Presidents Choice Financial MASTERCARD Consumer Reviews

Froze card on Black Friday purchase, which is what I ordered the card for, to earn points back. No phone call or mention that card was declined, lost most of my online orders due to Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals were gone by the time I was sent the email. I call customer services and they are surprised I didn't get a call, say it was a security breach yet no explanation how and the only way to release it was to pay $800 onto the card asap. So, lost on cashback and no apology or service, or option to verify on the phone even though I could match all info on application. Apparently, online retailers are stating they have been getting a lot of complaints about this this weekend from PC Financial MasterCard holders, where accounts are suddenly frozen. Totally out of order, and cancelling the cards...not worth it.

President's Choice Financial hit my credit score, hard. My consistent nearly 800 score for years was dropped to below 725. Why? Because their service is automated and they have 0 personnel working on maintaining customer satisfaction and happiness. At the beginning of this year, I opened the Credit Card account, 2018. I put hundreds of dollars of grocery, gas and additional purchases on the card every month. Every month, I completely paid off the card. Come September, I missed a payment. It slipped my mind. My fault? 100%. Could I pay off the card completely at that time? Absolutely. Come due date next month, I received a call from their collections department. Yes, collections. They said my account was flagged, I could no longer use the card, the credit amount available was reduced and a minimum payment was demanded. The individual on the phone was cold, impersonal, and rude. They were difficult to understand and were the opposite of helpful. I looked back through my e-mails, not one single e-mail reaching out about a missed payment, or even a payment coming up! However, I had plenty e-mails from "President's Choice Financial" screaming about "Points this, offers that, don't miss this chance of this!". Not one text message, not ONE phone call. No message through the application on my phone, nothing on the online account, Nothing. No contact. Rather than give a simple phone call, anything, they made 0 effort to contact me in regards to my account status. I called twice with the complaint and asked that the report and hit on my credit score be corrected and reversed. Their incompetence of being automated and impersonal has significantly affected me. Over a few hundred dollars. Not thousands, a FEW hundred. Telling them that I'd NEVER shop at any President's Choice related stores again, lifelong, including Shopper's Drugmart, didn't mean anything. They would rather sit there, attack my credit rating, than continue to receive hundreds of dollar's every month for, well, I'm in my mid 20's. Telling them that I was appalled with them and that had never had any issues with my other credit card companies, including a card I've had for nearly 8 years, it did not matter to them. Also, said that I had no problem going online and telling everyone, all my friends and family that do shop at their stores about my experience if it wasn't corrected. Since they felt so passionate about affecting my future, I thought it would be appropriate to do the same. To this, they still did nothing. I hinted that a family member of mine, who runs a business that I know applies 10's of thousands of dollars a month onto their company President's Choice Credit card, would likely be calling them (which was the absolute truth and has occurred, she is cancelling the account), they said there is nothing they can do. I am going back to school, and I was about to apply for a student loan. This hit is significant and unfair. I have 2 other credit cards, and open line of credit and have denied credit extensions. I had a great score, until this cold and pathetic excuse of a company hurt me, and gave 0 care about it. I have paid off the card completely and am currently in a dispute claim with a credit bureau. It is recommended I do not apply for the loan for at least 30 days now. We shall see what happens. It frustrates me so much, seeing all my other accounts in "Good, ongoing" standing, with no reports of missed or late payments, all of my diligent and hard work, and 8 months in with President's Choice, they are the only outstanding company I do not have good status with. I will continue to fight and boast until they do something because it just doesn't make sense. Be careful, do not open an account with this Credit Company.

PC master card reduced my credit limit four times in four months as I paid off the balance. Due to this, my utilization ratio did not improve and my credit score did not regain much and I became ineligible for good credits. I had utilized 95% of my PC credit card for two months as I need money, and this resulted in my credit score falling by more than 200 points. Since then I paid off most of my balance in PC credit card, and they reduced my credit limit to the amount I paid off straight for four months. Now I have the balance of about 700, and my limit is reduced to 1000. I had about 4900 balance last month, my credit limit was 5300. I had around 5800 balance two months ago and my credit limit was reduced to 6300. Three months ago my balance was 6800, my credit limit was reduced to 7100... Due to this, my credit score has not improved as my utilization remained high. PC employed predatory tactics so that customer pays more interest and becomes ineligible for good credit products. Due to PC tactics, I could not become eligible for low-interest balance transfer cards and I had to pay PC huge amounts in interest, which I would have avoided if PC did not reduce balance so many times to the amount I paid off. PC should advertise about its behaviour, this is not typical behaviour of any credit card companies across the world. PC should apologize before customers like me for spoiling credit history and financial wellbeing. PC should not attract people in grocery shops and cause misery to people.

