Esso Visa (not the best choice), RBC, HBC, and MATHEMATICS!

Well let me tell everyone that has an RBC Esso Visa Card that they are not getting the most bang for their buck POINTS WISE, now I did not look into the interest rates on the cards to compare to other visa cards, but im sure most are fairly close unless you have a LOW interest one.

The low down....

Esso Visa Card gives you 2 ESSO EXTRA points per dollar at esso, and 1 ESSO EXTRA points every where else per dollar. Let me stress that these are esso extra points you gain with this visa, and not RBC rewards points.


Most other RBC visa's give you 1 RBC rewards points per dollar spent, or 1 point for every two dollars.

I have a Visa Classic II card which gives me one point per dollar, and Im going to base my math on this point system, 1 dollar = 1 RBC rewards point


THE MATH

RBC rewards points can be converted into ESSO EXTRA POINTS (all you need is a free esso extra card you get at esso)

the conversion rate is 1800 RBC points = 3000 ESSO POINTS

Basically, spending 1800 dollars on regular stuff with a visa classic II would take you 3000 dollars spent to get the same points with an Esso Visa...

thats a HUGE difference. NOW, I REALIZE that at the gas station you get 2 points per dollar, but lets be honest... we would probably use our credit card MUCH more on other things than Gas.

So unless you get A LOT of gas , its really not worth getting the card...



more math:

so basically, for 1 RBC rewards point, it is worth 1.666 esso points.

6000 RBC rewards points gets you a 50 dollar gift card at future shop (for example)
with that many RBC points you can get 6000x1.666 = 10,000 ESSO points,

with that many esso points, you can get 2x $25 dollar gift cards (which is 50 bucks) for 9000 esso points. (each 25 costs you 4500)

ESSENTIALLY, you can get the same amount of gift card value through esso and still have 1000 esso points LEFT!!!!

ok.. so maybe your thinking.. ok, so its PRETTY close.. and converting to ESSO points gives you a slight edge..

well 1000 points / 1.666 = 600 , which means, that thinking in RBC points, you need to spend 600 dollars less to get that same 50 dollar gift card...


since it takes 6000 points (or dollars spent) through RBC to get a 50 dollar gift card, converting to Esso means that you need to spend 10% less on your visa to get the same value of gift cards just by swapping...



OK< so i know some of this may sound complicated a bit with all the numbers,
but the ULTIMATE KICKER to all of this is that you can convert ALL YOUR HBC POINTS TO ESSO AS WELL!!! 25,000 hbc = 500 esso.. (this translates to a dollar spent at hbc is one ESSO point)

so you can get points THAT much faster!



EVEN MORE MATH::::

80 000 points at Zellers is a 10 dollar gift card there
translates to
1600 dollars spent at zellers to get 10 bucks... (thats weak!!)

transfer those 80 000 points, (lets even make it 75 000 points which is less)
75000 = 1500 esso points

1500 esso points is 1/3rd of the way to a 25 dollar gift card..

so in essance, 1500 esso points is worth about $8.33 dollars, which is not as much as $10 dollars through zellers


FINAL THOUGHTS::::

HBC points are better spent at zellers, but if you combine the points from RBC rewards and zellers points, you can maximize your rewards and quicker.


ultimate downside : Esso does not have as many gift card options to chose from

Im just pointing out the facts to every one, truth is, zellers has all sorts of deals such as trade and save which gives you more flexibility with your points.

Hope this post isn't too long!!

Banansa
Hon. Math Bsc
:-)

Wow, how long did it take you to type this? Let's see you do ALL point reward systems starting with Aeroplan (I think that's the first one in alphabetical order.)

I prefer Sunoco Performance Points because I think after doing all my math correctly I do get a better deal.
Ultra 94 Gas = 20 points/L
Sunoco Gift Card $10 = 10000 points

Therefore:
500 L of gas = 10000 points

On a given day (today for example) Ultra 94 gas was 1.00/L (GST included) and if it stayed at that price I'd only have to spend $500 to get a $10 gift card which is a 2% return .
Now because gas companies love to raise prices Ultra 94 might rise to 1.50/L (that's pretty high, I might have to rethink buying premium) I'd only have to spend $750 to get $10 for a 1.3% return.

Plus you can double dip. Use another Visa or Mastercard rewards card to get further points.

Other grades of fuel do not get as many points as Ultra 94 but I find that my car has better mileage with it than the other grades.

