Credit Cards are not always a bad thing

I know a lot of people say it is not good to have a credit card but I disagree. This is just my opinion and I would like to share it with you. I have learned to use my credit card to benefit myself and my family. Nowadays you need a credit card to pretty much do anything online or make reservations. A lot of credit cards offer rewards for using them. Once you learn to wisely use your credit card, one can greatly benefit from there.

A few cards I love are Canadian Tire Mastercard, President Choice Financial Mastercard and Shopper's Drugmart. We only have a Canadian Tire Mastercard at the moment and we earn a lot of rewards for using it especially when getting gas from any Canadian Tire gas stations. We need gas to get to work. What I do is pay the credit card at the beginning of the month for what we would average on gas. If we use the credit card for other things I go to online banking and pay right away. 

I will give you some information on each of these three credit cards today to show you each of their benefits. I will not be getting into the interest and transfer fees etc, just the benefit of using the cards.
 

Canadian Tire Credit Card -With the Canadian Tire Mastercard you have 3 choices, you can choose the options, a cash advantage or a gas card.

We have the Options card and with this card we use it everywhere especially at the Canadian Tire Gas bar. With this card you earn Canadian Tire money on the card and can then redeem in store. Each and every time you use your card in a Canadian Tire, Mark's or Canadian Tire gas bar you earn Canadian Tire money. I have searched a few different spots and can't seem to pull up the point scale.

At the gas bar they have a scale that goes by the Litres you get and then each week there is a multiplier, usually 6-8X. We try to fill up on the 10X and this is where you will see the big earnings sometimes as much as $3 or $4. I have also noticed that we earn when we use our card to make other purchases else where. We had our jeep fixed and earn almost $30! Yes that is not much compared to the price we paid but it was something back, right?

This card also has member perks, when looking at the Canadian Tire flyer you may have noticed a sale on something but when looking closer it is for the Options Mastercard holders. We have bought numerous stuff at Canadian Tire free of charge thanks to this card.

The Gas card helps you save up to 10cents off a litre of gas, from what I see it looks like an average of 2cents off. Either way it is still money in your pocket when gas is not at all cheap anymore.

The Cash advantage is a cash back card that will help pay down your credit card at the end of each year or give you a credit. A card holder can earn 1.5% back on all eligible purchases everywhere and up to 3% back at Canadian Tire, CT gas bar and Mark's.

President's Choice Financial Mastercard - With the President's Choice Mastercard you can earn PC Points to redeem in store for money off your grocery bill. You can also now redeem points for Gift Cards to President's Choice stores. For every dollar spent with the credit card one earns 10 PC points. To redeem you need 20,000 for $20 off. The only catch I find is you can only redeem $20 or more. Nothing less.

If you would like to see how much you would earn over 6 months check out the website and to the right there is a tool to help. If you spent a $1000 a month on your card you would earn $60. 

Shoppers Optimum Mastercard - With this card you earn rewards called Shoppers Optimum Points. Shoppers has a store card that isn't a credit card. I would suggest signing up for this one. It is free. Once you have that card and the credit card you will earn more Shoppers point. The store card earns you 10 points for every $1 you spend. The credit card earns you 5 points for every $1 spent.

Now if you have both of these cards you will earn 25 points for every $1 spent! Shoppers also has Bonus points on certain items every week and also on certain days if you spend X amount. This greatly adds up when you are shopping there anyways.

The reward levels are as follows:

8,000 points = $10
22,000 points = $30
38,000 points = $60
50,000 points = $85
95,000 points = $170

There are also days when you can spend you points and actually receive double the money off. If you spend 22,000 points on that day you would get $60 off your purchase. Those are the days if you know there are bigger ticket items or lots you need. Always watch their flyers for the bonus sales and you will see your points grow so fast.

Other ways to earn - use your card to pay bills, buy gas, or even buy your groceries. Then just make use you go home and pay you bill right away. Earn points with no interest! Visit the Shoppers Optimum Mastercard site and use the interactive tool to see how many points you will earn for the money you spend.

If you want to stay up to date on the Optimum program and Bonus days join the Shoppers Drug Mart Facebook page. On an iPhone? There is an app for Shoppers Drug Mart where you can see the coupons, deals, order your medications or check your points balance.

I really feel it all depends on how and where you spend your money but I do feel it can be a good to have a credit card that does more than just pay your bills or reserve hotel rooms. Every little bonus counts even if it is a week of groceries paid for every 6 months or so.

I hope this helped give you an glace at some options to earn money when you are shopping at the store already. If you have any questions please leave a comment below, email me at jennifer@canadiancouponmom.ca or hop over to Facebook or Twitter and start a conversation. I would love to hear from you.

 

~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Canadian Coupon Mom. This post is not endorsed by any of the stores mentioned. I was chosen as a Mom Central Canada grant recipient for the summer blogger program through Mom Central Canada. All opinions are honest and my own*~

Posted in: Budgeting