It’s been five months since the PC Optimum points reward card program launched to much fanfare. Dubbed as the coming together of two of Canada’s favourite loyalty programs, PC Plus and Shoppers Optimum, for the most part the merger has been successful. But it hasn’t been without its hiccups along the way.

When the program first launched, cardholders ran into issues downloading the app and accessing the website. Those were temporary though due to the high number of applicants and have since been resolved. A number of cardholders also ran into issues migrating their points from the old programs to the new program. Cardholders have reported everything from lost to stolen points.

Luckily, I haven’t experienced any of these issues myself. My transition over to the PC Optimum program has been a smooth one. I’m actually enjoying the new program even more than the old ones. Here are my thoughts from five months of being a member of the PC Optimum program.

Personalized Offers

My favourite part of the old PC Plus program was the personalized offers. I’d get offers just for me based on my shopping habits. It’s hard to beat that! But when I switched over to the PC Optimum program, the initial offers I got weren’t based on my shopping habits. This was a real headache! For the first couple months I was getting offers for T-bone steaks and pork chops even though I’m a vegetarian. It would have been nice if my personalized offers came with me as I’ve missed out on a lot of points over the last couple months. That being said, I’m finally getting offers based on my shopping habits and regularly earning points like before. I just wish it had of happened a lot sooner.

Hiding Offers

Another nice new feature is the ability to hide offers that aren’t relevant to you. If you’re not interested in an offer, you can click on the “don’t show again” button on the PC Optimum website and the offer won’t be displayed again. (No wonder yet on if you can undo this if you make an item disappear by mistake.)

As I mentioned, I kept getting offers for steaks even though I don’t eat meat. However, after using this feature, I’m finally seeing offers for items that are relevant to me. I’m sure the program would have figured this out on its own over time based on my shopping habits, but hopefully by using this feature it’s helped me receive relevant offers a lot sooner.

Saving Offers for the Next Week

Under the old PC Plus program, sometimes offers would be presented to me that I wasn’t ready to take advantage of. For example, I might get an offer for No Name Yogurt one week, but I already had a ton of yogurt at home approaching its expiry date. Or since I don’t have a car, my bundle buggy might already be too full to carry anything else, so I might miss out on an offer. This is no longer an issue with the PC Optimum program.

Don’t need the item yet? You can save it until next week. To help remind you about the offers you’ve saved, the items are greyed out on the PC Optimum website. That way you’re less likely to miss out on offers in previous weeks that you can’t take full advantage of.

Offers are Automatically Loaded

One of the best parts about the new PC Optimum program is that your offers are automatically loaded. You’ll get an email every Thursday when the new offers have been loaded as a reminder to check them out before heading shopping.

Under the old PC Plus program, this was a real pain in the neck. You used to have to login to the PC Plus website and load the offers yourself. While I remembered to do it for the most part, there were weeks where I was simply too busy and forgot to load the offers and missed out on the points when I went shopping.

Earning Points at Shoppers Drug Mart

Earning points at Shoppers Drug Mart has been a real plus. I’m not a regular customer there, but I do stop in on occasion to stock up on products for my medicine cabinet like cold medicine, bandages and sunscreen.

Previously, I didn’t bother to sign up for the Shoppers Optimum program since I didn’t feel it was worth the hassle. But as the saying goes, every little bit helps. Now I earn points on my purchases at Shoppers Drug Mart with my PC Optimum card, helping me reach 20,000 points to redeem for $20 a lot sooner.

Keeping Track of Points

In my first post, one of my loyal readers Cynthia, pointed out that when the PC Optimum program first launched, points weren’t being clearly displayed on store receipts. I noticed this as well.

On store receipts in the past, earned points were clearly indicated so that it was obvious that points matched the product purchased. However, when the PC Optimum program first launched, the points earned were indicated only on the bottom of the receipt in this manner which does not indicate which offers were awarded:

• 1 spent on 800 points
• 4 spent on 4000 points

This made it tough to track where you were actually awarded the points. There have been instances in the past where offered points were not awarded warranting a correction. Thankfully this has since been resolved.

Now the number of points earned are clearly indicated at the bottom of your receipt. Here are the points I earned on my last shopping trip to No Frills:

• No Name Ice Cream 800 points
• No Name Frozen Juice 400 points
• No Name Yogurt 400 points
• PC Granola Bars 800 points

Do You Like the PC Optimum Program?

So, those are my thoughts on the new PC Optimum program. What are your thoughts? Are you happy with the program improvements? Are you still running into issues? Please share your experience in the comments below.

Sean Cooper is the bestselling author of the book, Burn Your Mortgage: The Simple, Powerful Path to Financial Freedom for Canadians, available now on Amazon and at Chapters, Indigo and major bookstores, and as an Audiobook on Amazon, Audible and iTunes.