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Lines of Credit for Medical Students (Scotia is the best option)


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1 hour ago, ScotiabankMedsAdvisor said:

I will do my best to explain.  The Momentum Infinite card is not part of plan.  The fee on this card is not to be waived.  To give you an idea I have the Momentum Infinite and I cannot get the fee waived on my card.

My opinion is the combination of the Passport Infinite & Gold Amex is the best cards that come with any of the plans.  The Amex gives you 4 times the points on gas, groceries, dining & entertainment.  Most gas stations and major restaurants accept Amex.  Passport Infinite comes with 2 times the points on groceries, dining & entertainment and transit purchases.  No 2.5 % premium on foreign currency transactions.  Also you receive 6 free lounge visits per year.  The points on the cards can be combined and redeemed post booking.  

I hope this helps as I know there seems to be a lot of confusion.  Sorry for my grammar i’m on a field trip with my son and listening to 40 screaming kids ;)

I can echo this same sentiments as Rod, and I've gotten a lot of inquiries on this over the years myself.

I always try to explain that just because you find someone who is willing to tell you that they will reimburse the fees on the Momentum Infinite Visa, it does not mean it will continue that way into the future. The bank explicitly tells us that we are not to reimburse the annual fee on this card, and although some advisors do it there will come a day when they will either be given a final warning to stop doing it, or that they are no longer working there and the next advisor will be unable to continue that. This opens up the door to some upset clients down the road if/when that happens, because they'll think they've been promised something that we technically can't/shouldn't promise. I don't like doing this myself because I am not one to promise things that I know can backfire in the future. The way I see it is that the advisors offering this to students/residents are planning on not being there when (stuff) hits the fan, and you can decide if that's a good advisor for you or not. I would hope that they would explain that to you that it could change at the very least.

As Rod mentioned even as staff we can't get the fees waived on this card. My wife is also a resident, and although I know I can find an advisor who'd give her the card I'm not interested in having her going down that road. It shouldn't be done and unless the bank changes things to include it as part of the plan officially, I wouldn't recommend for her or anyone else to pursue it. If you are one of those people that have been given the card under that pretense, just be aware that it can change at the drop of a dime. The Gold Amex/Passport Infinite is still the best credit card offer on the market with these plans.

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Hey guys,

I’ve just obtained my LOC from RBC. It was a super smooth and easy process (everything was done by email!)

The reason why I chose RBC was because I love travelling and they have the best travel credit card, the RBC Visa Platinum Avion Card. It was no annual fee and you get 15,000 bonus points when you sign up. With RBC you also get loads of other freebies.

Check out the link here: http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/student-solution/medical-dental-professional/

My advisor was also super professional and quick to respond when ever I had any questions, so I would highly recommend her. She only does LOC’s for healthcare professionals so she knows what she is doing.

If anyone still needs an LOC, I would contact 

Lisa Zhang, RBC Healthcare Business Account Manager

Tel: ‭(604) 345-7410‬

Email: Lisa.y.zhang@rbc.com

You can call, text, or email her!

Best of luck with school guys!

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4 minutes ago, Butterfly_ said:

Hey guys,

I’ve just obtained my LOC from RBC. It was a super smooth and easy process (everything was done by email!)

The reason why I chose RBC was because I love travelling and they have the best travel credit card, the RBC Visa Platinum Avion Card. It was no annual fee and you get 15,000 bonus points when you sign up. With RBC you also get loads of other freebies.

Check out the link here: http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/student-solution/medical-dental-professional/

My advisor was also super professional and quick to respond when ever I had any questions, so I would highly recommend her. She only does LOC’s for healthcare professionals so she knows what she is doing.

If anyone still needs an LOC, I would contact 

Lisa Zhang, RBC Healthcare Business Account Manager

Tel: ‭(604) 345-7410‬

Email: Lisa.y.zhang@rbc.com

You can call or email her!

Best of luck with school guys!

If you spend 2k in 3 months with Scotia you get 40k points. Wouldn't you get more points from using the two scotia cards as well? I ask because I am about to sign my contract with Scotia.

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4 minutes ago, Butterfly_ said:

Hey guys,

I’ve just obtained my LOC from RBC. It was a super smooth and easy process (everything was done by email!)

The reason why I chose RBC was because I love travelling and they have the best travel credit card, the RBC Visa Platinum Avion Card. It was no annual fee and you get 15,000 bonus points when you sign up. With RBC you also get loads of other freebies.

Check out the link here: http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/student-solution/medical-dental-professional/

My advisor was also super professional and quick to respond when ever I had any questions, so I would highly recommend her. She only does LOC’s for healthcare professionals so she knows what she is doing.

If anyone still needs an LOC, I would contact 

Lisa Zhang, RBC Healthcare Business Account Manager

Tel: ‭(604) 345-7410‬

Email: Lisa.y.zhang@rbc.com

You can call, text, or email her!

