The President's Choice Financial World Elite Mastercard is the flagship card for the PC Optimum program which is the loyalty program for the Loblaw family of stores that include Loblaw, Real Canadian Superstore and Shoppers Drug Mart to name the least. PC Financial is the banking branch of the Loblaw group of companies and they offer three different credit cards, all of which are unique in that they all don't have an annual fee attached to them.
Overview
The PC Financial World Elite Mastercard
is the top end flagship card for the PC Optimum program and provides
the best earn rates of the trio of cards offered by the banking arm of
the Loblaw conglomerate. Being a World Elite Mastercard the card also
offers the most benefits and best insurance package of the three cards.
It is technically a cash back credit card since the points earned can
only be redeemed for cash discounts at the till at the selection of
Loblaw stores and that make the card a favourite for PC Optimum fans. It
definitely fills the niche for those who do shop a lot within the
Loblaw family of stores. However by being tied into the PC Optimum
program you are limited on the redemption side of things and if Shoppers
Drug Mart or Real Canadian Superstore aren't your cup of tea this card
will not be of much use to you. Having no annual fees the card does not
have nearly as many bells and whistles as World Elite Mastercards that
do charge a fee, namely in the insurance category.
Costs & Sign up Features
The PC Financial World Elite Mastercard
is one of only a few no annual fee World Elite Mastercards in Canada.
That's right a card with a lot of benefits that doesn't cost you
anything to carry in your wallet. There is no annual fee on
supplementary cards. The standard welcome bonus on the card is 20,000 PC
Optimum points but PC Financial does tend to offer a 100,000 point
bonus on it quite frequently. I recommend checking the Rewards Canada blog frequently for that offer as it is usually only available for a few days at a time.
The interest rate on the card is
20.97% on purchases. 22.97% on cash advances and balance transfers.
These rates are slightly higher than equivalent cards at this level. The
minimum annual income requirements for the card are $80,000 personal or
$150,000 household.
Earning
The card earns PC Optimum points and it earns those points as follows:
30 PC Points for every $1 spent at Loblaws, Shoppers Drug Mart PC Mobile and PC Travel Purchases
20 PC Points per litre at Esso and Mobil stations in Canada
10 PC Points for every $1 spent on all other purchases
The above earn rates do not take into account additional points you can earn for being a PC Optimum member. For example when you shop at Shoppers Drug Mart you earn 15 points per dollar spent for scanning your PC Optimum card. Those 15 points over and above whatever you earn your card which in the case of the World Elite version is 30 points thus you would earn 45 points per dollar spent. Esso & Mobil offer 10 points per dollar for PC Optimum members and 20 points per litre for a possible total of 30 points per litre.
Point Valuation Chart
| Spending Category | Points earned per dollar spent | Effective Rate of return (Cash Back) |
|---|---|---|
| Loblaws, Shoppers Drug Mart, PC Mobile and PC Travel Purchases | 30 | 3% |
| Esso & Mobil | 20 per litre | roughly 1 to 2% |
| All other spending | 10 | 1% |
Redeeming
The redemption process in the PC Optimum program is
relatively easy. Simply put you can redeem 10,000 points for $10 off at
participating stores which are all Loblaw grocery stores (Loblaws, No
Frills, Real Canadian Superstore and so on), Loblaw liquor stores and
Shoppers Drug Mart (including Shoppers online). All redemptions must be
made in 10,000 point increments so if you have 58,000 points you would
only be able to redeem 50,000 points for $50 off your bill. You will
want to watch for special events where the program provides more value
for your points when redeeming them. These tend to happen every couple
of months so if you can time it right you can utilize those offers to
extract more value out of the points earned on the credit card.
Features and Benefits
As the card has no annual fee there aren't too many features or benefits to talk about.
It does have 10 day out of province travel medical insurance, CDW
insurance on car rentals (up to 31 days & $65,000 MSRP max) and your
standard purchase assurance of 90 days and extended warranty benefits.
