How is interest calculated on credit card and line of credit accounts?

Charging interest on cash advances and line of credit advances (including ScotiaLine access card advances) In the case of cash advances from a credit card, including balance transfers and Scotia Credit Card Cheques, and all advances under a line of credit, including advances taken by cheque or purchases with your ScotiaLine access card, interest is payable on each cash advance or advance from the transaction date indicated on the monthly statement to the date it is repaid in full. There is no interest-free grace period for cash advances or advances. Cash advances include “quasi cash advances” which are monetary transactions posted to your account which are not “purchase” transactions and include, but are not limited to, wire transfers, foreign currency, travelers cheques, money orders, remote stored value, and purchase of gaming chips. Purchase of custom cheques for lines of credit are charged to your account and are also treated as advances. American Express Cards are not presently accepted for the purchase of bets, lottery tickets or casino gaming chips.

Interest For both credit cards and credit lines, we will tell you the applicable interest rates. We may change these rates from time to time at our sole discretion and in accordance with applicable law even if you repay your credit account in accordance with its terms. If your credit account has standard and preferred rates, to qualify for the preferred interest rate, you must repay your credit account in accordance with its terms, otherwise, the standard interest rate will apply. If you are paying the standard interest rate, the interest rate will revert to the preferred interest rate once you have continuously complied with your obligations under this agreement for six consecutive months (subject to change). Interest for credit lines is composed of two factors. The first is our prime rate which is announced by us from time to time. In addition to our prime rate, we will also set an adjustment factor. We will change our prime rate from time to time and will post a notice of this in our branches. We may also change your adjustment factor but we will give you prior written notice of this, stating the effective date of the change.

Adding interest to your debt We calculate interest on your debt daily but we only add it to your debt once a month on each statement. We calculate the amount of daily interest by adding any new advances and subtracting any payments and then multiplying the unpaid balance of the debt on which interest is payable by the annual interest rate then dividing by 365 or 366 in a leap year. Interest is charged on a leap day in a leap year. Interest is charged at the rate applicable under the agreement both before and after the final payment date, maturity, default and judgment, until the credit account has been paid off in full.

You can also find this information in the Revolving Credit Agreement (PDF).

Last updated July 2, 2020