Best of luck with school guys!

If you travel a lot, don't you think a travel insurance is a better deal than points? RBC's travel insurance looks like the worse to me. I'm in quebec, I'm thinking of getting a LOC at rbc or scotia or cibc, and to get my credit card at Desjardins, where they offer 60 consecutive days of 5M$ coverage. Best credit card insurance in Canada to my knowledge.

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20 minutes ago, jul059 said:

If you travel a lot, don't you think a travel insurance is a better deal than points? RBC's travel insurance looks like the worse to me. I'm in quebec, I'm thinking of getting a LOC at rbc or scotia or cibc, and to get my credit card at Desjardins, where they offer 60 consecutive days of 5M$ coverage. Best credit card insurance in Canada to my knowledge.

I was a travel agent before and I never relied on credit card travel insurance because the response is slow and they don’t cover many things like (air ambulance) or the stipulations  are unfavourable For instance, on some credit cards you can’t claim for trip interruption unless your flight is delayed by more than 10 hours, whereas other plans would say 5 or 6 hours.

I always bought an annual insurance plan with Manulife through Flight Centre. In the event of a real travel emergency, you don’t want to be on hold, and Manulife answers almost all their calls within 2 minutes. Their call centre is located in Windsor, Ontario and not outsourced.  They have 24 hour assistance and they also can direct bill in most tourist destinations, hence no need to pay out of pocket and claim the money back later. It’s definitely not the same service with credit card insurance and I’ve had to help many clients file a lot of claims during the 3 years I worked as an agent. 

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26 minutes ago, jul059 said:

If you travel a lot, don't you think a travel insurance is a better deal than points? RBC's travel insurance looks like the worse to me. I'm in quebec, I'm thinking of getting a LOC at rbc or scotia or cibc, and to get my credit card at Desjardins, where they offer 60 consecutive days of 5M$ coverage. Best credit card insurance in Canada to my knowledge.

If you want to discuss the better options Insurance Vs the points and also discuss the LOC feel free to touch base with me.  kyle.ives@scotiabank.com 514-402-3076

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35 minutes ago, dantheman24 said:

I just spoke with an advisor and they have informed me that the Gold Amex bonus offer isn't valid within this program (the 15k points) but the passport (25k) points one is valid!

I've recently signed for my LOC with Scotia and was told (after asking) that I would be eligible for both bonus offers... 

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17 minutes ago, kiterunner said:

Is it common to not have to touch the LOC for the first year? I am hoping to delay that as much as possible..

I’m not touching it, it’s good to have it though just in case. But otherwise it’ll just be open but not used until probably second year for me.

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1 hour ago, kiterunner said:

Is it common to not have to touch the LOC for the first year? I am hoping to delay that as much as possible..

I would say it's highly dependent on factors like: how much you have saved from work, contributions (if any) expected from your parents, how much you receive for student loans, and cost of living in your city. I expect to be able to sneak by without using the LOC for my first year, using a combo of work savings and student loan to pay for tuition/rent, but will likely need to start accessing it by summer. Many school and student loan websites have calculators to let you estimate how much your life will cost in the next year, including tuition and living expenses - use one of these and then compare to how much you have to get an idea of whether you'll likely need to use the LOC right away

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3 hours ago, Jfourn said:

If you spend 2k in 3 months with Scotia you get 40k points. Wouldn't you get more points from using the two scotia cards as well? I ask because I am about to sign my contract with Scotia.

 Although having two credit cards may seem appealing in a sense that you will be accumulating more bonus offers/points, I would highly recommend you double check the terms and conditions of the offers. In our opinion, it would be best to consolidate all your expenses on one card so that you can maximize the benefits and potentially earn points faster. RBC offers a welcome bonus of 15000 Avion points which allows you to redeem a short haul flight with no restriction on black out dates/ seat restrictions /airlines. With our specialized Med student package, It will offer our clients a 4 year monthly fee waiver for our VIP accounts packages (normally $30 per month), Which will also rebate you the full annual fee of the Avion card ( $120).

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17 minutes ago, RBC Med Advisor said:

 Although having two credit cards may seem appealing in a sense that you will be accumulating more bonus offers/points, I would highly recommend you double check the terms and conditions of the offers. In our opinion, it would be best to consolidate all your expenses on one card so that you can maximize the benefits and potentially earn points faster. RBC offers a welcome bonus of 15000 Avion points which allows you to redeem a short haul flight with no restriction on black out dates/ seat restrictions /airlines. With our specialized Med student package, It will offer our clients a 4 year monthly fee waiver for our VIP accounts packages (normally $30 per month), Which will also rebate you the full annual fee of the Avion card ( $120).

Can you confirm that the VIP account fee is also waived for 4 years for pre-existing customers?