Now RBC rewards is 6000 points for a $50 gift certificate which is a 0.83% return. ( 6000 points = $ 6000 spent)
Convert 6000 points to 10000 Esso points means a $50 gift certificate plus 1000 Esso points remaining
In essence:

180 Esso points / $ 1

BUT
Since you converted the points though you only had to spend $108 to get $1 back in rewards and that comes up to be 0.925% return.

If anyone is confused don't worry, I think I confused myself somewhere too:-~.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hoangkathy

Other grades of fuel do not get as many points as Ultra 94 but I find that my car has better mileage with it than the other grades.

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Premium gas costs about 15% more than regular. Are you sure you're getting 15% better mileage? My car gets about 2-3% better mileage, so I went back to using regular. Don't buy the hype about premium containing extra detergents, etc. The amount of detergents in regular gas already meets or beats the requirements for your car.

Redeeming for car washes will get a better payout ratio than a gift card. I'm too lazy to do the math now, but it is in the neighborhood of 1.5-2%.

My car was first filled with regular gas and I drove it 200 km and had to fill it with 20 L. I filled it again with regular and drove another 200km which I then had to fill with 21L of gas. I drove 220 km (on the Ultra 94) and filled it with 16 L. After I drove another 240 km and filled it with 17 L. I found the difference to be substantial (around 20-25% or so). It might depend on the car you have and it may take time for the car to get use to the different grade of gas.
Trust me, if I could be cheap I would be but in this case regular gas just doesn't cut it.

Just curious, what kind of car do you have? My experiment consisted of 5 straight tanks of Shell V-Power (when they had their 10X air miles promo).


Here are the calculations for car wash redemption reward ratio at various stations. We'll assume a car wash has a value of $8.

Petro Can: free wash at 6900 points. The earning rate is 10 pts/$1, so a free wash requires $690 in fuel spending, translating to a payout of 1.1%.

Esso: free wash at 499 points. The earning rate is 1 pt/$1 for regular or 3 pts/$1 on supreme, so a free wash requires $499 in spending on regular or $166 on supreme. Payout ratio: 1.6% on regular, 4.8% on supreme.

Shell: free wash with 37.5 air miles. The earning rate is 1 Airmile for the first $20, another airmile at $50. A free wash requires $750 in spending.... payout 1.07%. Note you need to fill up in $20 intervals, there is nothing awarded in between.... definitely puts this program at a disadvantage unless there are bonus promos available.

Sunoco: free wash at 6000 points. For regular, you earn 1 pt per dollar when your total purchases are $100 or less for the month, otherwise 3 pts/$1. On Ultra 94, earn 20 pts/dollar. Payout ratio on regular 0.10%, ultra 94 2%.

Any credit card points are on top of this. I've left it out due to the wide variety of programs out there.

I changed esso points over to hbc last winter when they had the promo for $20 zellers GC for 100,000 points. I have no idea if it was a better deal, but the GCs sure came in handy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by travelgeek

Just curious, what kind of car do you have?

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I have an Altima. That payout ratio for the regular gas (at Sunoco) is not good at all! By the way is 91 the highest octane Esso has?

Your altima is Sweeet!!!!

My advice to GAS and GROCERY purchases: get Smart Cash MBNA card to get regular 3% off on all gas and grocery purchases at most stores that mainly sell these products (5% off for first 6 months):

Stores excluded: Costco/Zellers/Wal-Mart (stores that their first role is not to sell grocery or gas)

CREDIT: , Million Dollar journey blog, Four Pillars blog

More info: http://www.four-pillars.ca/2009/07/1...s-credit-card/

"Promo code is CGLE if you are asked about it."

Card is NOT on MBNA website. You must call MBNA to ask for it.

Applying for a Card:
1.877.862.7759 (note you might be transferred 1-2 times, try to speak to a Canadian Rep so he/she will know about the card).

Good luck. If you have questions, there is a board with about 180 pages of posts about this card, really popular stuff.

RETURN: 5% first 6 months, 3% after, no annual cap (1% on other purchases )

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cashinstinct

Stores excluded: Costco/Zellers/Wal-Mart (stores that their first role is not to sell grocery or gas)

CREDIT: , Million Dollar journey blog, Four Pillars blog

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Do you know which stores are included that are in Québec ?

I convert my Esso points into HBC points ( 500 esso = 25000 HBC) Then I convert the HBC into airmiles ( 2000 HBC = 1 airmile)

I like that better now. I took me forever to save my million HBC points( I don't have a points visa)... but I did and then I got my kitchen Aid mixer. Now I like to get Rona GC for my house.

I think it's about time to look into getting one of those Fancy cards! :)

What about MC Optimum ?

Wow, and I thought SDM math was difficult!