Review: Scotia Momentum® Visa Infinite +* Card

The Scotia Momentum® Visa Infinite +* Card is one of Canada’s strongest cash back cards, with category rates that punch well above its $120 annual fee. The 4% rate on groceries and recurring bill payments is among the highest in the market, and when you pair it with a service like Chexy, this card unlocks a redemption angle that most cash back cards can’t touch.

The card sits in a competitive segment, but I think it earns its place in most Canadian wallets, especially for households with meaningful grocery spend or significant recurring bills.

Let me walk through what the card offers, where it shines, and where you might consider an alternative.

At a Glance

• Annual Fee: $120 (waived for the first year)
• Supplementary cardholders: $50 (waived for the first year)
• Minimum annual income: $60,000 personal or $100,000 household
• Estimated credit score: Good to Excellent
• Rating: 4.0

What I love: 4% cash back on groceries and recurring bills, strong travel insurance, and the new GigSky international data perk

What I’d change: the perks list is thin outside of insurance and the GigSky plan

Bonus Cash Back Rate Welcome Bonus

The Scotia Momentum® Visa Infinite +* Card uses a tiered welcome bonus structure rather than a flat dollar amount.

The current offer is 15% cash back on all purchases for the first three months, on up to $2,000 (CAD) in total purchases. That works out to a maximum of $300 back, and there’s no minimum spending requirement to lock in any portion of it.

The card also waives its $120 first-year annual fee, so the welcome bonus is essentially pure profit out of the gate.

I like this style of welcome bonus more than the typical flat-dollar offer. You don’t have to chase a spending threshold, and even if you only spend $500 in the first three months, you still pocket $75 back at the 15% rate.

Boosted Cash Back Earning Rates

The Scotia Momentum® Visa Infinite +* Card uses a tiered category structure for cash back, and the headline rate is one of the strongest you’ll find on a Canadian card.

The full breakdown:

• Earn 4% cash back on groceries and recurring bill payments^†
• Earn 2% cash back on gas, transit, rideshare, and food delivery (DoorDash, Uber Eats)^†
• Earn 1% cash back on all other purchases^†

Both the 4% and 2% tiers are capped at $25,000 in spending each per year, after which the rate drops to 1%^†. That’s a generous cap by Canadian standards, and most households won’t come close to maxing it.

The 4% rate is one of the highest cash back rates available in Canada, and seeing it applied to two of the biggest household spending categories – groceries and recurring bills – is what makes this card stand out.

If you spend $500amonth on groceries, that’s $20amonth back, or $240 a year on groceries alone. The recurring bill payments category covers your phone bill, internet, streaming services, insurance premiums, and similar.

The Chexy Synergy: Earn 4% Cash Back on Rent

This is where the Scotia Momentum® Visa Infinite +* Card earns its keep for me. Chexy is a Canadian service that lets you pay rent and bills with a credit card for a 1.75% fee, and the Scotia Momentum’s 4% rate on recurring bill payments turns this into real arbitrage.

The math is simple:

• You earn 4% cash back on the rent payment
• You pay Chexy a 1.75% fee
• Net effective cash back on rent: 2.25%

If your rent is $2,000 (CAD) per month, you’ll earn $80 in monthly cash back at 4%, less $35 in Chexy fees, for a net of $45 per month or $540 per year. That’s on a category most Canadians earn nothing on, and it’s one of the most powerful uses of a cash back card I know of.

The $25,000 annual cap on the 4% tier means you can run up to roughly $2,083 per month in rent through this play before the rate drops, which covers the vast majority of Canadian rent payments.

I’d argue the Chexy plus Scotia Momentum combo is one of the strongest plays for any Canadian renter right now.

Straightforward Cash Back

The Scotia Momentum® Visa Infinite +* Card keeps cash back redemption simple. Once you’ve accumulated at least $25 in rewards, you can redeem at any time as a statement credit on the card, or, if you have an eligible Scotiabank account, deposit it directly into your account^†.

It’s the kind of redemption structure I like – no waiting for an annual payout window, and no points to manage. Your cash back is yours to use whenever it crosses the $25 threshold.

Perks & Benefits

The Scotia Momentum® Visa Infinite +* Card isn’t loaded with travel perks the way an Aeroplan or premium travel card might be, but the recent rebrand added one feature that’s actually useful for travellers.

Free GigSky International Data

As part of the April 2026 Visa Infinite + tier launch, the card now includes a complimentary 10 GB international data plan through GigSky. That’s enough to cover most short-to-medium international trips without buying a separate eSIM or roaming package.

