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

[indefatigable]

3 hours ago, mayerofcanada said:

Does anyone know how negotiable these LOCs are? I'm currently in contact with RBC and ScotiaBank but I'm not sure which one to choose. I've come to understand the rate and amount are pretty much non-negotiable, so do I just pick based on which one I like better? Have done banking with in the past? Relationship with advisor? I just don't know how to pick and if anything is actually negotiable. Seems like their LOC plan is pretty much set.

Everything is pretty standardized.  Here's a good recent overview:

 

[LostLamb]

Anyone who is out of the Scotiabank 2 year resident grace period and switched to staff physician Scotiabank LOC?

I am running into multiple snags (no more waived cc annual fees, setting up payments for LOC rather than interest payment only, hard credit pull (!), etc). Am I expecting too much? I had anticipated a smoother transition. 
 

thanks!

[rmorelan]

1 hour ago, LostLamb said:

Anyone who is out of the Scotiabank 2 year resident grace period and switched to staff physician Scotiabank LOC?

I am running into multiple snags (no more waived cc annual fees, setting up payments for LOC rather than interest payment only, hard credit pull (!), etc). Am I expecting too much? I had anticipated a smoother transition. 
 

thanks!

Interesting - was a pretty smooth transition for me. Really no change at all. There was some talk about having a portion set aside for formal repayment in a monthly fashion which would eventually go away and leaving a relatively large LOC still but that never happened. Did matter much if they did that away in the sense that the point as staff is to acquire assets rather than more debit but having it there certainly is a nice to have. 

Wonder if this is tied at all to the rising interest rates - things are about to get a lot more messy in this space. 

[ChemPetE]

Yeah, newer generation will have it much harder than even mine. Cost of living is much more, cost of money is much more with these higher rates, and MD incomes are also not keeping up with inflation across PGME and staff salaries. This translates to a material decrease standard of living persistent through a career.

[JohnGrisham]

4 hours ago, ChemPetE said:

Yeah, newer generation will have it much harder than even mine. Cost of living is much more, cost of money is much more with these higher rates, and MD incomes are also not keeping up with inflation across PGME and staff salaries. This translates to a material decrease standard of living persistent through a career.

Yeah - when some of the administrators in PGME make more than an urban FM doc, there's an issue with how the system is set up in some provinces..

[zaccla]

It seems like before this year, Scotia waived annual fees on the TWO credit cards. However, after speaking to a Scotia rep, they are offering a fee waive on one card only - can anyone confirm that this indeed changed this year? Or has anyone gotten an offer for the two cards? 
 

[LostLamb]

On 7/6/2022 at 11:15 AM, zaccla said:

It seems like before this year, Scotia waived annual fees on the TWO credit cards. However, after speaking to a Scotia rep, they are offering a fee waive on one card only - can anyone confirm that this indeed changed this year? Or has anyone gotten an offer for the two cards? 
 

I think you still get both waived til two years post residency.
Reach out to Rod from Scotia—he is the most knowledgeable person when it comes to their md student package. his info is in this thread. 
 

[Confused Resident]

Does anyone have a good contact for TD in downtown Toronto?

[speedmode]

With a line of credit from Scotiabank, do you have to spend a minimum amount of it per year? Or at all? I should be able to pay this upcoming years fees with personal funds so would rather that than accumulate debt earlier than needed (eventually, I will dip into the LOC). However, the perks of having a LOC would be nice to have, specifically the credit cards with waived fees. Does anyone know if I can open a LOC and just not spend any of it until I absolutely need to (which I eventually will) or is it just better to wait?

[bearded frog]

3 hours ago, speedmode said:

With a line of credit from Scotiabank, do you have to spend a minimum amount of it per year? Or at all? I should be able to pay this upcoming years fees with personal funds so would rather that than accumulate debt earlier than needed (eventually, I will dip into the LOC). However, the perks of having a LOC would be nice to have, specifically the credit cards with waived fees. Does anyone know if I can open a LOC and just not spend any of it until I absolutely need to (which I eventually will) or is it just better to wait?

You can get it and not use it. I think you only have to pay once you finish residency? But you accumulate interest on anything you use from the start. At a certain time point after finishing residency you have to convert to a different type of LOC though.

[rmorelan]

4 hours ago, bearded frog said:

You can get it and not use it. I think you only have to pay once you finish residency? But you accumulate interest on anything you use from the start. At a certain time point after finishing residency you have to convert to a different type of LOC though.

Some of us were able to convert it to a professional LOC (I still have a full 350K LOC from them). For those nothing really changed

They are trying to get instead probably a more reasonable setup with a repayment plan for most and a small but still quite high LOC that remains. It is a bit weird that I have an LOC of just a high amount tied to nothing concrete for the back. You are going to want to pay it off anyway so any change aligns with that at least as well. 

You can also extend the time until that happens until you are done your training - that includes fellowships, which for some of us with longer training periods that is useful. I had 7 years to get through so it would have been annoying if half way through my fellowship suddenly they wanted a repayment program to start. 

[speedmode]

Any recommendations for Scotiabank advisors in Ontario?