Reduce your borrowing costs

Get the information you need to pay less and save more.

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Visit the borrowing centre to get a full view of how you can lower your borrowing costs.

What you need to know:

Many of us think that we need to pay off debt before we can start saving. At Scotiabank, we feel that you can do both. While it’s important to pay off debt in the short term, there are ways that you can make small contributions to your savings that can soon add up. Setting priorities will help you balance minimizing debt and investing for your future.

Time

It’s important to pay off the debt that has the higher interest rate first and establish a time frame to pay off your debt. This will reduce the overall interest that you will pay to service your debt.

Risk

Since your savings have been built, you may want to choose investments that are lower risk sacrificing some higher returns in an effort to help protect your investments and ensure you have enough to live comfortably in retirement.

Return

The key is to add consistent returns to the savings that you've already built to help you get the most out of your retirement. Higher returns can bring higher risk, which brings higher volatility. The amount of potential return needs to be balanced with the amount of risk that you are willing to take.

Investing will pay off. As you pay off.

There are small changes that you can make while paying off debt that can put you on the right path toward your goals. Taking advantage of Pre-Authorized Contributions (PACs) or our ‘Bank The Rest™’ option will help you build your savings every day. It’s the small steps that will make the big difference to your long-term financial health.

Watch the interest rate.

You should always be aware of interest rates while eliminating your debt. Credit cards tend to have a higher rate of interest in comparison to a line of credit or mortgage. To save more in the long run, you should consider paying the debt with the highest interest rate off first.

Learn how to control your outgoings with our Advice+ guide to budgeting

Check out Advice+

Tips & Hints

Use a Personal Line of Credit

A great way to minimize the amount of interest you pay is transferring high-interest debt from a credit card to a line of credit with a lower rate of interest. Credit cards often have high interest rates where the rate on a personal line of credit is typically considerably lower.

Learn more

Own a home, not a mortgage

For many homeowners, the biggest question is “How can I pay off my mortgage as fast as possible?” Owning your home provides you with greater financial freedom, flexibility and the ability to focus on other financial goals like retirement or saving for your child’s education. You’ll be amazed how small changes in your mortgage terms and payments can make a big difference.

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Pre-Authorized Contributions

Pre-Authorized Contributions (PACs) help build your savings easily and conveniently through automatic contributions on a regular basis. It makes saving routine and hassle-free.

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Bank the Rest™

With Bank the Rest™, each purchase you make gets rounded up, to the next $1.00 or $5.00, and the difference goes right into your savings or investment account. So, your savings grow with each purchase.

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