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The rewards offered by programs like Petro-Points change frequently. This article lists the options in January 2014 and points out which ones earn you the most $$$ equivalent for your points. We had racked up quite a pile of Petro-Points so after Christmas I decided to figure out the best way to use them especially since the points we’ve earned in other programs have de-valued suddenly.

UPDATE: You may prefer to read the new review of the best use of Petro-Points for March 2016 by clicking on this sentence.

For the Impatient Reader: If you read (or scroll) far enough, you’ll discover I’ve summarized the value in $ per 1000 points for various options in a table.

One Very Popular Reward Selected by People Who Collect Petro-Points

You can probably guess that most people use their Petro-Points to reduce the cost of the gas they’re buying. They may or may not realize they have four choices when doing so.

They can use points to buy

a “Fuel Savings Rewards Card” which reduces the price paid per litre by 5 cents
a “Fuel Savings Rewards Plus Card” which reduces the price paid per litre by 5 cents, and which you can use to earn more savings at a rate of 5 cents per litre for each dollar spent on lottery products or alcoholic beverages at participating locations
a “Preferred Price Card” which reduces the price paid per litre by 10 cents
a “Petro-Canada Gift Card” which is basically cash you can apply against your purchase

These cards are only useful when filling up at a Petro-Canada gas station not at a competitor.

Why Would People Get a Petro-Canada “Save X Cents a Litre Card” worth $25 Instead of a $25 Gift Card?

At first glance, I couldn’t believe anyone would get a “Fuel Savings Rewards Card” or a “Preferred Price Card.” Why would I want to have to go the station several times to get all of my savings instead of just getting a gift card and saving all of the money immediately?

I could see why Petro-Canada would push the “cents per litre” cards, though. They want you to keep coming back. Especially since you might decide to also buy a pack of smokes or a car wash.

The answer, I discovered, is that often you save more money if you buy the “cents per litre” cards. You can save even more when they sell them at a discount which happens fairly often.

Today, January 10, 2014, here are the offers on the Petro-Points website:

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 or 0.91
Fuel Savings Reward Plus	11 000	5 cents per litre for 200L	$10	$0.91
Preferred Price Card	40 000 , 80 000 , 160 000	10 cents per litre for 250L	$25 , $50 , $100	$0.625, 0.625, 0.625
Petro-Canada Gift Card	40 000 , 80 000 , 160 000	$25 , $50 , $100	$25, $50, $100	$0.625, 0.625, 0.625

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

Another Very Popular Points Purchase: A Car Wash

Car Washes are another popular way drivers spend Petro-Points.

According to the online site, you can buy a SuperWorks Car Wash for 8 000 points. I’ll have to try to check the retail price for that wash the next time I fill up. I’m not even sure if the price is the same at all sites or not.

What’s the Best Value for Redeeming Petro-Points for Something Other than Petro-Canada Products

Unlike some rewards programs (Air Miles I’m looking at you!) the Petro-Points website is bursting with various offers to redeem your points. Here I’ll review them in the order I encounter them.

Using Petro-Points at Best Buy

You can redeem Petro-Points for Best Buy cards in two ways. One offers a much better deal than the other.

The best buy is Best Buy e-Gift Cards.

They can be used online or in store. You must redeem points for these e-Gift cards online. The “card” is emailed to you where you can print it off to take to the store (or just copy the information to use it online.) There is no real “card.”

You can get Best Buy e-Gift cards in denominations of $10, 25, 50, 100, 250, and 500.
All of the e-Gift cards yield the same value of $0.83 per 1000 Petro-Points.

The worst choice for Best Buy is the Best Buy gift card. Its dollars of value per 1000 points is only $0.50.

Using Petro-Points for CAA Membership and CAA Dollars Gives the Highest Dollar Value Per 1000 Points

You can redeem 60 000 Petro-Points to get a CAA Basic membership. In southern Ontario, a basic CAA membership costs $69. The dollar value per 1000 points is therefore 1.15. That’s the highest value offered on the site at the time this was written in January 2014.

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 January 2014.

By registering your CAA membership number online on the Petro-Points site, you also earn 20% more points on every purchase you make a Petro-Canada if you swipe your Petro-Points card or use a Petro-Points linked credit card.