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Not necessarily true regarding the blanket statement that consolidating "all your expenses on one card so that you can maximize the benefits and potentially earn points fast". I think the two Scotia cards accomplish different objectives and even if you do split your expenses based on type, you can accumulate slowly and you're bound to be able to use it if not now during residency - plus you get better recovery of your points through saving up and hit a higher tier for your travels.

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27 minutes ago, la marzocco said:

Not necessarily true regarding the blanket statement that consolidating "all your expenses on one card so that you can maximize the benefits and potentially earn points fast". I think the two Scotia cards accomplish different objectives and even if you do split your expenses based on type, you can accumulate slowly and you're bound to be able to use it if not now during residency - plus you get better recovery of your points through saving up and hit a higher tier for your travels.

Also the two cards Scotia offers are under the same rewards program. They essentially offer you the Amex which has an aggressive 4x points on certain categories, but give you a backup Passport to use with merchants that don't accept Amex. So in this case, splitting expenses gets you more rewards than using either card alone. 

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57 minutes ago, Eudaimonia said:

Also the two cards Scotia offers are under the same rewards program. They essentially offer you the Amex which has an aggressive 4x points on certain categories, but give you a backup Passport to use with merchants that don't accept Amex. So in this case, splitting expenses gets you more rewards than using either card alone. 

That’s correct! The 0% fx is quite good to have when/if you need to buy something on amazon.com :)  And obvi when you take those nice trips to stress-relieve :)

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1 hour ago, Eudaimonia said:

Also the two cards Scotia offers are under the same rewards program. They essentially offer you the Amex which has an aggressive 4x points on certain categories, but give you a backup Passport to use with merchants that don't accept Amex. So in this case, splitting expenses gets you more rewards than using either card alone. 

Precisely!!!

Not to mention the full suite of travel insurances.  No premium on foreign currency transactions and 6 free lounge visits.  The redemption options are also way more flexible than most travel cards.  They can be redeemed for any travel purchase as long as you pay for it on the card.  This can be a hotel, flight, rental car, all inclusive resort.  These can also be booked through any booking site.

Also the fees are waived on both cards as part of the plan for the duration of school, residency/fellowship & grace period.  Not to mention they continue to be waived after the grace period if you set up the professional plan.

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3 hours ago, RBC Med Advisor said:

 Although having two credit cards may seem appealing in a sense that you will be accumulating more bonus offers/points, I would highly recommend you double check the terms and conditions of the offers. In our opinion, it would be best to consolidate all your expenses on one card so that you can maximize the benefits and potentially earn points faster. RBC offers a welcome bonus of 15000 Avion points which allows you to redeem a short haul flight with no restriction on black out dates/ seat restrictions /airlines. With our specialized Med student package, It will offer our clients a 4 year monthly fee waiver for our VIP accounts packages (normally $30 per month), Which will also rebate you the full annual fee of the Avion card ( $120).

Can you confirm with RBC you need to pay the interest while in school?

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12 hours ago, ScotiabankMedsAdvisor said:

I will do my best to explain.  The Momentum Infinite card is not part of plan.  The fee on this card is not to be waived.  To give you an idea I have the Momentum Infinite and I cannot get the fee waived on my card.

Any chance the upcoming changes will include the Momentum Infinite?

I don’t care much for rewards points and airport lounges, would prefer cash :) 

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13 minutes ago, Laughter said:

Any chance the upcoming changes will include the Momentum Infinite?

I don’t care much for rewards points and airport lounges, would prefer cash :)

To my knowledge they will not include the Momentum Infinite.

Right now you may not think that the rewards and lounges are useful.  But once you are travelling for clerkship, electives and interview tour the points are as good as cash.  They pay for your hotels and flights so you don’t have to.  You will spend a lot of time in airports as well.  All of the graduating students think the perk of the lounges is great with how much they are in airports.

With respect to your other question yes RBC requires you to make interest payments on a monthly basis.  We on the other hand simplify things an the interest is automatically added to your line of credit balance.  Line of credit is completely open so you are able to make payments just not required to.  I’ve seen a lot of students credit be damaged as they forgot to make there interest payments at other banks.

 

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Haven't regretted Scotia one bit. I like how you can accumulate points through Scotia rewards and have the option to apply points towards any travel booked using that card. In essence, I'm not stuck booking through Scotia's travel site which is great! Also, the conversion of scene points to rewards (and vice versa) is a lovely feature to have for those who've accumulated tons of Scene points! And the lounge visits (6 free per year) are a great bonus to have when travelling. 

RBC does give 3 cents off per litre in gas at Petro Canada but Scotias infinite momentum gives you 4% cashback at all gas stations so that goes further than RBCs card. I've tried both AmEx/Infinite Momentum and Infinite Passport/Infinite Momentum and IMO, the best combo is infinite passport visa + infinite momentum visa since it gives you lounge access and cashback which you could use on anything. Plus, recurring bills (ex. cell phone, PRESTO) get 2% cashback.

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