One of Canada’s largest and most popular loyalty programs, Loblaw’s PC Optimum, continues to draw the ire of many Canadians. From frozen accounts, to lower points earning to not deleting accounts on request, the program that was once raved about went through a rapid descent into one star rating territory in 2024 and now in 2025, it seems the program’s issues continue to persist.
Since appearing in a Global BC consumer alert piece in late May 2024, RWRDS Canada has received dozens of messages from PC Optimum members whose accounts were frozen. None of these members were made aware their accounts were frozen until they went to try to redeem their points at the till. Some of these people were even banking on using points to help pay for their grocery or drug store purchases due to having limited budgets.
One of the members who reached out has told us one store went so far as to have instruction cards printed up last summer to give to members who try to redeem their points at the till and find out they can’t.
Outside of the investigation of Loblaws and PC Optimum by the Federal Privacy Commissioner for not deleting members accounts, Global BC’s coverage in May 2024 and now with CBC in April 2025, RWRDS Canada has been the only resource advocating on the behalf of Canadians in regards to the frozen account issue. On July 15, 2024, we sent a list of recommendations to PC Optimum on how best to resolve the ongoing issues.
PC Optimum had acknowledged awareness of an issue at that time and told RWRDS Canada they are working on rectifying the situation. However, based on the continued receipt of messages at RWRDS Canada throughout 2024 from PC Optimum members having their accounts frozen, we could only assume that PC Optimum had not implemented any of our recommendations.
It does seem like there may have been some slight improvements in the early months of 2025 as the number of complaints we have received surrounding the issues has lessened. That is until it arose again recently and is now being covered by the CBC with one member not only having his account frozen, but having it closed, all points forfeited (this member had tens of millions of points worth tens of thousands of dollars) and had their PC Financial credit card canceled by PC Financial.
If you want to catch yourself up on the entire situation from the past year, here are links to our past coverage of this issue:
- Has your PC Optimum account been frozen? Let us know!
- PC Optimum account frozen without explanation? Here’s how you can find out why it has been suspended
Tips to follow if your account has been frozen
And as the frozen account issue seems to be continuing to linger , we have the following tips that consumers should follow:
- As PC Optimum does not let members know beforehand that their accounts are frozen for redemption (unless you live in Quebec), make sure you have budgeted enough cash or left enough space on your credit card for your purchase just in case you find out at the till your account is frozen and are unable to use your points. In layman’s terms, if you have a budget of $60 for your purchase don’t go to the store assuming you can pay $40 cash/credit and use $20 of points. Assume you’re going to have to spend at least $60 cash and if your account isn’t frozen, by all means use your points.
- Don’t go hog wild if there is a great points promotion for buying gift cards – for which they have offers ever week! Even though PC Optimum rarely ever puts a limit on the number of points you can earn from buying gift cards, it does appear that big purchases trigger their security algorithm as PC Optimum has set limits internally of what they think a single family household should spend. Loblaw and PC Optimum should really follow in the footstep of Sobeys and Scene+ who typically limit bonus points to five gift cards in total per promotion.Just this past weekend they were offering 15,o00 bonus points for every $1oo of Uber/Uber Eats gift cards purchased and the T&C’s only state “we reserve the right to limit quantities” which is store specific, not points earning specific and that means if the store chooses not to limit you could technically buy as many as you like!
- If your account is frozen, PC Optimum’s response times of 10 business days or more to have a look at accounts or provide possible resolution are unacceptable. Therefore, keep pushing PC Optimum customer service to have it un-frozen and/or to have your case escalated. Phone them, email them, whatever it takes. If required, speak to supervisors and managers.
- If your account has been frozen and PC Optimum customer service won’t tell you why it is frozen or they tell you it is due to breaking terms and conditions you can reach out to the Loblaw’s Privacy Commissioner for more details. Email them at loblawprivacy@loblaw.ca and make a freedom of information request as to why your account has been suspended. We recommend you title the subject of your email with “Personal Information Request – PC Optimum account details & reason for suspension”
- If your account has been frozen, notify RWRDS Canada of your situation. While Rewards Canada cannot help directly in having accounts un-frozen, it does help us better understand the breadth of the issue and the more information we have, the more we have to push PC Optimum for an expedited resolution to this matter.
- If you feel you are getting nowhere and have tried the steps up above, our final recommendation is to reach out to the media. The more public coverage this ongoing issue receives, the more likely we’ll see a speedier resolve to it.
Title image via Loblaw/PC Optimum