Recommended reading: A look at the new benefits that have been added to all World & World Elite Mastercards in Canada
What is good about this card
The best thing about this card is that is has no annual fee combined with some good earn rates. It is rare for no fee card to earn up to a 3% return since those 30 points per dollar the Loblaw group of companies equate to that return.
Another great thing about the card are the World Elite Benefits that provide free Wi-Fi, business class lounge access and more.
It's a Mastercard so that means you can use it at Costco!
What is not so good about this card
There are few things that aren't good about this card. The first will really be dependent on the individual and that is the redemption options. You really don't have a lot of options when it comes to redeeming points from the card. Since you can only redeem at Loblaw family of stores you limit yourself in your reward options. That's why it comes down to the individual - if you only shop for groceries at a Loblaws grocery store then the redemption option becomes a good thing about this card. If you don't shop very often with the company then it's a not so good thing. Then there is the option of redeeming at Shoppers Drug Mart - again comes down to the individual but from my personal experience I do have some issues with it. The reason being is that I always tend to find Shoppers Drug Mart quite a bit more expensive than other stores. I recall once having to buy a bottle of Advil at Shoppers and it was $12.99. The next day while at Sobeys (so not even the cheapest place out there) the same bottle of Advil was $9.99 - and neither store had it on sale. I see this a lot at Shoppers so when you redeem here you are effectively discounting your purchase to make it closer to what other stores charge regularly. I mean if you find something on sale at Shoppers and then redeem points that's great but otherwise you could be better off with a different cash back card and shopping elsewhere. Ultimately it can come down to convenience however to shop at Shoppers Drug Mart and I get it. I don't shop at Real Canadian Superstore as it is nearly 20 minutes away from me whereas Sobeys is less than 5 minutes and the latter does tend to be a bit more expensive. It really comes down to what you value for your time, what gas costs etc.
The next thing is the base earn rate of only 1% - I wouldn't
necessarily say this is not so good but I'd put it more at a mediocre
thing about this card. The reason being is that you have another World
Elite Mastercard with no annual fee with more benefits and a base earn
rate of 1.5% and that's the Rogers World Elite Mastercard.
So if you are putting more spending on your card outside of the Loblaw
family of stores you would be better off with the Rogers card or any
number of other cards that have a higher base earn rate.
Finally the lack of insurance, again being a no fee card we
don't expect it to have a lot of coverage but again the Rogers World
Elite Mastercard provides much more coverage than this card. That means
if you are in the market for a high end no fee card with a good suite of
insurances you are better off with the Rogers card over this one.
Who should get this card
- People who shop a lot at Loblaw grocery stores and by a lot I would say well over $20,000 a year. The reason why is you have cash back cards in our market that earn 4% cash back at grocery stores and even though they have annual fees they'll earn you over 10% more cash back on an annual grocery spend of $20,000. Those cards however have annual spending caps so if you spend something like $30,000 a year at Loblaw stores this card could prove to be more valuable
- People who shop a lot at Shoppers Drug Mart - the 30 points per dollar here along with the 15 points per dollar for being a PC Optimum member is a nice return on your spending
Conclusion
These PC Optimum cards are popular in Canada and I have had many a reader often ask me why don't they rank higher in our cash back rankings or talk about the cards very much. It really comes down to the very limited redemption options on the card. It's the same thing with the Triangle Credit Cards, they really fill a niche for their own stores and the accompanying loyalty programs. Being so limited limits our coverage on them and keeps them out of our rankings seeing that in most cases there are better more flexible rewarding options out there. Still, as mentioned above if your heart is near and dear to shopping at Loblaw grocery stores and Shoppers Drug Mart then this is the right card for you.
Related Links:
PC Financial World Elite Mastercard
Other cards to consider if you are looking at this card:
BMO CashBack® World Elite®* MasterCard®*
BMO CashBack® MasterCard®*
CIBC Dividend Visa Infinite Card
mbna Rewards World Elite Mastercard
President's Choice Financial World Mastercard
President’s Choice Financial Mastercard
Rogers World Elite Mastercard
Scotia Momentum® VISA* Infinite card
TD Cash Back Visa Infinite* Card
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