Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Yup, glad to see that Quebec politics continues to be the most entertaining Theatersport in Canada. I am impressed that mes freres et soeurs Quebecois have caused the rest of Canada to go, “Why did they do that?”, again. Never try to understand Quebec politics, unless you want to end up in a rubber room, in a jacket that allows easy access to your kidneys! Bravo mes amis!

On the personal finance side of things, here is a good case study for you. For many years I have been a member of Aeroplan, Air Canada’s points per mile frequent flyer system (I am not endorsing this product, per say, I simply am giving you information). I have been doing a lot of driving lately, and figured I was going to have to rent a car to get to my daughter’s provincial championships (so I could leave my wife our van, since she has to drive my other kids around). I was lamenting how much it was going to cost, when a smart friend asked, “Don’t you have points somewhere?”. I thought and didn’t really take in what I was told, and kind of blew this friend off.

I went home that night and checked on the Aeroplan web site, and sure enough, yes I can use my miles to rent a car for the weekend. Now at the end of it, it costs me about the price of a round trip ticket from Ottawa to Toronto to do it (in points), however, given Aeroplan’s new “use them or lose them policy” of aging points (they last 2 years now?), using these points is a good thing, and all I have to pay for now is the gasoline for the weekend (and I am renting a Yaris, so that shouldn’t be as much as if I’d used my van).

Using points systems is a good thing, but remember that it is only an asset when you USE the points. –C8j

No not another sports analogy, but not a bad segue either. My major “customer appreciation” systems that I subscribe to are PC Financial’s points, Petro-Canada Petro Points, Canadian Tire Money and Aeroplan .

The main point accumulation system for me is PC Financial for buying groceries. We have accumulated a significant number of points over the season, and are now eyeing some of the higher priced home electronics devices that Loblaws has put so close to the check out counters (that is evil, by the way, I didn’t have enough will power not to buy a chocolate bar when I was 12, how can I keep from buying an HDTV now?). So what happens is PC Financial is paying me to bank with them, how much is your bank charging you for your banking? Think about that.

Petro Points we don’t use as much, but the nice part about it, is those points can be transferred into the PC Financial point system, so you can almost double your points on one tank of gas if you want.

The Canadian Tire Money, I already talked about in this posting, but I have accumulated over $100 in the past year from there as well, which has helped pay for a myriad of odd things like propane tanks, bike water bottles, and a rake (hey that’s not bad, just to pump their gas).

Finally we have Aeroplan. Now I have collected a ton of points on this system over the 15 years or so that I have been in the program. I do not collect much now, since I don’t travel as much these days, but they have also brought in new restrictions about how long you can keep your miles, and when your account gets marked inactive, so watch out for that folks.

I enjoy this kind of “customer loyalty” systems, especially when it puts money back in my pockets! What points are you collecting?

Our Moosey friend over at Free Money Finance had a good posting about the top 6 store givebacks. Made me wonder how much I have made using my PC Financial Card (remember a while back I posted What is In It For Me about using it).

To quote Frank Barrone, “Holy Crap!”, I have been using the card for 9 months, and I have earned over 639,000 points and every thousand points is $1 of groceries at Loblaws or of it’s affiliated stores. Wow! Now I got a cheap bump of about 100,000 points for transferring my Petro-Points over there, but still, that is the most I have ever got back from a Credit Card in a year.

It really does work, if you are skeptical, I guess is what I am saying today. A good way to reduce debt, is to get more money, and you can get more money, by using a Credit Card that pays you for using it!

Remember to also read the Carnival of Debt Reduction here as well!

Holy Crap! –C8j