Scotiabank Reviews 1,453

The customer service employee was great, the bank itself is awful. My money is always on hold and I don’t make enough to be able to afford that. This is by far the worst bank in Canada. They shouldn’t be able to hold money that belongs to you, it’s bullshit.

My partner became a victim of fraud and Scotiabank did absolutely nothing to help recover the stolen money. Meanwhile, TD Bank refunded the same fraudulent transactions without any issue because they recognized the account was compromised.

Scotiabank’s fraud protection is weak, their customer service is unhelpful, and they blame the customer instead of taking responsibility. If fraud happens on your account, you’ll be left feeling helpless with no real support.

Think twice before trusting Scotiabank with your hard-earned money. We will never bank with them again.

We have mortgage and LOC with Scotia. This review is for all the services that Scotia bank offers from the ATM machines that are always broken around our area (Richmond Hill) to the teller at the bank locations (Yonge and Elgin Mills) and Yonge and Gamble area, the customer service at Scotia line and the Help Scotia. They are all pretty disappointing.

As for Scotia help, my husband and I tried to call the help line and the first time he was on wait for 2 hours. The time that I called to give consent, I waited 30 mins. I must add this that both times, we spoke to very helpful and friendly ladies.
Today, July 10, 2025 we are trying to call while both of us available at the same time because they asked us to do so (for the service we needed they need us both online) we attempted to call at 8am to avoid the long wait. The first answer was at 8:20 and the guy hung up on us. Then we waited another 45 minutes, the same guy answered and hung up on us again. We waited for another hour and someone answered and hung up again!!! We are still waiting 2 hours later.

To the guy who could not figured out his headset and the technical difficulties he had with the system, maybe you shouldn't be working in early shift, also first learn how to use headset since that is the very first requirement for your job.

DISGUSTING HILLBILLY SERVICE!
They use THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES TO SERVICE English que!
Even when you request ENGLISH SERVICE, in your preferences This INCOMPETENT USELESS BANK still DISRESPECTS THE ENGLISH CANADIANS AND SEND THEIR B*ST*RD CODES IN A SLANG version of french you can barely understand!
Yes, after 9 months if trying to get your "third world hillbillies" to understand
This is the REASON I'm closing my accounts!
Horrible DISRESPECT FOR ENGLISH CANADIANS!

I raised a concern with a teller regarding when i checked my bank account balance over the phone. The telebanking recording indicated that I had $40 in my account. When I went to make an interac transaction for $30 my transaction was declined as insufficient funds. I expressed my frustration and the teller insisted this is that it is not their responsibility. My point wasn't about who was responsible. My intent of raising the concern was to inform them of the discrepancy of info provided vs what was reality. My intent was for them to understand the concern I was addressing. Hopefully to initiate change for better customer information available when doing telebanking. The teller was robotic in her response and re-iterating that I must follow bank policies. (There was a time when customer concerns were listened to - not here). The teller was unresponsive to my concerns. I raised my voice as so that other customers would "hear" the lack of customer service the teller was providing. The manager came over and brought me into his office. I received the same level of customer service (zero). I was suggesting to the manager that they need to improve their telebanking as so that it provided up to date information. The manager objected and insisted I follow bank policies. My tone became insistent. The manager then lied and said that my account indicated that I was asked to leave branches several times in the past for being aggressive ( not one ounce of that was true - I never had an issue with the bank prior therefore no reason to be aggressive). At that point realizing how far the manager was willing to go to defend the banks outdated policies and procedures and insisting that I was the problem not them, and because he made up a lie to justify his position, I exclaimed to the manager that he was a (explicative). The manager informed me he was closing my account. They did in fact close my account. My overdraft was in 100% good standing and without informing me or requesting payment they sent my overdraft to a collection agency. I contacted head office to complain about the lying manager and his actions, head office did not respond to my complaint. I promptly paid off the overdraft not long after. Good news: I found a new bank and now have a much greater relationship and do not regret leaving Scotiabank. Will never look back.

Second no show for appointment with an advisor .Left a concern with teller for a advisor to contact me no one did .Charging me insurance fee for a loan I didn't have and would like my money back.The banking app had plenty of issues 2SV and had issues with new android phone .

Scotia Bank customer service is absolutely terrible and are very open to fraud as per my experience earlier today in a local branch. While there were no other patrons in the branch and there were clearly several reps avaliable, I was forced to wait more than 30 minutes without any form of customer service. I was later asked to step into a booth where I inquired I to opening up a new account. The Information/requirements for opening a new account was so twisted and and criminal that I couldn't believe this branch was still in service. I was directly quoted over $1,200 just to open the account. I requested clarification and I still got $1,200. As that disgraceful human being looked into my eyes I realized this was either a case of discrimination or a criminal enterprise. I received no sort of literature proving this and was only offered written conformation. Whatever happened to Canadians being nice. I respectfully request this branch be investigated or just revoke that branch's right to use the good Canadian brand because this behavior is clearly disgraceful. This was a request for a regular debit account t with a monthly direct deposit.

Scotia Bank, plaza Alemada, Tijuana, Baja California Mexico.

