If you regularly shop where President’s Choice products are sold or make a lot of purchases at Shoppers Drug Mart or PharmaprixMD, you’ll likely be interested in the PC Financial® World Mastercard®. With the card, you can earn PC Optimum points at an accelerated rate, which means more points in your pocket. Best of all, the card only requires a personal income of $60,000 or household income of $100,000 for you to qualify, in addition to credit approval.
If your personal income is $80,000 or you have a household income of $150,000, you’ll likely automatically qualify for the PC Financial® World Elite Mastercard® instead. But if your personal income or household income falls below the threshold of $60,000 and $100,000, don’t worry, as you may still qualify for the PC Financial® Mastercard® which also earns you bonus PC Optimum points.
Like the other two Mastercards under the PCF roster, the PC Financial® World Mastercard® has no annual fee and carries the standard interest rate of 19.97%.
Sign Up Bonus: Good
For a limited time, new cardholders can also take advantage of a 0.97% balance transfer interest rate for the first six months. In order to get this rate, applicants must be new PC Financial customers and are required to make the transfers within 90 days of opening the account. After six months, the balance transfer rate goes up to 22.97% and you will have to pay a fee of 1% of the full balance amount for each transfer.
Earning Rate: Good
For a no fee card, the earning rate on the PC Financial® World Mastercard® can’t be beat. You’re basically getting 2% in cash-equivalent points at participating stores where President’s Choice products are sold and 3.5% at Shoppers Drug Mart and PharmaprixMD.
- Drugstore: 35 points per $1 spent at Shoppers Drug Mart and PharmaprixMD.
- Grocery: 20 PC points per $1 spent on groceries (and merchandise) purchased at participating stores where President’s Choice products are sold.
- Gas: 30 points per litre at Esso locations.
- Travel: 20 points per $1 spent on travel booked through pctravel.ca.
- Other: 10 points per $1 spent on all other purchases.
And if you have the PC Financial® World Mastercard®, you can also earn additional points on special offers sent to your PC Optimum account, online and in-store.
Value of one PC Optimum point: $0.001
Earning Potential: Good
So, how does this card stack up to other credit cards that offers rewards on groceries? We crunched the numbers using our Best of Finance methodology to see how much you could earn over a 24-month period.
Assuming $1,119.58 is spent on the card monthly at eligible vendors in the following categories*:
- Pharmacy: $54.16
- Food: $665
- Gas**: $152.42
- Travel: $148
- Other: $100
Rewards earned over a 24-month period: 569,476.80 PC Optimum points
Total: $569.48 in free groceries and merchandise
*Source: Statistics Canada
**Based on $1.00/litre gas prices
That’s a decent amount of free groceries or makeup from Shoppers Drug Mart for a no fee card and that doesn’t even include any of the targeted offers you would receive for being a PC Optimum member.
Are you carrying the best credit card for your spending habits? Check out the Credit Card Rewards Calculator and find out!
Balance Transfer Feature: Average
If you’re looking for a balance transfer option, you’ll be happy to hear that the PC Financial® World Mastercard® offers an 0.97% interest rate for balance transfers done within 90 days of opening an account. There is a 1% fee on balances being transferred and you need to be a PC Financial Customer, but you would end up paying significantly less interest than traditional credit cards which have an average interest rate of 19.99%. Note that your interest rate for the amount transferred over rises to 22.97% after the promotional period ends.
Point Redemption: Good
Although you won’t be able to use your points for travel rewards, you can use them to redeem groceries and merchandise at participating stores where President’s Choice products are sold, as well as Shoppers Drug Mart and PharmaprixMD. For those who shop at these stores on a regular basis, this is highly lucrative, especially when you consider all the in-store and targeted promos for cardholders that allow you to earn even more PC Optimum points. You should note, though, that minimum redemption is 10,000 PC Optimum points (worth $10 in free rewards) and in increments of 10,000 points thereafter at participating stores.
Benefits: Average
There is no additional insurance included with the PC Financial® World Mastercard®. Also, the additional benefits of the PC Financial® World Mastercard® are average for a no-fee card. Benefits include:
- Purchase assurance (90 days)
- Extended warranty (one year)
- 24/7 concierge service
This post has been updated.
