PC Financial World and World Elite cards | Credit card reward programs | Discussion forum

As far as I know, the "minimum spend" concept with credit cards refers to spending previously done on that same credit card, so you have to take a hit on that card's inferior rate before you can potentially get the upgrade - at which point the cash return might very well have been reduced and/or you may have found a better deal. It sounds to me like a ploy to reduce churning and effectively adds the cost of a fee-based card for one year..

I think we should be looking for a card that would accept the amount you'd charged on any card or combination of cards as meeting this criterion. But this may be hard to get.

hmmm I have to keep a close eye on this as I have multiple WE card all serves different purposes. Will be difficult to have $15k spend on each one esp the Triangle one...

Briguy said

They might downgrade you to a lower card if they have one or just ignore the lower spend and leave you on same card.  

I am more concerned that they might introduce annual fee for those cardholders who are below annual spend limit.

I doubt any of them will look at existing cards to charge a fee, downgrade an existing customer or threaten to cancel a card unless certain "performance/volume" criteria are met. The first one to do that would be like signalling they want to get out of the credit card business, without specifically saying that. So much business would be lost.

IMO its more likely that leading cash back cards would try to scale back what they pay, like Rogers did.

My guess is the card Companies don't want to issue new cards in a pandemic unless they are assured it would be very profitable. Therefore they have (for almost all people) unattainable usage targets, earnings etc., and probably in the background I suspect they are raising the minimum credit score needed to qualify. They know many people have multiple cards already. I certainly didn't need to meet the current PC MC limits when they gave me my Elite card.

However it is still a competitive market, much as the card companies would like it not to be. Walmart just sent me a message to get their MC and get some free cash for doing so. And it pays 1% on everywhere other than Walmart. With my card mix, that would mean PC MC would lose some of my business. However I get 2% on Walmart purchases via Tangerine, so the only reason to apply would be to have another card "for protection" in case some other card reduces cash back.

There was a discussion about this late last year on RedFlagDeals in Mastercard WE cards minimum spending requirements ($15K per year).

It looks like MasterCard Canada is requiring a $15,000 annual spending minimum to keep a World Elite MasterCard. That's in addition to the $80,000 individual or $150,000 household income to qualify.

Laertes said
Just got an email this week that I don't meet the required spend for my PC Financial WE Mastercard. I'm being asked to apply for the PCF World Mastercard, or will be automatically downgraded to the standard PC Mastercard. FYI.  

I think PC Financial had the most World Elite cards.

Likely PC Financial had pressure from Mastercard to reduce their World Elite numbers and likely this is why PC Financial did this bad customer service move.

Downgrading in mass without allowing the customer to meet the now enforced requirement is not how a reputable company would deal with their customers.

Mastercard is doing this to prevent credit card churn by this $15k annual spend requirement. Also allow them to move valuable data mining on the qualified WE accounts.
Not easy to reach $15k annual spend unless u charge all reg purchases on the same 1-2 cards, as oppose to 4 or more than a lot of card churner has.

I have never had any trouble getting Visa accepted at a major grocery chain except way back long time ago when CC's were not accepted at grocery stores at all.