CIBC OR SCOTIA BANK

[Karan64braaap]

I’ve researched a bit and after visiting both of the websites, I’m a bit confused.
When you apply for gic in Scotia bank and open an account in Canada, you have 0$ monthly fees but after a year it’s around 15$ unless you maintain a balance of 4K in your account.
Whereas in CIBC you maintain the status of student account for the whole duration of your study plus 6months which means even after graduating from your program you still would have no monthly charges!
Am I missing something here? Cause if that’s the case then why aren’t people opting for CIBC. I want people who already have an account in either of these banks to comment on this thread

 

[Karan64braaap]

Anyone?

 

[@trigger]

Go with CIBC, you can get the SPC membership as well..
https://www.cibc.com/en/student/spc.html

 

[Karan64braaap]

Go with CIBC, you can get the SPC membership as well..
https://www.cibc.com/en/student/spc.html

Yeah I’m being swayed to choose CIBC over Scotia bank as it seems more reasonable

 

[selvakk]

I’ve researched a bit and after visiting both of the websites, I’m a bit confused.
When you apply for gic in Scotia bank and open an account in Canada, you have 0$ monthly fees but after a year it’s around 15$ unless you maintain a balance of 4K in your account.
Whereas in CIBC you maintain the status of student account for the whole duration of your study plus 6months which means even after graduating from your program you still would have no monthly charges!
Am I missing something here? Cause if that’s the case then why aren’t people opting for CIBC. I want people who already have an account in either of these banks to comment on this thread

I would suggest CIBC because my friend has scotia and they are charging lot of fees for bank transfers etc. You can always open a no fee bank account when you reach canada and cancel your account after the 1 year period.

 

[Satvik212]

Yes with Cibc u also have options to choose between credit cards. And also they give direct cashback instead of credit points. Also the process is smooth and fast.

 

[selvakk]

To add to what @Satvik212 said, CIBC has an option for a cashback card, but you must ask for it when you open the account. Scotia students don't have a choice of cashback card, at least to my knowledge.

 

[Karan64braaap]

To add to what @Satvik212 said, CIBC has an option for a cashback card, but you must ask for it when you open the account. Scotia students don't have a choice of cashback card, at least to my knowledge.

I wanted to know more about the CIBC smart student account for students who open gic account with them. Do they charge no fees or less than Scotia? If they’re more affordable than Scotia then I would definitely go with them!

 

[Karan64braaap]

Yes with Cibc u also have options to choose between credit cards. And also they give direct cashback instead of credit points. Also the process is smooth and fast.

To add to that, it’s lucrative but it’s not a a lot! 2% on 6k$ on net annual grocery purchases. I don’t think an international student with a gic of 10k$ would spend more than half of their gic on groceries lol Even if you spend 300 a month of groceries you would only get 70$ as cash back which in the grand scheme of things isn’t a lot haha. Unless they count rent as groceries then YAY!!

 

[Pkt1998]

Go with CIBC, you can get the SPC membership as well..
https://www.cibc.com/en/student/spc.html

Hey! Can you elaborate more on this membership, im not able to interpret much from the website.

 

[Karan64braaap]

Hey! Can you elaborate more on this membership, im not able to interpret much from the website.

https://www.cibc.com/en/student/spc.html
If you’re enrolled in mobile/online banking with CIBC and you hold the status of a student, you can register yourself with this scheme and basically you would be eligible to avail for discounts provided under this program

 

[@trigger]

Hey! Can you elaborate more on this membership, im not able to interpret much from the website.

There are lot of deals and promotions for SPC members. CIBC offers complimentary SPC card to students.

https://www.spccard.ca/deals

 

[DesiPikachu]

To add to that, it’s lucrative but it’s not a a lot! 2% on 6k$ on net annual grocery purchases. I don’t think an international student with a gic of 10k$ would spend more than half of their gic on groceries lol Even if you spend 300 a month of groceries you would only get 70$ as cash back which in the grand scheme of things isn’t a lot haha. Unless they count rent as groceries then YAY!!

Well, some cashback is still better than zero. It's not like international students are going to qualify for any better cashback cards. To be honest most students would only qualify for 0.5% cashback since the definition of a "grocery store" by CIBC/VISA is quite narrow. Search on forums.redflagdeals.com or this subreddit if you ever want to research on cards, loans, or anything financial-related in Canada.

 

[Karan64braaap]

Well, some cashback is still better than zero. It's not like international students are going to qualify for any better cashback cards. To be honest most students would only qualify for 0.5% cashback since the definition of a "grocery store" by CIBC/VISA is quite narrow. Search on forums.redflagdeals.com or this subreddit if you ever want to research on cards, loans, or anything financial-related in Canada.

I mean Scotia bank offers scene credit card through which you can redeem your points to buy movie tickets which is not pretty bad. Both of those banks have same kind of credit cards but CIBC takes the edge due to its cheap chequing account provided for students.

 

[DesiPikachu]

I mean Scotia bank offers scene credit card through which you can redeem your points to buy movie tickets which is not pretty bad. Both of those banks have same kind of credit cards but CIBC takes the edge due to its cheap chequing account provided for students.

https://www.scotiabank.com/ca/en/personal/bank-accounts/students/student-banking-advantage-plan.html
https://www.scotiabank.com/content/dam/scotiabank/canada/en/documents/chequing-&-savings/day-to-day_banking_companion_booklet.pdf

You can always apply for that scotia account & card once you land. It's not an either/or option. You can do both - open a student account at CIBC (and use CIBC for your GIC) and another student account at Scotia once you arrive in Canada.