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moneysense.ca, 16/02/06
Comparing Loyalty Programs
PC Points and Sears Club loyalty programs have the most generous awards.
Canadians are addicted to loyalty programs and there are plenty of them ranging from AIR MILES to Club Z points (I haven’t stepped into a Zellers store in years, so I believe the latter is now defunct). The fact that Canadian Tire “money” is practically a parallel currency says something about our collective addiction. Personally, I am enrolled in AIR MILES, Aeroplan and PC Points loyalty programs.
Recently, I wanted to redeem my AIR MILES for an Apple iPod, so I visited the various loyalty program websites to figure out the actual dollar value of a point. The results are summarized in the following table.
| Loyalty Program | To Earn 1 Point | To redeem $10 (in Points) | Rewards Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aeroplan | $1.00 | 1,200 | 0.83% |
| AIR MILES | $20.00 | 74 | 0.68% |
| PC Points | 10¢ | 10,000 | 1.00% |
| Canadian Tire Money | $66.67 | 10 | 1.50% |
| Sears Club | $1.00 | 667 | 1.50% – 4.00% |
| Shoppers Optimum | 10¢ | 7000 | 1.40% – 2.00% |
| HBC Rewards | 2¢ | 9160 | 0.50% |
Aeroplan, AIR MILES and PC Points can be collected as rewards through various credit cards and rewards range from 0.68% (for AIR MILES no-fee credit cards) to 1% (for PC MasterCard). I am not aware of a no-fee credit card that can be used to collect Aeroplan miles, so the value of the rewards is less than 0.83%. 1.5% seems to be the standard reward for loyalty programs offered by assorted retail outlets, though Sears Rewards can be as high as 4%. Note that rewards on department store credit cards are typically lower than rewards for in-store purchases.
moneysense.ca, 16/02/06
Do you know abt this website: ttp://www.points.com
It helps you keep track of all your points/miles etc and you also get a bonus for joining.
Thanks for the info J’adore. I will check them out.
[...] Some credit cards charge an annual fee and provide more generous rewards. Are these cards worth their annual fee? To find out, let’s compare the no-fee American Express AIR MILES credit card with the Gold card that carries a $50 annual fee. One AIR MILE is worth about 13.5¢, so the Gold card earns more rewards than the no-fee version only when more than $22,200 is spent. [...]
Have you ever heard of Avion?
http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/online/avionspring06/index.html?ASC=AVM07
It looks the reward rate is around 2% even after you take into account the $120 annual fee. I’m still looking for the catch.
[...] Aeroplan also graciously reinstates expired miles for an administrative fee of just $30 plus 1¢ per restored mile. Of course, you almost never want to reinstate expired points because each mile has an economic value of about 0.83¢. [...]
[...] the checkout, I found a less publicized side to the story: Loblaws gives a bonus of 50 PC Points (worth about 5 cents) for every reusable bag. In other words, it is not a simple rip off: Loblaws penalizes customers [...]
[...] real life, road warriors can also visit various websites to compare airlines’ and hotels’ loyalty programs. This is also normal – the pursuit of best [...]
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I don’t understand the chart here and how the author figures that PC Points is one of the best. It has a return rate of 1%, whereas Canadian Tire has a return rate of 1.5%, which seems to me to be higher..
At any rate, I find the Shoppers Optimum is by far the best rewards program out there. By utilizing their 20X days, Bonus Points on products etc. You can accumulate points faster then probably anywhere out there! I once went from 300 points to over 90,000 points in less then 3 weeks. It is all about smart shopping and strategic shopping when you use their program. Then hold out for the Mega Bonus Redemption weekend and use all your points then!