Finally, a few months ago, David and I hopped on the band-wagon. After we moved to Clayton/Cloverdale we found there is an Independent Grocer in our neighborhood. The first time I walked in there they insisted I sign up for the PC Mastercard. I always ignore these people, but I figured it would be quicker and easier to just do it than to ignore them every time I went in there! Plus it's free!
This is not our actual card (obviously)
The way the PC Mastercard works is that every time you use it you earn 10 PC Points for every $1 you spend. If you're using it in a PC store (Superstore, No Frills, Independent Grocer), there are often special offers such as, "For every $1 spent on Peppers earn 200 points." The purchases you frequently make are tracked, and they will send out special offers on the items you purchase more often as well. When Katrina was pregnant her big craving was Swedish Berries. Her PC Plus Offers had Swedish Berries on for many weeks in a row due to her frequent purchases!
1000 PC Points equates to $1 towards items at any PC store. You'd be surprised how quickly it adds up! I love that you can use your points towards something practical.
I earn points called BONUSDOLLARS on my Coast Capital Visa as well, but I can only redeem those through Visa travel and purchasing tickets to events. Not overly practical for us at this time.
We started earning points in September, and we booked our trip to Orlando primarily on our PC card. That meant we loaded up on points, and by this week we already had 70,000 points to redeem!
December is a tough month for us financially. Electrical bills are higher, we're buying gifts for Christmas, it's my birthday, we are hosting parties frequently, and it's David's slowest month for work. We had to do a bigger grocery shop the other day, and I decided we should try out Independent Grocer again and redeem our points!
Our bill came to $128.21. We redeemed our 70,000 points ($70.00), and reduced our bill to $58.21. HOORAY! That feels like a much more manageable number. Especially considering how much we purchased.
The PC Plus App is very helpful as well. It tracks everything for you, and you can view your weekly offers on here as well.
On top of receiving $70.00 off, we also earned another 12,100 points from the bill.
Once you earn 20,000 points, you can start redeeming them whenever you want.
Down the road we might look into a credit card that we can earn Air Miles on or something like that, but at this point in our lives, earning 1% (or more) cash back towards groceries makes perfect sense.
I thought I'd share this with everyone in case you're looking for a practical card for you and your family, but are unsure which to pick!
Hey hey hey... no sharing embarrassing pregnancy craving stories. Once you've used it long enough you'll get upgraded to the black card which gives you double points on whatever you buy at their stores! Also, fill up on superstore gas. I think they give you 70 points per litre?
ReplyDeleteI love PC Mastercard...I've got over $300 in points waiting for something fun to spend it on - but likely it will just go to buy groceries :) -Ali Kooger
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