We recently ‘upgraded’ to the Scotiabank Ultimate Package from the Scotiabank Preferred Package to take advantage of a few features. I thought I would share a Scotiabank Ultimate Package review my usual fine-tooth comb format.
In this post, I’ll go over the Scotiabank new account cash bonus (for new Scotiabank customers), unfortunately we couldn’t get the cash bonus. This post will also review the features of the Ultimate account, how you can get it for free, and some of the pros and cons of the Ultimate Package Scotiabank account.
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Scotiabank Ultimate Package Promotion $350 Bonus
Scotiabank has been taking part of the new account banking promotions that many other Canadian banks partake in, and are offering $350 cash as a new account bonus if you are a new Scotiabank customer and sign up for the Scotiabank Ultimate Package.
To get $350 cash deposited into your account, you have to sign up before the deadline.
You can’t have had a Scotiabank chequing account within the past 2 years, otherwise you won’t be eligible.
Then…
Within 60 days of opening your new account you have to set up a recurring direct deposit (monthly for three months).
As well, you will have to have two recurring pre-authorized transactions that are $50 or more for over three months.
In addition, you have to have an eligible $50 bill payment done through Scotiabank online or mobile banking.
Within 60 days after these are completed, you will get $350 cash.
Scotiabank Ultimate Package Features
Here are some of the features of the Scotiabank Ultimate Package:
- Unlimited debit transactions
- Unlimited No Fee Scotia International Money Transfers
- Unlimited Interac e-Transfers
- Unlimited Canadian and U.S. dollar drafts (these are usually $10 each)
- Unlimited free Global non-Scotiabank ABM withdrawals (this is great because normally you get charged $5 each time you withdraw money in the non USD
- You can choose to earn either SCENE or Scotia Rewards points on your daily purchases
- Free Safety Deposit Box– A $55 annual waiver for a small safety deposit box (about the height of a few pack of cards).
- 100 free personal cheques per year
- Free Scotia U.S. Dollar Daily Interest Account
- Free additional Basic Plus Bank Account ($11.95/month value)- though I’m not sure why you would want another chequing account
- One of the most enticing features (prompted us to make the switch) is that you can get 10 free equity trades with Scotia iTRADE in your first year (this is about a $100 value since each equity trade is $9.99) and 5 free equity trades every year after. This is on top of the cash promotion just for signing up with a Scotia iTRADE account.
- Ongoing annual fee waiver for one premium credit card (only one waiver per account) and it is up to the $150 cost.
- Scotiabank Gold American Express
- Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite
- Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite (10% off your first $2000 spend promotion right now)
- Scotiabank Value
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Scotia Ultimate Package Minimum Balance (To Waive the Monthly Fee)
The Scotiabank Ultimate Package’s monthly fee is $30.95/month. This is quite pricey!
If you have the Scotiabank Ultimate Package minimum balance at all times, the monthly fee is waived.
So what’s the Scotiabank Ultimate Package minimum balance?
The $30.95 monthly charge can be waived if you have a minimum balance of $5000 in your Ultimate Package, or if you have a combined minimum balance of $30,000 between your Ultimate Package and your MomentumPLUS Savings Accounts.
For example, you could have $2000 in your Ultimate Package chequing account and have $28,000 in your MomentumPLUS Savings Account earning a higher interest rate, and your monthly fee would be waived.
The MomentumPLUS Savings Accounts is similar to a GIC (Guaranteed Income Certificate) where if you cash out the money you don’t get the interest rate posted.
If you are a Newcomer to Canada and you are interested in the Preferred Package (it’s one step down, about $16.95/month) you can get it free for one year through the StartRight program.
Pros of Scotiabank Ultimate Package
There are a TON of benefits to the Scotiabank Ultimate Package that make the Ultimate much better than the Preferred Package.
Technically the Ultimate Package is double in price (from $16.95 per month to $30.95 per month) but it is only an additional $1000 per month ‘tied up’ as a minimum balance. Or you could have $30,000 between the two accounts with a Scotiabank MomentumPLUS Savings Account.
Here’s my review on the Scotiabank Preferred Package if you are interested.
Here are some of the marked benefits of the Ultimate Package.
- Scotiabank Free Trades: The Scotia iTRADE promotion and credit of the commission for trades is a great deal, especially since you can get 5 ongoing trades for free annually as long as you have your Ultimate Package open. The free trades are based on the calendar year. The credits will be $9.99 per trade that you do up to 10 in your first year and 5 after that. Here are other online brokerage promotions in Canada.
- Free personal cheques! A book of 100 per year. I love free personal cheques (here’s how to write a cheque in Canada if you don’t know how)
- You can earn an additional 0.10% on your MomentumPLUS Savings Account (that’s about 5.00% total for a 360 day savings in the MomentumPLUS for the first five months). With the Preferred Account you would be earning up to 4.45% total for the first five months.
- The MomentumPLUS is similar to a “GIC” (similar rates and you get paid out the interest after the period is completed)
- It takes 10 business days after you upgrade your account or apply for your account for the Interest Rate boost to apply
Cons of Scotiabank Ultimate Package
- The major drawback of the Scotiabank Ultimate Package is the cost.
$30.95/month is nothing to sneeze at and adds up to over $380 in bank fees annually. As mentioned, you can mitigate this cost using a minimum balance (which we personally do and have no qualms about doing this), but some people don’t like seeing their cash tied up like this.
The Scotiabank MomentumPLUS Savings Account has a pretty good rate for a big bank currently and it is better than the current rates offered by Motive Financial or EQ Bank’s Savings Plus Account which is 2.50%*.
