Tim Hortons Quietly Announced Rewards Program Changes — Here's Which Customers Will Benefit

Under Tim Hortons' revamped loyalty program, the more you spend, the bigger your boost. In a notice posted to the bottom of its app and website, the coffee chain announced it's preparing to update Tims Rewards. On their face, and despite the lack of fanfare (not even an official press release) the changes will be effective February 21, 2023, and could benefit some regular Tim Hortons customers. Others might be disappointed.

The biggest change is an overhaul of the point accumulation process. Currently, customers get 10 Tim Rewards points per eligible purchase of at least $0.50 before taxes. After February 21, customers will get 1 point for every $0.10 spent on an eligible item — so 10 points per dollar.

That means Tim Rewards members will get more points faster.

The company further announced new "reward levels," the number of points a customer needs to claim an item. The new breakdown is as follows:

• classic donuts, specialty donuts, hashbrowns and cookies = 300 points,
• brewed coffee, tea, Dream Donuts, bagels and other baked goods = 400 points,
• hot chocolate, french vanilla, iced coffee and potato wedges = 600 points,
• Real Fruit Quenchers, cold brew, the Classic Iced Capp, a box of 10 Timbits, yogurt, frozen beverages and espresso drinks = 800 points,
• breakfast sandwiches and soups = 1,100 points,
• and the Farmer's Wrap, BELT, lunch sandwiches and chilli = 1,300 points.

Currently, classic donuts and cookies are 50 points each; brewed coffee, tea, Dream Donuts, bagels and other baked goods are 70 points each; iced coffee and potato wedges are 100 points each; a box of 10 Timbits is 140 points; breakfast sandwiches are 180 points each; lunch sandwiches and chilli are 220 points each.

So while in the current program structure, for example, it would take a minimum of seven visits for a Tim Hortons customer to accumulate enough points for a brewed coffee, a customer would have to spend $40 to get a brewed coffee in the new structure.

A customer who goes to Tim Hortons every day just for a $1.83 medium black brewed coffee would therefore only get enough points to redeem for a brewed coffee after around 23 visits.

Someone who gets a daily $1.83 coffee plus and $5.19 breakfast sandwich would get enough points for a brewed coffee after a minimum of around six visits.

So, whether the Tim Rewards update will benefit you will depend on what kind of customer you are, or how much you spend per visit.