Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite Review (2026): Where the 4% Cash Back Stops

The Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite + pays 4% on groceries and recurring payments, and stops paying it at $25,000 of spending in that category. There is a second $25,000 ceiling on the 2% categories. Past either line you earn 1% — worse than a free flat-rate card — and the $120 annual fee is still due.

That gives the card a floor and a ceiling. Below roughly $6,000 a year in groceries and bills it loses to a no-fee 2% card. Above $25,000 it stops rewarding the spending it was built for. The useful range is narrower than any review admits, and it is worth knowing before you pay for it.

What the card costs

$120 a year, $50 for each additional card, with the first year currently waived.

The waiver is a dated offer, not a standing feature: Scotiabank applies it to accounts opened and additional cards issued between 2 July 2026 and 1 November 2026. If you are reading this after that date, check whether a new offer exists rather than assuming this one does.

Scotiabank also excludes current and recent cardholders from the special offers — anyone who has held a Scotiabank personal credit card within the past two years, plus Scotiabank employees.

Where the 4% stops

Two separate $25,000 annual caps, and the drop past them is steep.

Scotiabank's wording for what happens at the ceiling is plain: you "will then only earn cash back at the Regular Earn Rate" of 1% until the limits reset. Not 2%. Not a reduced accelerated rate. One per cent — the same as the catch-all tier.

$25,000 of groceries and recurring payments is roughly $480 a week, which most households will not reach. But "recurring payments" is doing quiet work in that category: insurance, utilities, subscriptions and anything else on a standing charge all count toward the same ceiling as the weekly shop. A family that routes its bills through this card will get there faster than it expects.

Does it beat a free 2% card?

Only above about $6,000 a year in groceries and recurring payments — and ordinary spending on the card pushes that number up.

Here is why. Against a flat 2% no-fee card, the Momentum's gas-and-transit tier is a wash: 2% either way. Its catch-all tier actively loses, at 1% against 2%. Only the grocery tier gains, at 4% against 2%. So the whole case rests on grocery and recurring spending covering the $120 fee at a 2-point advantage.

Every $1,000 of general spending you put on this card instead of a 2% card costs you $10, and raises the grocery bar by $500. The card rewards being used narrowly and punishes being used as your only card — the opposite of how most people carry a premium cash back card.

Between the $6,000 floor and the $25,000 ceiling the card is genuinely strong, and that band covers a lot of real households. Outside it, a no-fee 2% card wins. Run your own split through the rewards calculator before committing to the fee.

Getting your cash back out

$25 minimum per redemption, through the Scotia app or online banking.

That is a low bar and a reasonable one. It is worth noting only because some cash back cards pay out once a year on a fixed date, which costs you the use of the money in the meantime. This one does not.

Who can get it

Scotiabank's own pages do not agree on the income requirement, so we are not going to state one as fact.

The card's product page gives a range: "a minimum income of $60,000 -$80,000 or more per year, a minimum household income of $100,000 - $150,000 or more, or a minimum of $250,000 - $300,000 or more assets under management." Another Scotiabank page for the same card lists firm figures of $60,000, $100,000 and $250,000. A third gives substantially higher numbers.

Take the requirement from the application itself. Where an issuer's own pages disagree, no review can resolve it, and any page that prints a single confident figure is picking one at random.

Interest and the fine print

20.99% on purchases and 22.99% on cash advances at the preferred rates — with standard rates of 25.99% and 27.99% if you lose them.

That second pair matters more than it looks. Scotiabank lists the higher rates as what applies if the promotional rate is lost, which generally follows missed payments. A card earning 4% on groceries is earning nothing net at 25.99%.

The product page does not state a foreign transaction fee. Among Scotiabank's cards the no-FX options are the Passport and Platinum Amex range, not this one, so assume a fee applies and confirm it before travelling — or carry something from our no foreign transaction fee list instead.

Who should get this card, and who shouldn't

A household that buys groceries and pays bills on one card, and uses something else for everything else.

• Families spending $8,000–$25,000 a year on groceries and recurring payments. This is the band the card is built for, and inside it 4% is among the best grocery rates in Canada.
• Anyone who can pair it with a flat-rate card. Put groceries and bills here, everything else on a 2% card, and the 1% catch-all tier never costs you anything.
• People wanting one card for everything. The 1% general rate makes that an expensive habit. You would be paying $120 for the privilege of earning half what a free card pays on most of your spending.
• Anyone under about $6,000 of annual grocery and bill spending. The fee is not recoverable at that level. A no-fee cash back card is strictly better.
• Anyone who might carry a balance. At 20.99% rising to 25.99%, the interest overwhelms a 4% return within weeks.

Every rate, cap, fee and date above comes from Scotiabank's own product page for this card, read on 8 October 2026; the break-even table is our arithmetic on those published figures. Two things we have not asserted because Scotiabank does not settle them: the income requirement, which differs across its own pages, and the foreign transaction fee, which the product page does not state. See also our cash back comparison and the CIBC Costco Mastercard review for a no-fee alternative with a different shape.

Frequently asked questions