Spanish translation:
El servicio al cliente de Scotia Bank es pésimo y muy vulnerable al fraude, como me pasó hoy en una sucursal local. Aunque no había otros clientes y había varios representantes disponibles, tuve que esperar más de 30 minutos sin ningún tipo de atención al cliente. Luego me pidieron que pasara a una cabina donde pregunté si podía abrir una cuenta. La información y los requisitos para abrir una cuenta eran tan tergiversados ​​y criminales que no podía creer que la sucursal siguiera operando. Me cobraron directamente más de $1,200 solo por abrir la cuenta. Pedí una aclaración y aun así recibí $1,200. Cuando ese deshonroso ser me miró a los ojos, me di cuenta de que se trataba de discriminación o de un delito. No recibí ningún tipo de documentación que lo probara; solo me ofrecieron confirmación por escrito. ¿Qué pasó con la amabilidad de los canadienses? Solicito respetuosamente que se investigue esta sucursal o que simplemente se le revoque el derecho a usar la marca "Good Canadian", porque este comportamiento es claramente vergonzoso. Esta era una cuenta de débito regular sin necesidades especiales además de un depósito directo mensual.

Scotia Bank, plaza Alemada, Tijuana, Baja California Mexico

Been with Scotia 20 years. The last year has been terrible. Insane amount of fees, charging me $48 nsf fees on payments they bounced when the money was there so no reason to bounce. Service fees overdrafted my account then charged me multiple $48 nsf fees for nsf transactions that were around $3 each. In the fall of 2024 when they had a global banking outage and promised they wouldn’t charge any nsf fees due to missed payments during the outage, they charged me 7 $48 nsf fees and refused to refund it, even though they had announced they would refund everyone’s nsf fees. I have paid probably $2000 in nsf fees in the last year and many of them were not my fault. Then they have the gall to call and complain my bank is overdrawn and tell me to “find some money and pay it” all the while I’m going through a crisis. Can’t freaking wait to switch banks and not have to deal with this anymore. What was once a great bank for families has now turned into a greed driven mess. Just today they bounced 3 payments that I had paid on time, money was in the account so no reason to bounce them.

They kept notifying me on their app that my 5 years mortgage contract needed to be renewed and to start today. I did it, expecting the new unfavorable rate would start at the end of my current one...

Nop they just bumped the the interest rate right away and now i have to pay extra 1000$ for the remaining 3 months at my new rate and despite calling them right away its final, nothing can be done. It wasn't explained properly through the app.

No access to my savings account for over 24 hours. So unacceptable and calling was a waste of 40 minutes. Don't open an account with them. Terrible service.

You think they would do their maintenance at a time no one uses their account like middle night to 7am but instead they do it during times we need to access our accounts.
Doing maintenance from 7am to 7pm is ridiculous!!!!!!!
And with this last frustration I’ll be looking into different banks.

Arafat, financial advisor Scotiabank Yorkdale, terrible, go somewhere else. Waste of time speaking to this guy. I do not know why he is in this position.

I had lost my debit card and needed to go the Cornwall scotiabank to get a new one. There were only 2 tellers, but it was very slow. The lady that helped me was kind, helpful and very quick. But being polite myself is always the way I treat people. Especially customer service workers. Who get blamed.for too many things that are out of there control. Great experience.

Scotia Bank has very poor investment strategies. It is currently investing $268,000,000 in Elbit Systems, which produces an illegal chemical called white phosphorus. This chemical is banned internationally and is currently used only in illegal wars. When the dust settles, Scotia Bank will be one of the organizations that will have to deal with liability. Investing in illegal companies is a very poor investment strategy. Additionally, it is poor optics for the bank.

On hold for 20 min. Reported card missing. 3 attempts to block it. They didn't care. Two attempts to get new one mailed.. Both failed. Wasn't put in system to mail it. They don't care. Just keep spewing They can only move forward. Couldn't mail to me because system said I moved. I haven't moved for 28 years. Clearly not accurate computer data. Scary. Stay far far away from this bank.

TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE WHEN TROUBLESHOOTING LOG-IN ISSUES!

Been passed around, waited so long to get a response, no resolution also whatsoever.

Still waiting for a call.

My account keeps being asked to "reset password", and I can't access anything!!

The bank is ridiculous. Keeps taking money out of account without reason. They use overhandling charges as an excuse even when account isn't negative . The app never works always working on it and when calling customer support they are rude very rude . It's a waste of time TD canada trust is way better regret switching over but I am changing my account . Scotiabank is a waste of your time and added unnecessary stress. DONT GET A SCOTIABANK ACCOUNT.!!!

I just paid off my over $42 000 account owing in one payment because they said they would close my account June 10 for foul language when I spoke to someone on the phone. Failing to recognize they withdrew a payment from my account twice. So I paid the full amount by the date stated and they then charged me interest after the full payment. Toxic company, never do business with them. I was a customer since 1997 . Absolute trash service

Just over a week ago I opened a new account with Scotiabank with a view to gain some interest on an investment account that they offer.
I have tried to arrange an electronic transfer of funds from my other financial institution to Scotiabank for two days now but Scotiabank's system does not appear to work. (yes the details are correct - used a void cheque to ensure accuracy)
If you telephone Scotiabank then you face, in my case a 2 hour wait time!. Even then they customer service people (are polite) cannot resolve my issue.
I have arranged a manual transfer of funds from my existing financial institution but I regret having anything to do with Scotiabank.
Very slow and poor service.
The service us most unprofessional.

This banks is the wosrt bank when dealing with certain issues regarding your hard earned money I have a issue where they took almost 1300 hundred dollars worth of service charges I had a issue with my mortgage when my husband wasn’t working they stop taking the mortgage out of our account and send it to their lawyer for us to bring the mortgage up to date we paid over 4000 to bring everything to date only for for the bank to said we owed almost 1300 in mortgage service charges and they told us that the service charges was not calculated in the money they told us to pay this is not right and someone is taking customers money making it look like we owed all the his money then when you go to he bank they give you a lot of running around