What Reward Gives Me the Most Value When I Redeem My Petro-Canada Petro-Points?

Posted on 2016 03 08 by BetCrooks

It’s been a couple of years since I last redeemed a huge chunk of Petro-Points and our balance has grown again. So when a reader recently asked for an updated review of the best reward choices to maximize the value of the points, it encouraged me to go review the Petro-Points rewards and figure out the best way to redeem our points for the most value.

These rewards do change from time to time so you should do a quick check yourself before making a decision. For example, they used to offer redemptions for Digital Media including music, movies, TV shows, eBooks and Audiobooks but that will be discontinued on April 1, 2016. The information in this article was collected on March 8 2016.

UPDATE January 9 2017: There is no longer a Best Buy e-Gift Card offered. There is now a HBC e-Gift Card offered.

There’s also a new rewards for the Student Price Card.

Want a quicker summary? Scroll down looking for a table of the value in $ of 1000 points for the various choices you can make.

The Extremely Popular Fuel Savings Rewards Card Choice for Petro-Points Collectors

One of the most popular uses for Petro-Points is to buy a Fuel Savings Reward Card and reload it from time to time to save money off each litre of gas pumped.

But the Fuel Savings Rewards Card isn’t the only choice. You can use points to buy

a “Fuel Savings Rewards Card” to decrease the price paid per litre by 5 cents or a different one that drops the price paid per litre by 10 cents a litre, or
a “Petro-Canada Gift Card” which is basically cash you can apply against your purchase regardless of how many litres you buy

Obviously you can only use these cards at a Petro-Canada station not at a competitor’s.

Why Buy the Fuel Savings Rewards Card Instead of a Petro-Canada Gift Card?

It seems a bit stupid to only get $0.10 off a litre if you could just get a gift card and pay for your entire purchase to immediately get the value from your points.

The reason is that you get more $$$ for your points if you redeem them for the “cents per litre” cards. That’s because Petro-Canada wants you to keep coming back to the station. They’re hoping if you do, you might also get the car washed or buy a Mars bar for your child.

So Petro-Canada gives you a more $$ per point if you redeem your points for a Fuel Savings Rewards Card than if you redeem them for a gift card. They even have “specials” fairly often where you can get the Rewards card for fewer points, increasing the $$ value of your points even more. Keep an eye out for big cardboard signs near the gas pumps for those kinds of specials.

On March 8, 2016 the offers on the Petro-Points website were:

Card	Number of Points	Saving	Value	Dollars of value per 1000 points
Fuel Savings Reward	12 000 to buy a card in store, 11 000 to reload a card online	5 cents per litre for 200 L	$10	$0.83 and for $0.91 reload
Fuel Savings Reward 10 cents	22 000	10 cents per litre for 200L	$20	$0.91 for reload
Petro-Canada Gift Card	45 000	$25	$25	$0.056

You can see that today the Fuel Savings Reward cards offer the best value per point. Those values are often even higher due to various promotions.

The Also Very Popular Superworks Car Wash Points Purchase

Lots of drivers save their Petro-Points for car washes. It’s an easy way to pay to make the Lamborghini shine.

The website says, on March 8 2016, that a SuperWorks Car Wash costs 9 000 points. I don’t know the regular price for that car wash, so I can’t tell you the $ per point for that choice. Sorry!

What Else Can I Get That’s Not a Petro-Canada Product with Petro-Points?

You don’t just have to buy gas or get your car cleaned to use your Petro-Points. Here are some other offers.

The Newest Offer: Using Petro-Points to Get The Student Price Card

Obviously, this offer is only useful if you are a student. You can only use this card for discounts if you also have a Student ID card from one of the places listed on the SPC website.

For those who are the right kind of students, though, the offer is:

redeem 12 000 Petro-Points for a SPC card. The regular cost of the card is $10 (plus $2 for shipping). So the dollar value per 1000 points is $0.83 which is respectable but not epic.

The Best Way to Get Best Buy Savings Using Petro-Points

There were ~~are~~ two ways to change Petro-Points into savings at Best Buy and one of them was is a much better deal than the other.

UPDATE January 2017: Best Buy e-Gift cards are not offered any more.

