Over the past week PC Financial officially launched their fourth credit card offering, the PC Insiders™ World Elite Mastercard®. First announced this past summer, the card is now available and marks the issuer’s first foray into fee based cards. In return for the $120 annual fee the card provides increased earn rates and a complimentary annual PC Express Pass.
150,000 PC Optimum welcome bonus points
The new card has been launched with a welcome bonus of 150,000 PC Optimum Points when spending $3,000 or more on the card in the first four months. Those 150,000 points are worth $150 unless you redeem during one of Shoppers Drug Mart’s Bonus Redemption Events where you can get more value for the points.
Earn rates
The new PC Insiders World Elite Mastercard earns PC Optimum points as follows:
- 40 points per $1 spent at Loblaw banner grocery stores
- 35 points per $1 spent at Shoppers Drug Mart (it is marketed as 50 points per $1 but that includes the 15 points per dollar that all PC Optimum members earn regardless of payment method)
- 40 points per litre spent on fuel purchases at Esso and Mobil (it is marketed as up to 7 cents per litre but that includes the 10 points per dollar that all PC Optimum members earn regardless of payment method as well as the bonus points if you purchase at least 150 litres in a calendar month)
- 10 points per $1 spent on all other spending
Point Values / Effective return on spending
As point redemption is the same across the PC Optimum program at the equivalent rate of 0.1 cents per point the effective return on spending with the new PC Insiders World Elite Mastercard ranges from a high of 4% on the Loblaw store purchases to a low of 1% on all other spending.
The grocery earn rates are comparable to some other cards in the market like the CIBC Dividend Visa Infinite Card (4%), MBNA Rewards World Elite Mastercard (4.167% to 4.58%) and Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite Card (4%). The caveat is that these other cards don’t limit you to one family of grocery stores like the PC card does and you can use your cash back towards anything, you are not limited to Loblaw stores or Shoppers.
Even with the increased earn rate for the Loblaw store purchases this card is still not the best to use at Loblaw stores as other cards will reward you more. When you look at our feature The best credit cards to use at Loblaw grocery stores this card will fall into 7th spot for high spending and actually ties for 7th spot for low spending.
Benefits & Insurance
The primary benefit that comes on the PC Insiders World Elite Mastercard is a complimentary annual PC Express Pass. The PC Express Pass allows you to shop online and pay $0 pickup and delivery on same-day or future orders of $35 or more at participating Loblaw banner grocery stores. This pass normally costs $99 per year (or $9.99 per month)
As the card has World Elite branding it also features Mastercard TravelPass by DragonPass which is an annual airport lounge access membership program (you still need to a pay discounted entrance fee to enter lounges), free global Boingo Wi-Fi as well as other limited time offers from Mastercard.
For insurance coverage the card provides 10 day out of province emergency medical coverage for those under the age of 65, car rental CDW insurance, purchase security and extended warranty. That’s not a lot of coverage for a fee based World Elite Mastercard.
Wrapping it up
We have another new card in the market and honestly, just like the Cathay card released by Neo a couple of weeks ago I have to put this one into the mediocre category. Unless you a big time utilized of PC Express pick up or delivery you are better offer with other cards in the market as others will earn more and be more flexible in their rewards not to mention they’ll have better insurance coverage. If you want to stick with PC Optimum however and don’t use PC Express, the no fee PC World Elite Mastercard even with its lower earn rate it has the potential to earn you more rewards when take the annual fee on the Insiders card into account.
Click here to learn more about the new PC Insiders™ World Elite Mastercard®
Title image via PC Financial