotiabank’s fee page among those with no foreign currency conversion fee, Scene+ earn rates of six points per dollar at named Sobeys banner grocery stores, five on dining, food delivery, food subscriptions and other eligible grocery stores, five on eligible entertainment, up to four on eligible travel booked through Scene+ Travel, three on eligible gas and transit, three on eligible streaming services and one on all other eligible purchases, accelerated earn rates applying to the first $50,000 in purchases calculated annually from 1 January to 31 December, foreign currency purchases earning one point per dollar after conversion, annual interest rates of 21.99% on purchases and 22.99% on cash advances, a welcome offer of up to 30,000 bonus points for at least $2,000 of eligible purchases in the first three months and a further 20,000 at $7,500 in the first year with an application window of 2 July 2026 to 1 November 2026, published redemption rates of 100 points per $1 of travel, 1,000 points for $10 of groceries, 500 points for $5 of dining, 1,000 points for $10 at Home Hardware and 1,000 points for $10 of Shell fuel, and emergency medical coverage of up to $1,000,000 for 25 consecutive days under age 65 and 3 consecutive days at 65 and older. Whether the fee waiver reaches cross border charges billed in Canadian dollars could not be confirmed and is published above as unresolved. No figure on this page comes from a comparison site. Cody Wise does not hold this card.
The Rest Of The Card Pages
What is actually in the wallet, and the one that is not.
The Whole Card Stack
Nine cards across six issuers, what each one costs and what it is actually for.
The Amex Platinum
The premium card in the wallet, with the $799 fee broken down against its credits.
The Centurion
The card with no application form, and what American Express actually publishes about it.
Common Questions
Scotiabank states it will not charge foreign transaction fees on foreign currency transactions, only the exchange rate applies, and lists this card among those with no foreign currency conversion fee. Read off Scotiabank on 6 September 2026.
$120 a year for the primary card and $29 a year for each supplementary card. The minimum personal income is $12,000.
Scotiabank names Sobeys, IGA, Safeway, Foodland, FreshCo, Voilà, Chalo! FreshCo, Thrifty Foods, IGA West, Les Marchés Tradition, Rachelle Béry and Co-Op locations. Other eligible grocery stores earn five.
Yes. Scotiabank states the accelerated earn rates apply to the first $50,000 in purchases at qualifying merchants, calculated annually from 1 January to 31 December.
Every rate Scotiabank publishes is one cent a point: 100 points for $1 of travel, 1,000 points for $10 of groceries, 500 points for $5 of dining, 1,000 points for $10 at Home Hardware and 1,000 points for $10 of Shell fuel.
A Rate Is Not A Return
Until You Spend There.
Every accelerated rate in Canada is a rate on one category. The only question that matters is whether that category is where your money actually goes.
Not financial advice.