~~The best buy for using your points at Best Buy is to buy Best Buy e-Gift Cards. (Yes, that is a deliberate tongue-twister!)~~

The e-Gift cards for Best Buy can be used at the online Best Buy website or at the store near you. You can only get this type of e-Gift card online. You can’t drive up to your local Petro-Can station to buy one. The “card” is just an email that they send to you and you print it off to take to the store (or just copy the information to use it online.) There is no real plastic or paper “card.” (That, by the way, makes it a bit less desirable to many people if they plan to give the e-Card to someone else as a gift.)

~~They sell the Best Buy e-Gift cards in sizes of $10, 25, 50, 100, 250, and 500.~~

Each Best Buy e-Gift card has the same value of $0.67 per 1000 Petro-Points. So buying these e-Gift cards gets you less than $1 in value for every 1000 Petro-Points. It’s also less value than a reload of your Petro-Canada Fuel Savings Rewards Card.

Your worse choice for Best Buy would be to get a regular plastic Best Buy gift card by redeeming your points at the gas station. That way, the value of the the card per 1000 points is only $0.50.

What Gives You The Most Dollar Value Per 1000 Petro-Points? CAA Membership and CAA Dollars

To get a CAA Basic Membership in Ontario, you can redeem 60 000 Petro-Points. In southern Ontario, a basic CAA membership costs $70. The dollar value per 1000 points is therefore 1.17. That’s the highest value offered on the site at the time this was written in March 2016. (There may be times when the Fuels Savings Rewards card comes with a special offer making it tie with this.)

You can also exchange 1 000 Petro Points for one CAA dollar. That means the dollar value per 1000 points is 1 dollar. That’s the second highest value offered on the site at the time this was written in March 2016.

If you register your CAA membership number online on the Petro-Canada Petro-Points site, you will also earn 20% more points on every purchase you make at Petro-Canada if you swipe your Petro-Points card or use a Petro-Points linked credit card. That’s actually a pretty hefty increase in points.

Another Way to Make 1000 Petro-Points Equal One Dollar

Itravel2000.com Rewards

You can redeem your Petro-Points for a discount on your itravel2000.com purchase.

10 000 points pays for $10 to be spent at iTravel2000.com. That’s a dollar value per 1000 points of $1.00.

That’s the same cost as the CAA dollars offer. HOWEVER: Read all of the terms and conditions and ask any questions before redeeming your points. The conditions are not simple and they might not work for you. The CAA dollars can be spent on a lot more things, more easily.

The Less Good Ways to Redeem Your Petro-Points

Gift Cards

On March 8, 2016 when I checked the Petro-Points website, all of the gift cards were being sold at a dollar value per 1000 points of $0.50. That’s a very low value. You should try to get more $$ for your points than that.

These gift cards are bought using your points at a Petro-Canada gas station, so not all cards may be available.

For 20 000 points you can get a $10 card for

League of Legends

For 30 000 points you can get a $15 card for

iTunes
Google Play
Xbox
Starbucks

For 40 000 points you can get a $18 card for

Sony

For 40 000 points you can get a $20 card for

Sony (hey that’s what the website says: but I’m willing to bet you can only get the $18 card anymore and they are sold out of the $20 ones….)

For 50 000 points you can get a $25 card for

iTunes
Cineplex
Chapters Indigo
Best Buy
Cinemas Guzzo
EB Games
Google Play
League of Legends
XBox
Home Depot
Hudson’s Bay
Sears
La Senza
Toys R Us
Shoppers Drug Mart
Gap
Homesense
Old Navy
Pharmaprix
Winners
the Keg Steakhouse & Bar
Cara Foods
Sir Corp. Restaurants
Earl’s
Pizza Pizza
Brewsters
St. Hubert
Pizza Hotline
Smitty’s
Starbucks
Cabela’s
SportChek

For 100 000 points you can get a $50 gift card for

iTunes
Cineplex
Chapters Indigo
Best Buy
Cinemas Guzzo
Sony
EB Games
Google Play
League of Legends
XBox
Home Depot
Hudson’s Bay
Sears
La Senza
Shoppers Drug Mart
Gap
Homesense
Old Navy
Pharmaprix
Winners
the Keg Steakhouse & Bar
Cara Foods
Sir Corp. Restaurants
Earl’s
Brewsters
St. Hubert
Starbucks
Cabela’s
Golf Town
SportChek

For 200 000 points you can get a $100 gift card for

Best Buy
Home Depot
Sears
the Keg Steakhouse & Bar
Earl’s
Cabela’s

How Can I Use My Petro-Points for Rewards to Maximize Their Dollar Value?