Other Ways to Spend Your Petro-Points

Digital Media

You can use points to buy music, movies, TV shows, eBooks and Audiobooks, but only from a list offered on the Petro-Points website.

Examples of movies include

Superman, Man of Steel
the Hobbit, Part 1
the Hangover, Part 3
Pacific Rim

Examples of songs include

Roar
Wrecking Ball
What Do U Want
The Monster
Demons
Counting Stars

Individual songs cost 1 815 points

Music albums seem to vary considerably. Prices include 4 200; 8 385; 15 405; 16 800; 18 201; 19 605; 21 000; etc. Johnny Reid’s A Christmas Gift to You album is 16 800 Petro-Points.

TV Shows include the usual suspects. A few examples are:

Walking Dead
Homeland
Modern Family
Glee

The prices vary again. The Complete 4th season of Walking Dead is 42 060 points. The Complete 3rd Season of Glee is 50 985 points.

The eBooks I looked at were published in Adobe Epub format which is compatible with Windows, Mac and most mobile devices.

Examples of eBooks include

The Bone Season
The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger
The Things They Carried
William Shakespeare’s Star Wars

The prices vary. Star Wars is 19 065 points. The Box is 24 165 points.

I find it humorous that the permissions state: “reading aloud not allowed.” Does it count if just your lips move?

They also have Audiobooks which presumably you can read aloud. The ones I checked were in OverDriver MP3 format, compatible with iTunes, Android and Windows Media Player.

Examples include

The Road
Steve Jobs
Catching Fire
Executive Power
The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge

The prices vary. The Great Bridge is 63 735 points. Catching Fire is 35 655 points.

Itravel2000.com Rewards

You can earn Petro-Points if you book a trip on itravel2000.com. You would earn 10 points for every $1 you spend on travel. You could double the points if you book the trip using the CIBC Petro-Points MasterCard.

You can also use Petro-Points to pay for travel.

10 000 points pays for $10 at iTravel2000.com. That’s a dollar value per 1000 points of $1.

That ties it for second best value with the CAA dollar offer. Read all of the terms and conditions closely though! They aren’t simple and they might not be acceptable.

Gift Cards

As you can see in the following examples, all of the gift cards are sold at a dollar value per 1000 points of $0.50. This makes them the worst choice from a dollar value viewpoint.

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

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

iTunes
Subway

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

XBox
Sony
Sir Corp Restaurants

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

iTunes
Cineplex
Chapters Indigo
XBox
Future Shop
Best Buy
Empire Theatres
Cinemas Guzzo
HMV
Sony
Home Depot
Hudson’s Bay
RONA
Sears
La Senza
Mark’s Work Wearhouse
Toys R Us
Shoppers Drug Mart
Bass Pro Shops
Forzani SportChek
the Keg Steakhouse & Bar
Cara Foods
Boston Pizza
Red Lobster
East Side Mario’s
Earl’s
Subway
A&W
White Spot
Pizza Pizza
Brewsters
St. Hubert

For 80 000 points you can get a $40 gift card for

XBox

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

Bass Pro Shops
Golf Town
Forzani SportChek
Home Depot
Hudson’s Bay
RONA
Sears
La Senza
Mark’s Work Wearhouse
Shoppers Drug Mart
iTunes
Cineplex
Chapters Indigo
Future Shop
Best Buy
Cinemas Guzzo
Sony
the Keg Steakhouse & Bar
Cara Foods
Boston Pizza
Sir Corp Restaurants
East Side Mario’s
Earl’s
Moxies
White Spot
Brewsters
St. Hubert

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

Future Shop
Best Buy
Home Depot
Sears
the Keg Steakhouse & Bar

What Is the Best Way to Use My Petro-Points to Maximize Their Dollar Value?

As promised, here’s a summary table of your choices, as of January 2014, for redeeming Petro-Points. Your mileage may vary. (That’s a little “Retail” quip for you non-pump-jockeys out there.)

