I wouldn't close your president’s choice mastercard account because it will hurt your credit score. I would make a twenty dollar purchase every few months to keep the card active.

Be aware! I have had this credit card for over a year. Unfortunately, I am almost to my limit but not over. I have never missed a payment, and am not over my limit and several months ago they raised my interest rate to 24.95 %. I was shocked. It states in my agreement that they can do that if you have missed two consecutive payments but I never missed a payment. Confused, I called the Presidents Choice customer service. They informed me that my user agreement states that they can, and I quote, "raise the interest rate at any time, for any reason". Please don't get this card...those free groceries won't be free for long. If you have this card...do yourself a favor and don't carry a balance. Me? I am making paying off this card a priority. And when its paid, I will never fall into thier trap again.

i can see from your grocery receipt that you have already earned and collected thousands of points coming from your credit card usage. having those points, are you using them to pay off your groceries? what other usage can your points be used for?

I think we took the wrong turn somewhere with this president's choice card. It sounded like a neat idea to collect 1% on groceries, but then we started to pay 19.75% interest on purchases which makes those points really expensive.

Because I'm looking for a low interest credit card, this one is going to do much longer. The question I have is should I close my presence choice card as soon as I get my low interest credit card? I read somewhere on the site that it would decrease my credit score if I close my account. We've had the Presidents choice MasterCard for about five years and we've always made our payments on time with this card. I just don't carry a balance of 19.75%

Just for fun I went to Canadian Tire to redeem some points because of this conversation. And you can see by the bill below I just bought a beer mug for $3.99 plus tax and It came out to $4.39.

The nice part of the whole transaction was I just used my existing Canadian Tire points and I did not have to resort to using $10.00 increments, like I did with the Presidents Choice MasterCard.

And as you can see I have $7.04 left in Canadian Tire points for which I can buy other things.

It was interesting that when I went to the cashier I told her about what I was doing, as in I was writing a blog about this, and she had no idea what I was talking about which is kinda funny. I told her I was comparing the president's choice MasterCard points to Canadian Tire points and that I was writing a blog post about it. She looked at me and said " let me know how it goes".

Anyway the point is it's nice to see that we can use Canadian Tire points for less than $10.00 increments, and just on anything that you want to buy for any amount that you want to buy.

You can see that on this Extra Food's receipt the balance of my purchase came to $38.84, and they only redeemed $30 of points, even though I had a total of $47 worth of points.

That's pretty amazing why they would do that. I think that If I'm going to be seriously using a groceries rewards credit card, it will need to be able to give me exact purchase amount, and not in $10 increments.

I'm curious to know if anybody else has had the same experience.?

OMG... If I just went to Extra Foods in Regina to redeem my first set of president's choice rewards points for groceries.

Actually I just want to buy a newspaper and thought I could get for free using my rewards points. But because it was the first time I use the card they said there was a $20.00 minimum purchase.

So I was kinda funny because at Canadian Tire if you make a $1.84 purchase you can use your Canadian Tire rewards points for that. And there is no minimum.

So then I said to myself I will go by some actual groceries, because I have over $40.00 of rewards points that I can spend. If so I went my way and started buying groceries and then I went to the checkout and Extra Foods. The groceries totaled $38.84. So I thought that I could use all of my rewards points 'cause I had over $40.00 worth.

The cashier said that I could only use $30.00 worth. So I questioned what was going on, and she said that you can only use $10.00 increments. So I said OK will let me buy an extra $1.16 worth of groceries so I can use my points. She said it's already been Rung so you cannot use them !

I was kind of bummed out with that ! Why would they have $10.00 increments when you're buying groceries generally people don't buy exactly $40.00 for the groceries. You buy a $34.43 worth, or $89.67 worth of groceries but not $30.00 or $90.00 worth of groceries.

I guess I will know for next time. I'm just wondering if anybody else had any experience with the Presidents Choice MasterCard's rewards points for groceries and their $10 increments system.

I was kind of surprised with this visit with President's Choice MC.. I thought that if you had good history with them they would lower your interest rate permanently.. Not so..
The only time you get a lower interest rate is when they have promotions.

But.. they do give you, in essence, 1% cash back towards groceries.
I'm still mixed on this.... I guess it's good if you want to save money on groceries.

Monty: So for the PC Master Card rewards card that basically is all you are offering?

President's Choice: That is right.

Monty: Okay, that is all I need to know for today. And again you cannot reduce my interest rate?

President's Choice: No, is that 19.97% and it’s the lowest that we offer. Keep an eye on your mail for any promotions. So make sure your account has a good standing or the next promotion will be coming out around the beginning of April in a month or so. So at that point you may receive something with the lower interest on the balance transfer. But other than that for lower interest rate that’s the lowest that we offer.

Monty: I appreciate your help today.

President's Choice: No problem and thank you for calling PC Master Card and have a good day.

Monty: Okay, bye.

Monty: So, what is that mean exactly, I get 10 points for every dollar. So how many dollars do I have to spend to get 1 dollar in groceries?

President's Choice: It’s kind of like 1 % cash back. If it’s $100, we will give you 1,000 points which is like a $1. So for every $100 that you are spending, you get $1 back.

Monty: For every $100, so it’s like 1% cash back?

President's Choice: I’m just saying that, it’s the idea of kind is like 1% cash back. So instead of cash banc in terms of points and you receive points.

Monty: So, basically I have to spend $100 which gives me 1000 points which gives me $1 rebate. That’s all I need to know. Are there any other benefits with the card?

President's Choice: There are optional extras, but those you have are included in the card, those you have to purchase. We do provide outside assistance with the cars and travel insurance.

Monty: What are the extras that I could get?

President's Choice: You can get road side assistance. That’s one of the things we offer. As well as account balance protection insurance which does cover you in case you do happen to lose your job or due to the disability or hospitalization, Canada Life does cover minimum monthly payment on the account. So that’s another thing that you can purchase on the card. So, these are the things that are extras but not included in the card that you have to purchase.