PC Financial World and World Elite cards | Page 2 | Credit card reward programs | Discussion forum

suburbs4life said
This came as a surprise to me. I was aware of Rogers WE spend and I just got the PC letter saying I will be downgraded without a prior warning from them. I can’t see how this is good for PC’s brand. I will likely cancel the card to avoid the world card. I do need to reduce the amount of cards I have.

Is it possible to pay with visa at loblaws banner stores Like RCSS? I have the td visa infinite cash back that pays 3%. It would be great to fall back to that for groceries at RCSS. I know they don’t accept Amex.  

Get a CT WE MC to replace your PCF WE card. The CT WE card pays 3% on grocery purchases everywhere (so not just at Loblaws banner stores like PCF), not to mention all the other perks that come with the CT card like free deluxe RSA and earning rewards on bill payments

gicjunkie said

To the best of my knowledge, No Frills and Costco (not a major grocery chain, but still sells lots of groceries) do not accept VISA. They do accept Mastercard.  

That has been changed since the pandemic. Both loblaws and No Frills now accepts Visa as well. However some NF franchise stores can still set their own rules. But it makes no sense to not accept Visa given the recommended touchless contact.

That is also the reason why the PCF WE has no value to me now. Now all my groceries are paid exclusively with my CIBC Visa Infinite which is 4%.

dougjp said And what is deluxe RSA?

Dougjp, I believe this refers to Road Side Assistance. That baffled me for a while too -- and I have the card with that program!

Acronyms can be a curse and they are profuse in our language these days.

dougjp said

Thanks!

The WE version, which I couldn't find a link for at CT (thanks Norman1), looks very good as its no fee, and, if I can cancel CAA because of the roadside assistance, that saves $ 134.00 per year. On the negative side, grocery stores don't include Walmart or Costco (which my Tang card pays 2%), there are none of their gas stations nearby, and I don't spend much at The Tire (but could).

The Dividend Visa Infinite fee card that savemoresaveoften uses looks very good indeed, with 4% on gas and groceries. A big question mark over which stores are and are not included as grocery. I have their included gas stations nearby.

Its difficult to find serious detail on CIBC's site. For example 'earn up to 2%' turns out to only be for public transportation excluding travel related (airlines etc.), recurring payments and food. Everything else is 1%.

Its good to have these options when PC WE comes knocking at the door to effectively cancel their credit card AND shopping business with us. I can't quite fathom how they get anything positive out of doing this in a global pandemic when people generally aren't buying big ticket items or expensive travel, ie; annual spend is down. People will remember what they are doing for many years.  

if u already bank/invest with CIBC or have trading account there, the Visa Infinite is a no brainer as they reimburse annual fee, so basically I use it for free and earn 4% each year. No fee for the smart checking account too.
Check the hurdle for the reimbursement conditions.

I never checked but Loblaws, NF, Food Basics, Freshco all earn 4% as I shop at those names.

Walmart and Costco usually not count as groceries irregardless of which card it is.

I am not a fan of CIBC but Investor Edge platform is actually fairly good, fee is low at $6.95. The reimbursement of annual fee on both the CC and the checking account seals the deal for me for those 2 items.

dougjp said
Yes I use CIBC and Investor's Edge.

I couldn't find reimbursement of the annual fee, only for year 1.

Tang pays me 2% on my local Walmart purchases. Its a store that sells produce (some do, some don't). I've heard it depends on the store.  

It is still available. If you switch ur current CIBC account to the one below, ask them to honor the $300 sign up bonus too.

ALL-IN-ONE

CIBC Smart™ Plus Account

Special offer
Get $300† when you open your first chequing account. Plus, enjoy all-in-one banking with over $500 in value.◊

Includes a premium CIBC credit card with annual fee rebates5
Unlimited transactions3 including Interac e-Transfer service6

Unlimited ATM cash withdrawals in Canada, the U.S. and internationally7

Transactions3: Unlimited

Monthly fee: $29.95

Daily balance to avoid monthly fee8:

$6,000

Or $100,000 in savings and investments

Got my notice today that my PC WE card will be turned into a World Card this April. Will not lose points.

You have to apply for the world card but the regular card is automatically sent to you if you don’t cancel your World elite card prior to March 31st.

If I Didn’t Already have TD banking bundles I would be tempted to look into the CIBC cash back Visa card. I’ll watch for now Unless cibc offers something more attractive. The hassle to switch trading/credit cards and banking accounts is too much.

I just got downgraded from world elite to world.

I had to go online and there was a link to click and they said if I did not click the link I would be downgraded to the regular master card automatically.

I was surprised I could not click on the regular mastercard to downgrade but ended up clicking the link because I was concerned that my 50k credit limit stayed intact.

I called them and they confirmed the credit limit and everything stays the same.

The entire process was a clusterfuck for me because with the downgrade they give you a new number and they say as soon as you get your new card the old one stops working.

So how do you notify everyone that uses the card for auto payment, you cannot notify ahead of time because you do not have the new number and once you get the new card anyone charging the old one is declined if you do not get every business to make the change the same day.

The card number should have stayed the same, this is just idiotic.

I switched to the MBNA elite card because I could not get a higher credit limit than 50k with PC and one phone call and I had 75k with MBNA.

I charge about 75k monthly so having to pay down the PC card in the middle of the month was an inconvenience.

I checked and I have charged over 6 million on my PC Elite card and I still got downgraded because my last full year was under 15k.

dougjp said
…
Its good to have these options when PC WE comes knocking at the door to effectively cancel their credit card AND shopping business with us. I can't quite fathom how they get anything positive out of doing this in a global pandemic when people generally aren't buying big ticket items or expensive travel, ie; annual spend is down. People will remember what they are doing for many years.

It's not PC Financial's choice.

A MasterCard issuer is taking a 20% pay cut by downgrading a cardholder from World Elite to World. For example. the interchange on chip-and-PIN purchases drops from 1.56% to 1.22%.

The $15,000 per year spending minimum is from MasterCard Canada. It is to help fulfill an agreement it and Visa Canada renewed with Department of Finance in August 2018. They agreed to cut the average interchange they collect from the previous 1.5% to 1.4%. That's about a 6.7% pay cut.

MasterCard Canada and Visa Canada essentially shot themselves in the foot when the federal government ask them to justify the higher interchange on those World, World Elite, Infinite, and Infinite Privilege cards. They answered that those cards were issued to higher income, higher spenders. So, it was not unreasonable that merchants pay more for shoppers who have and pay with such cards!

Yes, any billers who were billing to the former World Elite MasterCard will have to informed of the card number and expiry date of the replacing World MasterCard.