Welcome to Black Friday! Today is considered the busiest shopping day of the year. Undoubtedly, Canadians are hitting the stores (both in person and online) to take advantage of today’s big sales. Chances are that they are also using credit cards to pay for their purchases.
In our last blog, we highlighted some of the top reasons Canadians use credit cards to do their holiday shopping. They include the ability to make flexible payments, perform balance transfers and take advantage of price protection. But which credit card perks are most handy for holiday shopping?
Extended warranties take away the worry of a product not working.
One of the top concerns of holiday shoppers is that the gifts they buy are in good working order. The last thing most people want is to purchase faulty or defective gifts for their loved ones. With an extended warranty on his/her credit card, a shopper can rest assure that items purchased on the card will have their warranties extended. As Steven Porello contends on Fool.ca, a built-in extended warranty can be a “godsend”.
“Many of Canada’s best credit cards will add an additional year of coverage to eligible purchases, ensuring that those expensive gadgets you bought still work next Christmas,” he writes.
Rewards points provide shoppers with more than what they paid for.
Who doesn’t like getting more “bang” for their bucks? With rewards cards, shoppers are able to accumulate points for every dollar they spend. Depending on the card used, a consumer can rack up quite a large number of rewards points during his/her holiday shopping excursions. As Hannah Logan points out on NerdWallet.com, a general rewards credit card lets you earn points that can be redeemed for entertainment, merchandise and gift cards.
She also highlights the benefits of going holiday shopping with a cash back card. “A cash back credit card allows you to earn back a small percentage of what you spend, while a travel rewards card earns miles that you can use to reduce the costs of a future trip or snag luxury perks, like airport lounge access,” Logan informs.
Purchase protection provides peace of mind in the event of loss, damage and theft.
What happens if the product you purchase becomes damaged, lost or stolen? The answer to that question all depends on how you paid for the item. If you paid with cash, you’re pretty much out of luck. If you paid with a credit card, however, you just may be entitled to purchase protection. As Porello informs us, the feature (also known as “damage protection”) protects your purchases from accidental damage or theft.
“Sometimes retailers will try to guilt you into buying purchase protection on expensive products,” he reveals, “But if your credit card has purchase protection built into it, you can save yourself some money. Just use the card to buy the product, and boom — you have it.”
Do you accept credit cards as methods of payment in your store?
At Unity Payments, we offer Canadian merchants a variety of high-quality POS terminals to choose from. You can easily and securely accept credit card and debit card payments with the Newland 910, the Ingenico Desk 5000 or the Ingenico Move 5000. To learn all about your options, please don’t hesitate to call us at 1-800-661-3761. You may also email us at info@unitypayments.ca.
