BristolUK

Oh you're not the only one...I hear it said often.

I don't understand the point of view though. Maybe one needs to be there a bit more often to get a better idea. If you go because you've run out of something then just like the convenience store you might bridle at the price charged.

We've been a lot over the years because it's only 5 minutes away and because it's where the family prescriptions come from - and believe me there have been a lot of those .

It is routinely the cheapest place here for butter, eggs, milk, chocolate, toilet paper, pepsi, bacon, cookies, crackers, cereal and sliced bread.

I just bought PC coffee there for $8.99. It's $14 in Superstore. Shoppers has it on sale more often.

If you have no brand loyalty there is almost always a shampoo, shower gel, toothpaste, washing detergent (even Firelogs ) etc on offer at a cheaper price than the grocery stores' offer price (and I don't mean store brands ) - although this is the same at Lawtons so probably London Drugs too.

Even the nails that my wife used to buy were cheaper there.

Of course there are very many things that are more expensive than other places but then they stay on the shelf.


Perhaps it varies from Shoppers to Shoppers or province to province - like so many things do.

I know Gozit recently referred to a laptop deal they had at his store and it was completely different to anything we ever had here.

scrubbedexpat091

We tend to pay more out west for the same items in the same store. Not every item of course and not every flyer item, but there are many times when I compare ON flyer to mine where the prices will be higher here.


Would not be surprised if Shoppers charges more out here vs back east.

BristolUK

Looks that way. Just had a quick look. Both West & Ontario flyers were different to ours and there were certainly some things that were more for West.

Although different things on sale, the offer prices for Ontario were pretty much the same as the prices here when those things are on offer.

So if I'm finding it pretty good for many products in comparison to grocery store prices, and it turns out we have the same Shoppers deals but just at different times, as Ontario, it may well be that Ontario grocery stores are cheaper than here.

Gozit

I agree with SDM being expensive... Except for the sales, like Bristol says. That is when it gets really busy and the store makes alot of dosh.

not2old

reviving this after getting caught up in the costco thread that loyalty points or cash back rewards can work, depending on ones lifestyle spends.

I have come up with that the 'Tangerine' card would best suit us on the basis we charge at least 90% of our bills & spends to it.

https://www.tangerine.ca/en/spending...editcardlaunch

2% on two item categories, 1% on the remainder.

Charging as much as we could to the card in a year would amount to just over $200/yr cash back or credit to the no fee card

The 'two' 2% categories for the best cash back in our case being

Category A - All bills that could be charged to the card, such as all utilities, phone/internet, cell phone, insurance

Category B - gasoline

I wouldn't charge groceries or small amounts to the card for the reason that we shop at so many stores, some that are cash only & way too many taps

Unfortunately, property tax cannot be charged to a credit card, so the municipality tells me

Is it worh doing this, or better to just have the bills charged to the bank account?

Is there a better no annual fee 'cash back' credit card out there?

.

SchnookoLoly

I have the Tangerine card you're talking about. It's great.

Assuming that you are good about paying off a credit card and not carrying a balance etc then ABSOLUTELY it's a better call to put everything on a card. Get your 1-2% cash back. I have my categories set up for gas and grocery as that's a vast majority of my purchases, so I get 2% there, and 1% everywhere else. Absolutely everything goes onto the credit card, even small purchases, and I have an auto-payment set up as well as calendar reminders so I never forget to pay it off.

Assuming you can pay your bills on the credit card, why would you not want to save the extra little bit? Sure it's only 1%, but as you say, it does add up.

As far as the free cashback cards go, where your cashback is actually CASH back (as opposed to money paid into a travel account or something like that), the Tangerine one is the winner by a decent margin.

not2old

Schnooks @ post 51 thanks for that

I am guessing that all the utility bills can be charged to the card, if so - then its a 2% (one of the two categories) on what is the largest expense we have outside of property tax. Gasoline would be the second category... so it'd be 2% for those, then 1% for anything else we charge to the card.

As I mentioned the fewer the charges (taps) to the card the better, thats why I was wondering if the utilities, insurance, phones/internet all charged to the card would be as simple & as easy has having direct debit, all while getting a few dollars.

In our case the cash back would be one-month of free gasoline

Sorted, but from Tangerine website I cannot contact them by phone unless I am already a Tangerine customer & their on-line chat service is not up & running

Is Tangerine a totally on-line service banking, is there a telephone number that anyone can call to speak to a CSR?

SchnookoLoly

Not sure what you mean by too many taps, but anyway.

Utility bills, at least the vast majority, can be paid by credit card. Most if not all of ours are. Curious for others to weigh in. It should be pretty easy to google your provider to check if they accept credit card payments. I'd expect the answer to be yes.

Tangerine is mostly online, but they do have a handful of branches scattered around. You should be able to call them, though - I had a massive account issue about two years ago with my savings account, absolutely not something I could solve over email, so that was a few phone calls and their CSRs were AMAZING.

Aviator

Not sure on all, but the utilities in BC can be charged to a card, they then add something like 20% to the bill for processing the card.

not2old

checked with our Electricity, Natural Gas & Water providers & indeed they do charge (all different rate charges) for paying the bill by credit card, which works out more than the 2% cash back Tangerine

Its a no-go, so its back to the drawing board. on that one

Edo

You are only 18 and you have 6008 posts

Bloody hell you must be blending really well with us oldies on here.