Here’s the handy summary table of rewards, as at March 8 2016 for redeeming Petro-Points. Your mileage may vary. (That’s a little “Retail” joke for you non-oil-patchers.)

Reward	$ value per 1000 points, in $
CAA Basic Membership, Ontario only	1.17
CAA Dollars, Ontario and BC and check about other provinces by calling your CAA	1.00
itravel2000.com Dollars (read terms and details carefully!)	1.00
Fuel Savings Reward Card redeemed online (may be better if there’s a deal on offer)	0.91
Fuel Savings Reward 10 Cent Card redeemed online (may be better if there’s a deal on offer)	0.91
Fuel Savings Reward Card at the station (may be better if there’s a deal on offer)	0.83
SPC Card (only available to the right kind of students)	0.83
Best Buy eGift Cards	0.67
Single SuperWorks Car Wash Pass (Costs 9000 points)	???
Petro-Canada Gift Card	0.56
Gift Cards for Stores, Services and Restaurants	0.50

Related Reading

Join In
Do you buy gas at Petro-Canada and collect Petro-Points? Or are you still furious with Trudeau, er, Pierre Elliott Trudeau? Have you redeemed any Petro-Points and if so, for what? Please share your views with a comment.

How Do I Group InvestorLine Accounts Under a User ID and Whose Accounts Can I Group?

Posted on 2014 02 20 by BetCrooks

I’ve been on a mission over the last three years to re-organize our finances. This included opening some online brokerage accounts and moving funds in from all the various banks, trust companies and government offices where they’d been mouldering. I am by no means an expert on brokerages and I am still learning new things each day as I work. Recently, I learned, somewhat to my surprise, that it is possible to group BMO InvestorLine accounts under one User ID even if they don’t all belong to one person.

Why Do You Want to Group InvestorLine Accounts Under a User ID?

For the reasons why grouping accounts is a good idea, please see Why You Should Group Your BMO InvestorLine Accounts Under a Single User ID.

The key point:

If you can group accounts with $250 000 or more, you will get a different type of trading quote and you will get “exclusive access to a dedicated service team.”

Which Accounts Can I Group Under a BMO InvestorLine User ID to Qualify for the 5 Star Trader Program and Level II quotes?

If you’re like me, you can group your

RRSP
LIRA
TFSA
RESP
spousal RRSP
unregistered regular trading account

and still not get close to $250 000 in assets.

That left me wondering, is it possible to add accounts belonging to anyone else to my User ID?

Will I Be Able to See the Portfolio Details for Each Account I Group?

While I was wondering whether I could group other people’s accounts under my User ID, I also started wondering whether doing so would let me see

their total investments,
their portfolios and
their transaction history.

After all, I can see all of those things for my own accounts which are grouped under one User ID.

I knew it would NOT allow me to trade on their accounts. You need a trading password to execute a trade at BMO InvestorLine and it is different from your sign in password.

So now I have three questions to resolve:

Can I add another person’s accounts to my InvestorLine User ID?
Do they need to sign a form authorizing my access to their account information?
Who would let me see everything in their account, every asset they hold and what they’ve been doing?

I can think of one very kind man who might let me peek into his portfolio. Admittedly if I do, he will lean over my shoulder and gloat at how much better his returns are than mine, but still, no pain no gain, right?

Now to check InvestorLine’s rules.
Well at
https://www.bmoinvestorline.com/home/popups/user-id they say you can consolidate accounts under one User ID if you own them or “manage accounts for others.”
And at
http://www.bmoinvestorline.com/home/popups/5-star-program-terms-conditions
It says that the accounts cannot be “Investment Club” or “Partnership” accounts.

Whose Accounts Can be Grouped Under One InvestorLine User ID?

I wrote InvestorLine to ask this question using their secure email MyLink.

Their response was:
I can add anyone’s accounts to my User ID if I know the account numbers and the account sign in passwords.

Wow. That’s almost scary.

So I can add

my husband’s account/s
my parents’ account/s
my aunts’, uncles’, nieces’, nephews’, sister’s, brothers’, cousins’ and grandchildrens’ account/s
my friends’ account/s

If they change their sign in password, then I will also have to update their sign in password under my User ID or their account will be removed from the User ID.

