Meet Canada’s First No-Fee World Elite Master Card
/President Choice Launches World Elite Master Card
First Published Date: September 20, 2015
World Elite is the Elite series of credit cards from MasterCard that usually have a $100 to $150 annual fee. So when you see no-frills financial institution President Choice (owned by Loblaw) launching a world elite MasterCard without any annual fee, it’s bound to peak everyone’s interest.
The card has no annual fee, but it’s missing lots of features you would expect from world elite series cards as well. There is no sign-up bonus and it does not offer insurances such as Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption insurance. However, it does have Travel Emergency Medical Insurance and Car Rental Collision/Loss Damage Waiver Insurance.
This is the only credit card that lets you earn 30 PC points for every $1 spent at PC stores (such as Loblaw, No Frills) and Shoppers Drug Mart. The earning rate is also 30 points per dollar at Pharmaprix, PC travel, PC mobile (excluding PC mobile prepaid services), per litre of Esso Supreme (Octane 91) and Esso SUPREME+ (Octane 93).
An interesting twist is that the PC Financial World Elite MasterCard offers 24/7 concierge service and this is unexpected from a no-fee card. Unlike Visa’s elite series Visa Infinite cards, which provide concierge service by VISA itself, World Elite MasterCard does not provide its own concierge service in Canada. So if you see World Elite MasterCard in Canada has concierge service, it’s provided either by a 3rd party or the issuer’s own concierge service team. For example, WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard does not have concierge service, but BMO World Elite MasterCard comes with concierge service provided by BMO.
When I called PC MasterCard customer service and asked who is providing the concierge service for PC Financial World Elite MasterCard, it was obvious the rep had no idea what a concierge service is and how it works. He gave me hilariously wrong info to make me get off the phone. His idea of concierge service is when you go to a hotel; there will be a concierge service there to help you – which is totally wrong info.
It’s obvious that either President Choice Financial has not trained their reps well or I unfortunately came across a rep who had not done his home work. That’s another thing you need to keep in mind when you are getting something for free that usually comes with a price: You may not get top-notch customer service like other elite series credit cards that come with a price tag.
If you hold the PC World MasterCard, PC will upgrade you to World Elite without hard credit inquiries as long as you meet their World Elite MasterCard income requirement (70k Min Income or $120k household).
