How To Get The Most Out Of Your PC Optimum Points
PC Optimum points make up one of the most popular loyalty reward schemes in Canada. Once you have a loyalty card, you can start collecting points from participating stores. You can spend the points on a wide range of products, and save a lot of money. But with so many places offering perks with PC Optimum points, how can you get the most out of them?
Register For PC Optimum Points
First, registering to collect PC Optimum points will be important. Simply go to the PC Optimum website and register. Registration requires your name and email address. We recommend signing up for their free email newsletter too as this gives you some PC Optimum points to get you started, and there’s often money-saving tips sent regularly.
If you don’t have a PC Optimum card yet (which you can pick up at any store owned by Loblaws) you can still download the app and start collecting points. Be sure to link the card to the app as soon as possible though so that all points are collected into the same account. The app gives you insights into how many points you’ve saved, as well as personalized offers (between 15-20% returns) that are relevant to your spending habits and preferred places to shop.
To really get the most out of registering cards to maximize points, you might consider linking a PC Financial no-fee credit card to your account. If you don’t have any of the PC Financial credit cards, there are a number of credit cards that offer additional rewards, including:
- Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite
- Brim World Elite Mastercard
- Brim Mastercard
- BMO AIR MILES World Elite Mastercard
- MBNA Rewards Platinum Plus Mastercard
- Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card
It’s worth spending some time shopping around for the right credit card option for you as some offer different rewards but are tied to income levels. For example, President’s Choice is perfect for those earning around $40,000 and offers 1% back everywhere.
The PC Financial World Mastercard is aimed at those earning around $60,000 and offers 2% back on gas bought at Esso stations and purchases from the pharmacies below, and 1% on everything else. PC Financial World Elite Mastercard is right for those earning around $80,000 or with a household income of around $150,000 and offers a 3% return on purchases.
Each of these cards offers additional rewards, including straight cash back on purchases, and air miles.
How To Earn PC Optimum Points
The PC Optimum points value is 0.1 cent per point. That means if you spend $10 on everyday items like groceries, medicine or fuel, you earn 10,000 points. This consistent value across stores and purchases makes it easy to stay on top of the value of what you’ve earned.
You can collect PC Optimum points on your groceries on bonus purchases from:
- Loblaws
- No Frills
- Real Canadian Superstores
- The Independent Grocer
- Zehrs
- Fortinos
- Wholesale Club
- Valu-Mart
- Independent CityMarket
- Atlantic Superstore
- Dominion
- Maxi
You can collect PC Optimum points at the pharmacy at:
- Pharmaprix
- Shoppers Drug Mart (all purchases here are eligible for PC Optimum points, not just special bonus offers at a rate of return of 1.5%)
While you can’t spend your PC Optimum points of fuel, you can earn points this way. Making sure you buy your gas at Esso or Mobil will allow you to earn points for every litre you buy (at least 1% return) – and if you can pay with your PC Financial card, you’ll earn even more PC Optimum points.
PC Optimum points can also be collected from Joe Fresh.
There are two main types of offer:
Spend X and get Y: when this offer is activated, you increase the number of points you get per dollar spent.
Get X number of points for every $ spent on a specific product: this type of offer is perfect if the product can be stored long term and offers a great rate of return.
How To Redeem PC Optimum Points
It’s important to remember that you can’t redeem any points at all until you’ve collected 10,000 points. Once you hit this benchmark, you can redeem every 10,000 points for $10 off your purchase, and redeem in “chunks” of 10,000s. In practice, this looks like $10 off, $20 off and so on in ten dollar increments.
If your purchase doesn’t come to a round number, say $25, you have two choices. Either you can spend some of your points ($20 off from points), and makeup what’s owed in cash (the remaining $5). Or you could spend $30 from points, but you get no money back – those points will be forfeited.
PC Optimum points don’t expire, so they’re a perfect savings scheme to work towards times of the year that are otherwise potentially expensive, like birthdays or holidays. You’re able to redeem up to 500,000 (or $500) in one go.
Maximizing PC Optimum Points
PC Optimum sends out a weekly newsletter reminding you to check your app to pick up your personalized deals. These are based on your purchase preferences, and your favourite places to shop. The newsletter will include a button that, once clicked, with “load” these offers into your app for this week or save them for next week. This step is important, or you won’t be able to redeem the bonus points.
Just having the app doesn’t give you any extra points, but it’s the easiest way to keep track of how many points you’ve got, any bonus offers available from your preferred retailers and shows you how to redeem the points.
Only click on those offers that you’re actually interested in using. Companies track how you use their emails and clicking on those deals that you really care about will mean that company will send you more content like that. That means you might get different email offers from someone else, but they’re highly personalized to your individual preferences.
A related trick could be to only use your card for lower cost, own-brand products, and not big-name premium brands. This will cut down on the number of deals you get sent for these premium products and will maximize the savings you get.
If the goal is to gather as many points as possible as quickly as possible, getting one of the PC Financial credit cards allows you to earn points wherever you shop. Remember to clear your credit cards before they start charging you interest. If you’re using the PC Financial card to buy gas, it improves the rate of return from 1% to 3%. Not bad for something you’d be buying anyway!
Shoppers 20X Points Days
Shoppers Drug Mart has a huge amount of 20X points promo days from time to time. Usually a few days a week They can boost the value of your points by quite a bit. Just don’t overspend to get to the $75.00 unless you are gift shopping, or you are doing a larges tock up during cold and flu season. Also, Shoppers Drug Mart has a Few Special Redemption days throughout the year where when you redeem your points you will earn points back, or get more value for your PC Optimum points.
Throughout the year, look out for “special days” where there are big bonuses available. Special opportunities to collect huge numbers of points relative to what you’ve spent in-store, which can be redeemed at a later date. These bonuses don’t need you to buy anything unusual, simply spend over a certain amount. So you can be earning additional points back on your normal weekly grocery shopping which can be saved or spent.
If you’re looking to really maximize your PC Optimum points, you can plan around these special days where the bonuses are higher, and go through the promotional offers (rated at 30% return) to stack the weekly offers with the bonuses available. If you buy on your PC Financial credit card (with a rate of 4.5%), you’ve earned your maximum points. There are also sign up bonuses to watch out for, such as cashback if you activate your card during certain months of the year.
If more than one adult in your household has a PC Optimum card, it makes sense to link them. This is because many of the bonus offers can only be used once per account, and each email address gets to load different offers based on shopping habits
Linking is simply a way for friends and family to earn and redeem points together. You will still receive individually personalized offers based on how you shop.
On top of this, your household will receive personalized offers that anyone in the
a household can use.
Stocking up on non-perishable items when they’re on offer means that you get more for your money and get to enjoy the extra points too. Provided you have space to store these items that won’t expire, this is the most cost-effective way to shop for items like toiletries or toilet paper.
PC Optimum now has an “Insiders Club” which offers a wide range of bonus offers, including:
- 10% back on individual PC products
- Free PC express grocery pickup
- 5% back in points of travel purchases
- Free shipping and no minimum purchase from Joe Fresh and Shoppers Drug Mart
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Conclusion
Getting the best out of your points is really about shopping smart. Being a “switched on” consumer, and looking out for good deals on items that you would buy anyway is the best way to maximize your points.
Paying attention to bonuses in your newsletter and only interacting with those that you’re actually interested in, then buying with a PC Financial credit card where possible, and buying items in bulk that won’t expire is the most effective way to get the most out of your PC Optimum points.