Will I Be Able to See the Portfolio and Holdings for Any Accounts I Link to my InvestorLine User ID?

Once I linked someone else’s account to my User ID, I signed in using my User ID to see what I could see.

I could look at:

their account balance
their holdings
their transaction history

Eeps! You’d better make this part very clear to any friends or relatives BEFORE you ask them to link their account to your User ID.

Note: I can’t trade on their account because I don’t have their trading password.

Also note: They cannot see MY account information unless I add my account to their User ID. This might be handy if you want to add your children or parents to your User ID but you are not willing to reciprocate by opening your finances for review and discussion.

Do I Need Written Permission from Another Person Before I Can Add Their Account to my InvestorLine User ID?

According to the MyLink InvestorLine representative “There is no form required to be completed for this purpose.”

That also is a wee bit disturbing. I guess it’s a good reminder to keep your sign in password secure from prying eyes!

Before You Start to Create your InvestorLine User ID

You may wish to think ahead about

What 8-20 letters and numbers you want to use for your User ID. You may not use special characters such as &.
What unique challenge question that you type yourself that you would like to use to help confirm your identity. It has a maximum length of 60 characters.

To create a BMO InvestorLine User ID to Group Accounts

Sign in to one of your InvestorLine accounts.
From the Account Services tab, under the heading Account Profile, click on Create User ID.

On the screen: Step 1 of 3: Choose a User ID and Password

In the User ID: field, type the alphanumeric id you want to use to sign on to your group of accounts.
In the Password: field, type a password to use when signing in to your accounts. This can be different from the Password used to sign in to a single account.
In the Confirm Password: field, type the password again.
From the drop-down list in the Challenge Question 1: field, select a security question.
In the Response 1: field, type the answer.
From the drop-down list in the Challenge Question 2: field, select a security question.
In the Response 2: field, type the answer.
In the Challenge Question 3: field, type your own security question.
In the Response 3: field, type the answer.
Click on the Continue button.

OK, I made every possible error!

Your User ID must start with a letter.
Your responses must be at least 6 characters in length.

Now it accepts them. Phew.

On the Step 2 or 3: Link Accounts to Your User ID screen

In the Account Number field, your current account number is listed. To add this account to the User ID you must input the existing password for that account (not the new password for the User ID).
In the Account Password column, type the password for signing into the numbered account.
If desired, in the Account Nickname (optional) column, type a nickname for that specific account.
If desired, on the next line, type the values in the columns
- Account Number
- Account Password, and
- Account Nickname (optional)
for your other InvestorLine accounts.
Click on the Add More Accounts button if you have more than 5 accounts to link up.
Once complete, click on the Continue button.

On the Step 3 of 3: Provide Contact Information for your User ID screen

Review the information in the Email Address: field and make sure it is correct.
If that is the address at which you wish to receive your InvestorLine email, type it again in the Confirm Email Address: field.
In the How you would like to be greeted when we correspond with you: field, type your favourite. For example, you could try
Supreme Grand Emperor Smith
I’m not sure if that will work or not. Guess I’ll have to update my profile and see!
Rats. You can’t use that particular title as there is a character length limit of 20.
Click on the Continue button.

On the Register your User ID for an opportunity to enjoy our 5 Star program and $9.95 Flat fee commissions – Optional screen

If you wish, click to select the radio button beside Yes to have the User ID evaluated for the 5 star program.
Click on the Continue button.
If you select Yes, look at the linked accounts summary to ensure it is correct.
Click on the Continue button.

To check if all of the accounts for the User ID are set up to be evaluated for the 5 Star Program

Click on the $9.95 Pricing & 5 Star Program tab.
Under the Receive Program Benefits tab, the account should be listed as Yes. If not, click on the Edit button to update the setting.

When Will I Start to Receive the 5 Star Program Benefits?

If the combined holdings in all of the accounts under the User ID add up to at least $250 000, the accounts will become eligible for the 5 Star Program benefits. User IDs are evaluated 4 times a year, at the end of

March,
June,
September and
December.

The benefits should be available the day after the evaluation date.

So I guess I won’t know till April Fool’s Day if this worked. How appropriate!