If you travel a few times a year and would otherwise pay $30 to $50 (CAD) for a roaming plan or international data package, this perk effectively pays for the annual fee on its own.

Visa Infinite Privileges

The card carries the standard Visa Infinite benefits, including access to the Visa Infinite concierge, the Luxury Hotel Collection, and the Dining and Wine Country program^†. You also get discounts on car rentals at participating AVIS and Budget locations in Canada and the US.

Travel Insurance

The travel insurance package is one of the strongest on a sub-$150 card. The headline coverage:

• Emergency medical: up to $1 million for 15 consecutive days for cardholders and spouses under 65^†
• Trip cancellation: up to $1,500 per person, $10,000 per trip^†
• Trip interruption: up to $2,000 per person, $10,000 per trip^†
• Flight delay: up to $500 per person on delays of four hours or more^†
• Baggage delay: up to $500 on delays of four hours or more^†
• Baggage loss: up to $500 total^†
• Rental car: Primary CDW for vehicles up to $65,000 (CAD) MSRP, up to 48 days^†
• Travel accident: up to $1 million^†

Insurance is underwritten by Manulife and First North American Insurance Company. The Primary CDW on rental cars is a standout, since most cards in this segment offer secondary CDW only, which means your personal auto insurance has to take the first hit on a claim.

Mobile Device and Purchase Protection

The card also covers a few smaller-but-useful items:

• Mobile device insurance: up to $1,000 if your phone is lost, stolen, or damaged^†
• Purchase protection: 90 days, up to $60,000 per year^†
• Extended warranty: doubles the manufacturer’s warranty by up to one extra year^†

Other Cards to Consider

If the Scotia Momentum® Visa Infinite +* Card isn’t quite the right fit, two other cash back cards are worth a look depending on your spending pattern.

TD Cash Back Visa Infinite* Card

The TD Cash Back Visa Infinite* Card is the strongest direct competitor for Canadians who want cash back without category caps.

The card earns 3% cash back on a wide list of categories: groceries, gas, electric vehicle charging, transit, recurring bills, streaming, digital gaming, and media^†. The kicker is that there’s no annual cap on the 3% rate, which is unusual in the Canadian cash back market.

The trade-off is that the rate is 1% lower than the Scotia Momentum on groceries and recurring bills. If you’re a high spender in those two categories, you’d hit Scotia’s $25,000 cap before the TD card’s no-cap structure becomes meaningfully better.

If your spend is more spread out across gas, transit, streaming, and food delivery, the TD card with no caps starts to outpace Scotia. The card has a $139 annual fee, typically waived in the first year, and includes a free Deluxe TD Auto Club membership for roadside assistance^†.

Tangerine World Mastercard®

If you’d prefer to skip the annual fee entirely, the Tangerine® Money-Back World Mastercard®* earns 2% cash back on two or three categories of your choice, with the third category unlocking when you redeem rewards into a Tangerine Savings account^†.

You can pick from groceries, restaurants, gas, recurring bills, drugstores, home improvement, entertainment, public transportation, and several others. The flexibility to choose your own categories makes this a useful complement to a category-fixed card like the Scotia Momentum.

The downside is the 0.5% earning rate on everything outside your chosen categories^†. This isn’t a card you’d want as your only cash back option, but as a no-fee supplement it’s hard to beat.

The card also includes mobile device insurance, rental car insurance, and a DragonPass airport lounge membership (with a per-visit fee of $32 (USD))^†.

Conclusion

I think the Scotia Momentum® Visa Infinite +* Card is one of the most under-discussed cash back cards in Canada right now. The 4% category rate is excellent, the insurance package is over-spec’d for the $120 annual fee, and the new GigSky data perk is actually useful for anyone who travels internationally.

The Chexy angle is what tips it from a strong cash back card into a must-have for renters. If you’re paying $1,500 to $2,000 per month in rent, this card and Chexy together can pay for themselves several times over.

Where I’d skip it: if you don’t pay rent and don’t spend much on groceries. The Scotiabank Passport® Visa Infinite +* Card is a better fit if you travel often and want no foreign transaction fees plus six Visa Airport Companion lounge visits per year, and the Tangerine card is the move if you want zero annual fee.

For most Canadians with rent or significant grocery spending, though, this is one of the strongest cash back plays in the market.

^† Terms and conditions apply. Please refer to the financial institution’s website for the most up-to-date product information. Reasonable efforts are made to maintain accuracy of information.