The latest Scotia Bank Interest rate promotion was an email I received from them earlier this month. At first glance, I was pretty excited as it was offer 2.70% interest rate on my high interest savings accounts. Lately as most of us know, interest rates have been low an even high interest savings accounts like the ones I have offer little. All I needed to do to get this new rate was to click a button in my email. This seemed to be too good to be true, so I decided to look at the details.
Scotia Bank Interest Rate Promotion Process
The email gave a 3 step process for me to get this rate. Here it is below:
- Activate your rate – enroll by August 31, 2020 (push the button on the email).
- Once activated, deposit money from another bank to your MomentumPLUS Savings Account.
- Keep your money saved and earn up to 2.70%* interest until August 31, 2020.
Looks pretty simple. However, if you look at steps 2 and 3 there are some interesting if not subtle details.
Scotia Bank Interest Rate Promotion Details
First, in point 2, it says once activated, you will need to deposit money from another bank. Ah I see, the interest rate is only going to count on money brought from another bank and not all of your money in the Momentum accounts you have.
Second, in point 3, you will only earn the new interest on the money brought from another bank up to August 31, 2020. So that means if I activated the rate, brought money another bank and deposited in my momentum account, I would earn 2.70% interest on that money for just over two months.
Finally, you will notice the asterisk by the 2.70% interest rate in point 3. This is a footnote and if you go to the bottom of the email there are a few paragraphs detailing the calculation of the rate. However, there is one interesting sentence which says:
” Bonus Interest is calculated daily and payable until August 31, 2020 on the first $5,000.00 of New Funds deposited between April 9, 2020 – August 31, 2020 and will be paid monthly.”
It appears from this sentence that only the first $5000.00 that is deposited from another bank will get the promotion rate. So is this promotion any good?
Scotia Bank Interest Rate Promotion – Is it Worth it?
This program is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. At first glance, it looks like it is something substantial but once do dig into a bit, they are hardly providing anything. For example in my case, all my bank accounts are with Scotia Bank, so I would not bother to click. And that is the case for a lot of people, as they usually deal with one bank.
But what about others who have money in other banks? Well let’s see, if they move over $5000 to Scotia Bank to get 2.70% for about two months they will gain about $22.50! Not a lot for the effort of moving money over. Also, the money at other bank is earning some sort of interest in the account it’s in so the gain will be a quite a bit less. So is it really worth moving money over to gain $10-$15? You would better going to the other bank and showing Scotia Bank’s promotion and seeing if they can match or better their promotion. That’ s what I would do if I was in that situation.
Conclusion
I am pretty disappointed with my bank’s latest promotion. It does little to help people. And could cause extra stress and frustration for customers who don’t understand all the details. And that’s the last thing people need right now. Because all of us are trying to get through this pandemic economic crisis. For Scotia Bank, it is an easy way to fill their coffers with new money. And the price for that money is minimal for them. Unfortunately, Scotia Bank like other banks run their institutions like a casino. That’s means that even during a pandemic, the house always wins which is sad.