With gases as high as 1.52/L, any incentive to ‘save’ is a good incentive to go there. Superstore gas stations usually are cheaper than the surrounding gas stations. If you pay with regular credit cards, you get 3.5 cents per litre which you will be able to use on your grocery shopping later on at Superstore.

There are sometimes staff at the gas stations asking if you’d like to sign up for the PC Mastercard. I usually avoid those kind of things, but considering that I shopped often at Superstore for my groceries and only got gas there, it made sense to get their credit card which allows you to earn 7 cents per litre. 7 cents may not seem much, but it does add up. Typically, my gas comes to about $40 and I get $2.00 for my coupon. Just think that every time you get gas, you get a free loaf of bread, or a bag of chips.

The great thing is, the ‘coupon’ is printed with your receipt and is ready for use right away. It’s very convenient. They typically have a 3-month expiry date, but for me, I’ve always used it up within the first month. But I have seen customers hand over the cashier some coupons and they were all expired. You can not use the coupon value for your next gas bill.

More benefits with the PC Mastercard:

• Earn 10 PC points for every $1 spent, everywhere you shop
•  20,000 PC points means you can shop at PC stores for $20 in free groceries
• Save money with no annual membership fee – it’s FREE!! so why not?
•  New cardholders enjoy a low balance transfer rate of 0.97% for 6 months
•  Check out faster at the register with PayPass™; just tap your card and you’re done. No signature required on smaller purchases – this is something I’m not happy about…where’s the security in this?? Anyone who picks up the card can use it!
•  Accepted worldwide at more than 24 million locations in over 210 countries
•  Get a cash advance at a bank machine or MasterCard-issuing financial institution (subject to credit approval and provided you have the available credit)
• Fraud Detection Service may alert the holder of any sudden or unusual spending
•  MasterCard Global Service® can have a replacement for your lost or stolen card on its way to you within 2 business days and provide an emergency cash advance (provided you have the available credit)
•   Guaranteed hotel and motel reservations when booked with your card

Now they say that you’ll get a $20 coupon when you sign up. Too easy and good to be true right? Right…there is a catch. You don’t get the $20 right away. You get 4 coupons, each consisting of 5,000 points. Now you have to ‘hand-in’ this coupon the next time you shop. The tedious thing is that you can only hand-in one coupon at a time. Meaning you have to shop at least 4 times without forgetting or losing the damn coupons. Even after they are handed-in, they take many weeks for them to show up in your account. So for you to enjoy that free $20 – it’ll take some effort and several months.
If you can’t be bothered to do all that hassle, you can still enjoy the $ you get from getting their gas. You’ll eventually earn enough points on your own too if you shop a lot at Superstore, No Frills or Independence, meaning that just by simply shopping there and using their PC Mastercard, you’ll eventually earn 20,000 points which equals to $20 off your next shopping bill.

So on top of the $ you get from the gas, I typically will earn about $60/year from my collected points. I use my PC Mastercard only at Superstore, Independent and No Frills, and not for other things, so I think it’s a pretty good deal earning that much to redeem from shopping for a single person (though I do collect points sometimes when Sheepie does his grocery shopping). Best of all, it’s FREE.

Happy savings!!