You might remember when car manufacturer GM partnered with a Canadian bank about five years ago to offer a co-branded rewards card. Well, you’ll be thrilled to learn that GM is back, so you haven’t missed your chance to earn big rewards on a new vehicle purchase. GM Canada’s new banking cohort is Scotiabank, and the newly-launched suite of co-branded credit cards – sometimes called “auto cards” – allow cardholders to earn up to 5% in GM rewards on their purchases.
That’s right, five-percent! Depending on how much you spend annually, that can add up to huge rewards – and a very large chunk off of the price of a new GM vehicle.
I’ll cut right to the chase. If you’re looking to purchase a new vehicle in the next few years and you’re pretty certain you’ll be buying GM, you can’t afford not to have one of these Scotiabank auto cards! Yes, the rewards earning potential is that good.
GM says that this extremely generous rewards card was launched as their way of thanking loyal customers for decades of support. Loyal customers is key to the offering, and something that you should consider, because there’s only one “catch” to the Scotiabank GM card: you must apply the accumulated rewards toward buying or leasing a qualifying GM vehicle.
You’re probably a stickler for the details (just like me), so let’s explore why these cards are a must-have for a new car buyer. There are a lot of specs to run through, but let’s focus on the juicy stuff.
- Earn 5% on your first $5000 or $10,000 spent each year (depending on the card) and 2% on all other eligible spending. As an example, if you spend about $30,000 annually, you could have over $2700 in rewards within 3 years!
- Rewards are available as they post. Unlike with many rewards cards, you don’t need to wait until your account anniversary to cash in.
- The rewards earnings can be applied to a Total Purchase Price or a lease down payment. You’ll have to buy or a lease an eligible GM vehicle, but your options are still very open. The fact that you can use these rewards towards leasing a vehicle makes it even more valuable.
Now you have two cards to choose from. There is the standard Scotiabank GM Visa Card and the Scotiabank GM Infinite Card. The former carries no annual fees, but the Infinite Card gives you tons of great travel benefits for a meager $79 a year. That’s well worth it for the lineup of Visa Infinite travel benefits (such as Travel Medical Insurance, Trip Interruption Insurance, and Rental Car Insurance), especially when the fee is more than paid for after spending your first $10,000.
Is there a catch? Not really, and the ability to save so much money off a new car could very well be enough to convert new customers into GM loyalists. Remember: up to five-percent, with no limits! No other card offers that kind of earning potential, and most of the other co-branded auto credit cards out there look like jokes compared to this powerhouse. (Such as the Subaru MasterCard, which caps earnings at $500 annually.)
Both of these cards have the potential for excellent rewards earnings. If you’ve got the itch to purchase or lease a new GM vehicle within the next couple of years, then it would be hard to go wrong with either of these fantastic options.
Scotiabank® GM®* VISA Infinite card Application