Oh, More Credit Card Rewards

Question of the day, will switching credit cards for a different rewards program help me. Right now, I’m using a pcfinacial MasterCard, I get 1% back on my purchases in the form of pc points. The card I’m looking at now, the ScotiaBank Momentum Visa card, 2% back from participating merchants. It however has a $39 annual fee. It’s actually a sad thought that maybe I won’t be able to get $39 of benefits from a rewards program. Anyway, I have data so I can make calculated decisions.
Besides the $39 fee that needs to be made up, there’s also the reusable bag credits that I collect when I go grocery shopping. Switching to a Momentum Visa means that I won’t be getting pc points for those bags. Year to date, I’ve been credited 15 times, and the trend shows that they’re actually applying the policy more frequently now. Either that or Sunday is just a bad day for trying to get credits. They’re 50 points each and the exchange rate is 10000 points for $10 or 10 points for one cent if you want to calculate easily. So, I have collected about $0.75 worth from those bags already. Not bad. If we just assume that a quarter of the year has passed, and we’re a little under that point right now but not too far, I’m looking at about $3 for the whole year.
Now for the other side, the extra 1% from participating merchants. Besides the way out there data that people wouldn’t normally think of tracking, I also have information on how much I spend, what it was spent on, where it was spent both location wise and store wise. I usually get my groceries from the Real Canadian Superstore, I see they’re on the 2% list, as well as Co-op, Sobeys and Safeway. That just about covers every place I get groceries besides the odd ethnic place I might go to. Also on the list is Shoppers Drug Mart, I get my transit passes from there. That pretty much sums up what’s on the list. Absent are any electronics shops, dollar stores, movie theaters, video stores, restaurants, and other places I occasionally spend money at. Rather than sort through the list, I’ll just add up all the money I spent so far this year, a whopping $483.69 since my cost of living is suppressed. Most of that is at places that are on the 2% list, lets just assume that the rest of it compensates for this not quite being a quarter of the year yet. Multiplied by four, then again by 1%, and I’m looking at a difference of $19.34. That doesn’t even come close to meeting the $39 annual fee so I may as well stop calculating here. Simply put, I do not spend enough money to benefit from this offer. It’s actually kind of scary that I need to double my spending for this. When I move out I’ll be spending more, but things like rent and utilities, the two big increases, do not qualify for an extra percent, so whether or not I will after is up in the air.