By Sarah Walkling
The launch of a new Visa card has allowed President’s Choice Financial to move one step closer to its goal of covering all areas of customer service.
The card, which is only available in Canada, was officially launched in the Ottawa area test market on Nov. 15. It will be made available to the rest of Canada in spring 2000. Similar to other credit cards that reward users for collecting points, every dollar charged to the PC Financial Visa earns the cardholder 10 PC Points. Every 1,000 PC points collected equals $1 in grocery vouchers.
The PC Points machine at Hartman’s Your Independent Grocer in Centretown is available for users to check their point balance and print vouchers to use toward their groceries. When the user collects a minimum of 5,000 points, they can be redeemed for grocery vouchers.
In partnership with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, PC Financial was launched in February 1998. Brian Beehler, a customer associate for PC Financial, says the company’s move into the financial sector was motivated by the need for a convenient banking and grocery shopping combination.
“The philosophy behind PC Financial is that they want stores to be one-stop shopping,” says Beehler, “They want customers to stay loyal to the stores.”
After just over 21 months in the banking business, Beehler says that PC Financial is managing approximately $8 million in managed funds which translates to well over 200,000 customers. Part of PC Financial’s appeal is the company’s promise to maintain high interest rates on savings accounts, no banking fees and easy access to accounts through telephone and Internet banking services.
Leah Gingerich, a PC Financial customer for two months, says banking fees were a big part of her decision to switch.
“I set it up because there is no transaction charges at bank machines,” says Gingerich, “You don’t get charged $1.50 for each transaction.”
Crystal Cliche is considering switching to PC Financial. She says the elimination of banking fees attracted her to the company.
“The interest rate (for a savings account) is also appealing,” says Cliche.
Both Gingerich and Cliche say the only downfall to the new company is there are only four PC Financial pavilions and a handful of PC bank machines in the Ottawa area.
Within a few minutes at the PC pavilion at the South Keys Loblaw’s store, Beehler had a lineup of three people waiting to do their banking in person. Despite the lack of physical branches, PC Financial is also attracting customers with incentives such as earning 100 PC points for every bill paid using a bank machine, telephone or Internet banking or through a pre-authorized banking plan.
Ottawa Loblaws and Your Independent Grocer stores are equipped with a phone centre that is linked to the PC Financial telephone banking hotline.