When I was married, my husband insisted we have credit cards that gave us airline points.
I wanted one that gave me points for free groceries.
The first thing I did when I got divorced was apply for a PC Financial credit card. Now, every time I check out at the grocery store and head home with “free food,” it tastes extra sweet.
The truth is, I’d do anything for free rewards. I go to Starbucks for the caffeine jolt, yes, but also for the free drinks I can earn. My Scene card has earned me free movies.
I get such a sense of accomplishment from earning free. It’s exciting and satisfying. I can’t be the only one who is thrilled by the prospect of collecting rewards points—there must be a whole wing of psychology dedicated to studying this, which is why loyalty cards are so popular in the first place.
I think the cards with the most immediate rewards are best. I like fast, tangible results. I have a points card at Indigo and I have yet to see those amount to anything. It’s the same at Shopper’s Drug Mart—I’m always “just a few points away” from getting $10 off my purchase. It’s a bummer and I don’t know why I bother collecting these points at all.
I once spend years collecting Air Miles and I ended up being able to “purchase” some pretty cool big-ticket items with those points. Again, it took me years to earn enough points, and now the card has fallen to the wayside. I always forget to use it when I shop online, missing out on collecting Air Miles. It’s just not the most intuitive card in my wallet.
In the meantime, my “free groceries” credit card continues to occupy the most visible slot in my wallet and I’m perfectly happy with that.
Do you have any experiences with points cards, either positive or negative? What free things do you earn? Which loyalty programs do you like best? Please share!
I try to get this theory thru peoples heads that if you get a good points credit card and just pay it off as you purchase ( aka go home pay the $$ amount of your purchase onto your cc) you are literally making money off of your cc. we put everything that we possibly can on our cc keep the receipts and hop online and pay it off once we get home. We currently have $1200 that we can cash out ( they send us a cheque) on our credit card and have probably cashed out close to 2000$ in the last 10 years! Also we have never ever paid interest so it is literally free money!!
P.S. we are with capitol 1 and get 1.25% on all purchases as well there are no fees for the card!!
I love my Shoppers Drug Mart card. Then I didn't for a bit. Now I love it again. The hot/cold romance of the card is the points I get for prescriptions. My husband is on a medication that is nearly $2000.00 a month and that is just one of his. Everyone at our shoppers knows him by name. I have had times when the bonus buy days and have gotten $200.00 plus for free (I'm also a couponer). This helped with Christmas presents for more that one year.
I used to love my Aeroplan points credit card, but at the time I was making a LOT of purchases on the card, and the flights were easy to book. Eventually the flights became almost impossible to get with the points. I switched to Avion. It takes more points to book long-haul flights but they are much easier to book. I don't spend as much now on the card, so it takes longer. I used to get at least one or two "free" flights a year, and now it's much more seldom.
I am really enjoying the pcplus card. I've gotten $200+ worth of free groceries since the program started without even doing anything extra to get points (other than bringing my card with me). I imagine if I was planning my shopping according to what the weekly deals were it would be even better.