I have had my PC Mastercard for over 10 years and, unfortunately, have carried a balance for a lot of that time. I used the card while I was in school and the balance increased to the limit at the time, which was $3500. As I wasn't able to pay down enough to make a dent, so I asked for a credit limit increase to $4500 and was approved. Unfortunately, it still reflected $3500 on my dashboard and I wanted to make sure they increased it as interest was due and would push me over. Sure enough, they put the interest on before updating my limit and then raised my rate to 25%. This was over 2 years ago. Since then I consistently made monthly payments, for well over the minimum, but the interest at 25% really hits the balance. I was informed by 2 other banks that after 6 months of consecutive minimum payments, they are supposed to lower the rate back to 19%, but they refuse. They simply continue to steal money and overcharge with no rhyme or reason. They are totally corrupt and are essentially glorified thieves stealing money and refusing to show any concern or respect for a long serving customer. Meanwhile, I have paid off my $13000 student loan in 5 years by making $200 payments a month, but this card continues to be a cloud. AVOID PC MASTERCARD. They are just a bunch of useless dirtbags and will eventually disappear into oblivion

I got my PC master Card hacked and 2 transactions appeared at the same place: addiction house treatment in Kitchener basically at the same time that I was in the mall updating my cell phone. I called the customer service and they said they can’t do anything because the “purchase” was made with my card and PIN number. They cloned my card for sure, but customer service just say that their card is impossible to be hacked. Just got the card blocked and waiting for the last bill to cancel the PC credit card for good, PC master card, never again. Back to TD Visa, where the customer service works!

It was all fine and I enjoyed the rewards until they switched to Optimum and there was no way to connect and no online help. Mastercard cut. So deceptive in that at first they give you rewards but then no way to get them.

I have had a very frustrating experience over the past few days with PC. I applied and was accepted for a PC MasterCard...the points incentive was very exciting for me as I own a small business and often make large purchases monthly. The card (and sister card for my partner) came in the mail 7 business days after the application was sent, approving me for an available $12,000 credit. I called and activated both cards, made about 4 or 5 purchases over a weekend, and then a final large purchase over $1500 on Monday. On my way home, I went to stop for a coffee and saw my card was declined. Thinking maybe the account had been flagged due to the big purchase, I called to clear up whatever was going on. The representative I spoke with then told me my account had been frozen, and that I needed to pay back half of what was owing on the card (about $1000) and send in a photo of my utility bill and a drivers license to re-activate the account. Now...this has been 3 DAYS of purchases. Not a month. Not a week. 3 DAYS. I asked over and over again WHY this was happening, and she said the application department needed to review my status. A very vague way of saying "we screwed up, and now we need to hold your account and you need to pay the money back". My partner's card was also frozen, which means we both are now left without a credit card for...how long? When I asked how long this process would take to rectify IF I DID pay the $1000 they were requesting, I was told anywhere from 5-7 business days for the documents to be viewed, and another 5-7 business days for the card to be re-activated. Now, as a business, I can assure you that I can't wait around for 3-4 weeks to be able to purchase merchandise and services. This experience has been a horrible hassle, and when my money is paid off, I will be cancelling this card. I've applied for another credit card in the meantime...but I am SOOO unhappy with how they treated me as a new customer, and how unhelpful they were in answering my questions.

I got the MasterCard because I worked at a Shoppers and they had the transfer over while I was there. Now that I don’t work there, it’s useless. Their groceries are way more than anywhere else, customer service is a joke. I can’t take money out. I’ve only missed one payment in a year of only $50 and they completely froze my account. What?! I’ve always paid early and once I pay this off, I’m cancelling and throwing it in a fire. The first customer service guy I talked to was calm but kept going in circles and didn’t answer my questions other than told me he couldn’t help. Asked to talk to a manager and he was useless. Didn’t even try. I’m done

25-30 minutes waiting time each time I call customer service. I only use this Mastercard at selected grocery stores for points. Points are the only reason I have this card. If Costco had all grocery items, I would have shopped there to get 2% back instead of using PC Mastercard. Many years ago, my card was hacked, they had accused me of some charges and had made my life miserable for a few months. Customer service is simply horrible, this card and Canadian Tire Mastercard. Lesson: Never again subscribing for any store-based credit card.