Here’s my review of EQ Bank.
Let’s have a look at Scotiabank Ultimate Package vs Preferred Package.
Scotiabank Ultimate Package vs Preferred
As mentioned above, you get a lot of more ‘bang for your buck’ with the Ultimate package. From Scotiabank’s website, there’s a comparison chart between the Ultimate Package and the Preferred Package.
Here’s the Scotiabank Preferred vs the Ultimate Package comparison:
With the Preferred Package, you get 0.05% extra savings on your MomentumPLUS Savings account vs the 0.10%.
Also, with the Preferred Package don’t get the free Scotia iTRADE equity trades at all, and you only get the first year annual fee waiver for certain Scotiabank credit cards (not ongoing).
With the Ultimate Package instead, this would be about a $150 year after year value for the credit card and $100 in free commissions for the first year and $50 in free commissions every year after that.
With the Preferred Package, you don’t get any free personal cheques and bank drafts ($65 value for a book of 100).
That’s already a $350+ value within the first 1-2 years using the Ultimate Package vs the Preferred Package.
If you are not a Scotiabank customer already, and you sign up for a new Ultimate Package account, that’s $350 cash back (though you also get the $350 offer with the Preferred Package)
$650+ in value, not bad if you ask me.
Scotiabank Ultimate Package vs TD All Inclusive
It might also be useful to compare the Scotiabank Ultimate Package to an equivalent at another (bigger) bank, such as TD’s All Inclusive Package.
We also have the TD All Inclusive Package and and keep a minimum balance on this account to reap the benefits as well.
| Scotiabank Ultimate Package | TD All Inclusive Package | ||
| Monthly Fee | $30.95 | $29.95 | |
| Minimum Balance Needed to Waive the Monthly Fee | $5000 or $30,000 across the MomentumPLUS Savings account | $5000 | |
| Rebate on Select Premium Credit Cards | Annual rebate | Annual rebate | |
| Free Equity Trades Promotion with Brokerage | Yes | No | |
| Free safety deposit box | Yes | Yes | |
| Free Personal Cheques | Yes | Yes |
As you can see, the monthly fee for the Scotiabank Ultimate Package is a little higher (by $1) but you do seemingly get more bang for your buck with the Ultimate Package when compared to the TD All-Inclusive if you use Scotia’s online brokerage.
Is the Ultimate Package Worth It?
I loathe to pay bank fees, so if you’re in the same boat and don’t mind putting in $5000 minimum or have $30,000 between your MomentumPLUS Savings and your Ultimate Package minimum, yes, I think the Ultimate Package is definitely worth it.
We had our money in the Scotiabank Preferred Package for a few years and didn’t really see the need to upgrade, until we decided to look into opening up an online brokerage account together to put our joint savings in there.
We just opened up a Scotia iTRADE account to take advantage of the new account bonus offer, and are looking forward to the 10 free equity trades for the first year and 5 free equity trades after that.
In addition, as you can see in the image above, you can get up to $1500 in free cash for putting in new money in your Scotia iTRADE. If you put in $100,000 for example, you can get $400 in cash if you open up a Scotia iTRADE account.
Hopefully this Scotiabank Ultimate Package review was useful for you.
We have been very happy with our Scotiabank Ultimate package especially because of the Scotiabank iTrade promotion.
You may also be interested in:
If you have a Scotiabank Chequing Account, do you like the Preferred or the Ultimate Package?
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For the $300, you only need to complete two of the three actions:
“Complete any two of the following three actions within 60 days of opening your account:
Make an eligible $50 bill payment through online or mobile banking.
Set up at least 2 eligible separate recurring pre-authorized transactions that are $50 or more, which will each recur monthly for a minimum of 3 consecutive months and the transactions clear.
Set up an eligible recurring direct deposit, which will recur monthly for a minimum of 3 consecutive months and the transactions clear.”
@TC- Thanks!
Great overview!! I’m thinking of opening a Scotiabank Ultimate as well! Od question but I love the details… I know you get 100 free personal cheques, but do you get to choose the style or is there a set design you must take? Thanks!
@Peter- Thanks glad it is helpful! No, you don’t it’s a set design. Same as the other banks but you can choose what name you want in the corner and if you want to include an address.
What are the daily/weekly/monthly dollar limits on this account for sending money via interac etransfer?
@George- I think standard might be $3,000.00 daily or $10,000.00 weekly (at least it is ours). You can call 1-800-472-6842 to change the limits or go to a branch.
$5,000 being held up in a checking account making next to nothing when it could otherwise be put into an investment vehicle averaging ~10%/year is quite the downside.
Did your evaluation take into account the ~$500 opportunity loss/year?
No fee checking accounts offer much of what this Ultimate package offers like free e-transfers, free USD accounts, etc. The differences here I believe come down to the credit card waiver which is only $139. It may make more sense to open a no fee checking account and just pay the difference.
@Alex- Yes, it’s not for everyone that’s for sure. Some people prefer having access to cheques, safety deposit boxes, and credit card waivers as you mentioned which no fee online only bank accounts don’t offer. Also not everyone is 100% invested and some people (like my husband and I, we like having a cash buffer) don’t mind having $10,000 to $100,000 + sitting around in cash so might as well have a few perks with $5000, that’s how I think anyway.
Can you share your experience with the supplementary credit card fee (if you have one)?
Scotiabank says they rebate up to $139 for the primary cardholder. There’s no mention in their T&C’s for the $50 supplementary charge on the Momentum VISA Infinite or $29 supplementary charge on the Gold Amex.
TD All-Inclusive rebates the full amount for the primary cardholder & 1 additional authorized user for their approved cards.