Reward	$ value per 1000 points, in $
CAA Basic Membership	1.15
CAA Dollars	1.00
itravel2000.com Dollars (read terms and details carefully!)	1.00
Fuel Savings Reward Card redeemed online	0.91
Fuel Savings Reward Plus Card redeemed online	0.91
Fuel Savings Reward Card at the station	0.83
Fuel Savings Reward Plus Card at the station	0.83
Best Buy eGift Cards	0.83
Single SuperWorks Car Wash Pass (Costs 8000 points)	???
Preferred Price Card (save 10 cents per litre)	0.625
Petro-Canada Gift Card	0.625
Gift Cards for a Wide Variety of Stores, Services and Restaurants	0.50
Digital Media (Varies by selection and by what “regular retail price” you use per selection)	???

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.

Equifax has a general procedure for updating and fixing errors in its credit report files. They would prefer you to order a free copy of your credit report first. With the report, they will send you a blank “Equifax Consumer Credit Report Update Form.” Here’s what you should do and what you’ll need to correct a mistake in your Equifax credit report.

Why Should I Get My Equifax Credit Report First?

Obviously if there is something urgently wrong with your credit file, you may need to contact Equifax by telephone to start making corrections.

For routine problems, however, there are some advantages to following their preferred method:

By ordering your free report you will be able to review all of the information on your file. You may find several other minor errors that are contributing to the problem. For example, you might find they have a middle name listed which is not yours or a credit card that does not belong to you but to someone with a similar name.
The Update Form they mail to you will have your Equifax Unique Number pre-typed on the form. That number will help ensure they don’t make matters worse by confusing your request for updates with someone else’s.

Equifax has to deal with a significant number of errors every day. By following their preferred routine your file is more likely to get handled properly and promptly.

What Does Equifax Request on the Consumer Credit Report Update Form?

As you might expect, the form asks for information to help properly identify you. This includes your

last and first name, initial, and suffix if applicable such as Senior, Junior etc
current and previous address including postal codes
date of birth
social insurance number (this is optional)
current employment

There are then two additional parts to the form.

Public Record Information
Two identical lines are provided in this section. Each allows you to identify:

Courthouse Name or Agency
Case Number or Account or Plaintiff
Reason for Investigation
- Not Mine
- Satisfied
- Dismissed
- Discharged
- Released
- Other (Please explain)

Credit Account Information
Two identical lines are provided in this section. Each allows you to identify:

Company Name
Account Number
Reason for Investigation
- Not Mine
- Paid in full
- Account Closed
- Transferred/Refinanced
- Current/Previous Rating Incorrect
- Other (Please explain)

What Else Do You Need to Provide?

You must sign the form and provide a daytime telephone number where you can be reached to discuss your request.

You should include photocopies of

all necessary documents
your id (two pieces of valid id which include your current address)

To update your personal credit report.

Examples include

receipts
legal documents

What Will Happen Next?

Equifax will verify the necessary information and will mail you a confirmation.

Any new information you provide including personal id information such as your driver’s license and passport number will be used to update Equifax’ records. It may also be given to Equifax customers as part of your credit report.

What Else Can You Request from Equifax?

You can ask Equifax to send a revised copy of your credit file to any creditors who have recently accessed your file. To do this, you must provide Equifax with

A contact name at the creditor’s organization
a fax number; and
a telephone number

So if, for example, you were refused a new loan because of an error in your Equifax report, after supplying the information to correct the error, you can ask Equifax to fax a copy of the revised report to the loan officer at your bank.

What Are Some Common Mistakes in Credit Files?

Personally, my credit file is so simple I haven’t had to correct any errors. However, having read many posts on online chat boards, I’ve noticed some common errors. These include

If two people have very similar names, some credit information for one person may end up on the file for the other person.
If someone is jointly responsible for paying a bill but moves and the other person defaults, they may end up with an unexpected collection agency claim against their credit file. A typical example is a group of people share an apartment with cable or satellite TV. One person moves out. The other people do not return the rented modem, PVR, or signal-descrambling box. The telecomm sends the file to a collection agency which reports a claim against the credit file for everyone who rented the apartment.
Someone immigrates to Canada and chooses a “Canadian” first name and uses it on some applications for credit cards etc. Someone else already has that name and ends up with entries related to this new person on their credit file. (For very simple, very common names, it may be necessary to work with Equifax to come up with a solution such as requiring a SIN number be supplied with each update to the report etc.)
A debt is fully repaid but the file is not updated.