Crowcery
PC Optimum leaves marks in two places on a Loblaws-family receipt: odd lines
reading something like CUCUMBERS 500 Pts just above the subtotal, and a small block
near the bottom. Neither is priced, which makes people wonder whether they are being charged for
something. They are not. Here is what each line does.
A points offer you just earned, labelled with the product that triggered it. It carries no dollar amount because it costs nothing and saves nothing at the till. It is a receipt for points, printed in the middle of a receipt for money.
The label is the offer's name rather than the exact item you bought, which is why it can look
slightly off. A line reading BREADS AND ROLLS BAKED 1100 Pts is a category offer,
and no name Canned Beans 300 Pts is a product one. They sit at the end of the item
list, immediately before the subtotal.
You can prove they do not affect the money on your own receipt: add up your item lines and you will land on the printed subtotal with the Pts lines contributing nothing.
| Line | What it means |
|---|---|
PC Optimum | The heading, sometimes with the points earned on this trip beside it. |
Points Redeemed | How many points you spent on this trip. Usually 0. |
Digital offers | The total of the Pts offer lines above. If your receipt showed one 1200 Pts line, this reads 1200. |
Closing Balance | Your points balance after the trip. |
Balances run large. Six figures is normal, because points are counted at roughly a thousand to the dollar.
Ten thousand points is ten dollars. You do not have to take that on trust, because a receipt will show it to you directly.
On the receipt below, the printed total is $23.21 and the card was charged $13.21. The
difference is exactly $10.00, and the block reads Points Redeemed 10000.
Note also that Digital offers reads 1200, matching the single
1200 Pts line above the subtotal. The footer line is just the sum of the offer
lines.
This is the part that catches people reconciling a receipt against a bank statement. Redeemed points come off at payment, after tax, not off the subtotal.
The TOTAL line keeps showing the full $23.21 because that is what the groceries
cost. The points are a form of payment, like handing over a $10 bill, so they reduce the amount
tendered and leave the total alone.
Two practical consequences. Your tax is calculated before any redemption, so redeeming points never reduces the tax you pay. And if you are checking a receipt against your statement, compare the tender line rather than the total.
A line reading You could have earned at least 900 PC Optimum points with a PC Financial Mastercard or PC Money Account is an advertisement. It is not a record of points you missed through some error, and nothing has been withheld from you. It is telling you what a different payment card would have earned.
Shoppers is on the same programme but prints offers differently, as
Digital followed by the offer name and the points:
Same idea, different layout: a named offer and the points it earned, priced at nothing. More on that chain's format in the Shoppers and Giant Tiger guide.
How confident are we here? Every claim on this page is read off real receipts, including the ten thousand points to ten dollars figure, which we verified from a receipt where the card was charged exactly $10.00 less than the printed total rather than taking it from the programme's own material. What we have not seen, and therefore do not describe, is how the block looks for partial redemptions, points expiry, or the various promotional multipliers. Loblaws can change the layout and the programme can change its rates at any time. Corrections welcome at support@crowcery.com.
Available in Canada; English-language receipts; not offered in Quebec. Or try the read-only demo first, no signup needed.
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