Revamp of Petro-Points Program
I was looking at the Petro-Canada updated program and their site seems like it’s got a lot going on. So I will simplify and identify some of the key highlights to watch for.
Earn Petro-Points
They decided to go straightforward and simpler with their earning structure:
- Earn 10 points per litre on any fuel purchase
- Earn 10 points for every $1 spent on car washes and in-store purchases
Earn 20% More
The only chance you can earn more points (20% more) is when you link your Petro-Points card with their following partners:
- BCAA
- CAA
- Hudson’s Bay
- SPC
Redeem Petro-Points
Fixed Rewards Redemption
You can redeem your points for a straight points to dollar ratio. Every 1,000 points is worth $1. That $1 can be use on fuel, car wash and in-store purchases.
That essentially means that you are earning a 1% cash back. Same goes for gift cards, 10,000 points equals $10 worth of gift cards.
Fuel Savings Cards
As a result, the Fuel Savings Cards will continue. If you redeem your points on the Fuel Savings card, where you save 5¢ per litre on 200 litres, which is essentially $10 total, you need to redeem 10,000 points.
Car Wash
A car wash ticket is going to cost 10,000 points, so long that you value a car wash as $10. Otherwise, you are better off redeeming on fuel.
However, if you redeem a car wash pass, you can potentially get more value.
- 185,000 points = 90-day SuperWorks Season Pass or 90-day GlideWash Season Pass
The rule is that you can only use the pass once a day. So 90 days would have costs 900,000 points (90 x 10,000) if you redeemed it one at a time. So 185,000 points is a much better return than the 1% that you would redeem for fuel.
Conclusion
What is currently missing is a co-branded credit card, after it discontinued its partnership with CIBC.
I always felt that the old Petro-Points reward program was all over the place. There is no question that it is much simpler going forward. However, because of the simplicity, the only sweet spot that I see at the moment is the car wash season passes.
For now, I remain neutral about it. I like how the program is much simpler now. But I wish there were more sweet spots. So hopefully they will offer bonus points earning promotions to help rack up the points quicker. I also suspect that we may see some promotional discounts of certain rewards later on. These offers will tell me whether this was a good overall change.
Thanks for summarising the changes. I found their updates to be a bit confusing so your post helps.
From what I gather they de-valuated and/or removed earning potential. Hidden gem in the program was ability to get 20 points for most in-store purchases including gift cards. That amounted to 2% minimum return on ‘any’ gift card purchases at the value of 1000 per $1. Now everything is flat out 1% return
They cancelled the point redemption for ‘the works’ car-wash and increased redemption for ‘superworks’ to 10,000 points from 9000 🙁
GlideWash Season Pass is the best value for points only IF one religiously washes the car everyday for 90 days. Apart from being inconvenient, that’s disastrous to the environment. Not to mention everyday exposure to car wash chemicals may damage car paint but that’s a bit off topic for this blog.
Superworks Wash & Go card may be had for 50,000 petro points for 5 washes ($50 retail). Currently, they are running a promo for 1 extra car wash if wash & go card is registered online. That’s 8333 points per Superworks wash OR the value of $9.41/ 8333 points (1.23 cents per point). The best redemption in current scenario.
Not cool Petro-Canada…
A suggestion is to share the car wash pass!
I really hope that they offer some great promotions. That can make up for the devaluations.
hey Matthew,
They’ve recently said if we link our “More” rewards cards (Save-on-Foods), we will get 20% more points too. Similar to how linking HBC points work.
I don’t get how linking our cards work and how that increase our points. Could you explain it a bit more?
Scenario 1:
I link my HBC or More Reward points. I go to get 10 L of gas, my base points is 100 petro points. With the additional 20%, do i get 120 petro points?
If i got gas, do i get HBC/More Reward points as well?
Scenario 2:
When i buy things at HBC and Save-on-foods, do i get some petro points? How much do i get?
Great if you could explain that.
Thanks!
Based on what I can see, yes. Here’s their official wording for HBC: “Once you’ve linked your cards, you’ll automatically start collecting extra points with your purchases.”
http://retail.petro-canada.ca/en/petropoints/hudsons-bay-rewards.aspx
For More Rewards, it says: “Once you have linked your cards as a joint member, you will earn 1 More Rewards point per $1 spent on eligible purchases at participating Petro-Canada sites, as long as you are a member in good standing of both programs.”
http://retail.petro-canada.ca/en/petropoints/about-petro-points.aspx
If you already linked your card, it should already start showing up on your rewards statement! If not, I suggest giving Petro-Points a call to find out what’s going on.
thanks Matthew!
Also, grandfather plan of CIBC petro points mastercard, i believe it was 7.5 petro points for 1L regular gas.
if this hasn’t changed, does that mean i’ll actually get less points than if i just use my Petro points card, since it’s 10 points per litre now?
Or do I get 10points per liter from the petro points card PLUS 7.5 points per litre from my cibc mastercard?
That’s a good question. As a grandfathered member, did they give you any indication that the earning ratios have changed? Otherwise I suspect it remains the same.
i asked CIBC, and they said the new program does not affect how i earn points. But it’s not really clear what they mean by that. they probably don’t care at this point?
Sounds to me the earning ratios stay the same. And you’re probably right about them not caring anymore.
hey matthew,
got a letter a few weeks ago stating that the CIBC mastercard will be cancelled by May and everyone will get a dividend card.
2% cash back on groceries (max $6000 / year, then 1% thereafter)
0.5% on everything (and 1% after $6000/year)
however, funny thing is my dad got the same card, but his letter from CIBC states taht he will be have 4% cash back on his gas purchases too (not promotional rate)
i think i will have to rethink how i’m using my cards now. could you do a cashback credit card post in may?
i also have tangerine and they’re changing that too! gahh..the pain.
I should have one once a month!
My question is if they will still have the deals they used to have late summer where you could get the fuel savings card for a discounted amount of points (used to be discounted to 9000 points from 12000 for the 5 cent off card).
Hope so! Those were good!
As of March 2019 it’s buh-bye bonus points. The bonus points used to buy my car-wash cards. Why would I go to P-C to buy gas when Costco has it a LOT cheaper. No bonus points means no business, Petro-Canada. Buh-bye.
Furthermore, it’s now TWO fills to get 1000 points. What’s with that? Unless you drive for a living to and from work a long way, two fills by April 17 or whatever, since it’s March 26 now, is pretty shabby.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Peter!