Which items offer the best and which the worst price-performance ratio?

On Wednesday, members of the restaurant chain Tim Hortons Rewards were informed that they will be changing their system for earning and redeeming points. This brings some big changes, both in the speed at which customers can earn points and the number of points they must spend to redeem them for items.

Jump to the articles with the best price-performance ratio

One of the biggest changes to the Tim Hortons Rewards program is How You earn points. Under the current system, you earn 10 points for each visit to Tim Hortons as long as you spend at least $0.50. Whether you bought a coffee for less than $2 or a full lunch menu for more than $10, you’ll earn the same points for the transaction.

With the new system, you’ll earn 10 points for every dollar you spend (or 1 point for every $0.10). That’s great news if you tend to spend a lot of money in a single transaction. However, if you only spend on individual, inexpensive items during your visits, you may experience a slight slowdown. More on that later.

But waityou ask. If I had earned 10 points per transaction and now earn 10 points per dollar, wouldn’t that be a much better deal? That could be the case if the points for redeeming items didn’t also increase significantly. The good news is that we’ve done the math and calculated which items offer the best value for your points.

There are now seven redemption levels available:

Important note: These values ​​are based on the purchase price of items in the Greater Toronto Area at the time of publication and do not take into account price changes that may occur between December 2022 and the start of the program in February 2023.

Methodology and overall results

In our previous breakdown, we calculated the relative value of an item based on how much value you received per 10 points. Since the new system uses much higher point values, the new value is calculated per 100 points.

Overall, all items in the 400-point category offer the best value per 100 points. Unsurprisingly, ordering an extra-large version of a drink offers the best value and the small version offers the worst, since different sizes do not have different point redemption amounts.

The best Tim Hortons Rewards items
5) Item: French Vanilla (Extra Large)Cost: $3.19Reward Cost: 400 Value per 100 points: $0.534) Item: Dream Donut, Classic Croissant or Premium MuffinCost: $2.19Reward Cost: 400 Value per 100 points: $0.553) Item: Coffee/Tea (Extra Large)Cost: $2.26Reward Cost: 400 Value per 100 points: $0.572) Item: Specialty BagelCost: $2.29Reward Cost: 400 Value per 100 points: $0.571) Item: Hash BrownsCost: $1.99Reward Cost: 300 Value per 100 points: $0.66Lowest Value Item at Tim Hortons Rewards
5) Item: Ham and Cheddar Sandwich or BLT SandwichCost: $5.99Reward Cost: 1,300 Value per 100 points: $0.274) Item: Bagel Farmer’s Breakfast Sandwich/Specialty Bagel Farmer’s Breakfast SandwichCost: $5.59/$5.99Reward Cost: 1,300 Value per 100 points: $0.25/$0.273) Item: Grilled Cheese MeltCost: $5.49Reward Cost: 1,300 Value per 100 points: $0.252) Item: Farmer’s Wrap, Farmer’s Breakfast Sandwich, Craveables, Chile or BELTCost: $4.99Reward Cost: 1,300 Value per 100 points: $0.231) Item: Espresso (Single and Double Pack)Cost: $1.49 (Single Pack) / $1.99 (Double)Reward Cost: 800Value per 100 Points: $0.19 / $0.25

How to earn Tim Hortons Rewards points

What’s really changed with the rewards program is the way you earn your points. As mentioned, the new program gives you 10 points for every dollar you spend. But how does that compare to Tim Hortons’ current rewards program? The answer lies in how the company converts your existing points into the new program.

In customer communications, the company explains that during the transition period in February, your current points balance will be multiplied by 6.2. If you had 100 points in the current program, you will have 620 points in the new program. Based on this, we can assume that the average order value Tim Hortons accepts per transaction is $6.20: In the old program, you would earn 10 points on a visit. To earn the equivalent value in the new program, you would need to spend $6.20 on an order (for example, an extra-large coffee and a bacon breakfast sandwich costs $6.45 before tax).

Here’s how it compares between the old and new systems: Let’s say you want to redeem a bagel (my personal favorite), which is worth 70 points in the current system and 400 points in the new system. In the old system, I would need to make seven visits to earn enough points for the bagel. In the new system, I would need to spend $40 to earn enough points for my bagel. If I spend an average of $6.20 each visit, it would take me about six and a half visits to earn that bagel. However, if I only buy a large tea ($1.97) each visit, it would take me just over 20 visits to earn enough points to redeem.