Canadian Tire and Tim Hortons have linked their loyalty programs. As of September 2, 2026, Triangle Rewards and Tims Rewards members can connect their accounts and earn up to 5% in Canadian Tire Money (CT Money) on eligible Tim Hortons purchases, on top of the Tims Rewards points they already collect.
The partnership was first announced on September 15, 2025 with a promise of a launch “later in 2026”, and it’s now live for anyone willing to spend two minutes linking accounts.
Honestly, the headline number oversells it a little for most people, since only one of the three earning tiers comes from simply scanning your barcode. Let me walk through how the 5% is built, who actually gets there, and why this partnership is a bigger deal for Canadian Tire than for your coffee budget.
Two Programs, One Barcode
You don’t need a Triangle® credit card to take part. A free Triangle Rewards membership linked to a Tims Rewards account earns the base 2% on its own, and the credit card only comes into play for the remaining 3%.
Once your accounts are linked, every eligible purchase you scan for Tims Rewards at a participating Tim Hortons restaurant also earns CT Money. The CT Money comes in addition to your Tims Rewards points, not instead of them, so your usual earning in the Tims app doesn’t change.
The flow only runs in one direction at launch. You earn CT Money at Tim Hortons, but linking doesn’t let you earn Tims Rewards points at Canadian Tire, and it doesn’t let you spend CT Money on a double-double.
How the Earning Works
The 5% is a stack of three separate rates, and each one has its own condition. Canadian Tire’s announcement lays them out like this.
| What you do at Tim Hortons | CT Money earned | Calculated on |
|---|---|---|
| Scan your Tims Rewards barcode with linked accounts | 2% | Eligible purchases, before tax |
| Scan and pay with a Triangle® credit card | Additional 2% | Total purchase, after tax |
| Scan & Pay in the Tims app with a Triangle® credit card as the payment method | Additional 1% | Eligible purchases, before tax |
| Maximum | Up to 5% | Plus your usual Tims Rewards points |
Linking your accounts and scanning your Tims Rewards barcode is worth 2% on its own. That’s the piece every linked member gets, no credit card required.
Paying with a Triangle® credit card adds another 2%, and this is the one tier calculated on the after-tax total rather than the pre-tax subtotal, so it’s worth a touch more than the number suggests. Any card in the Triangle family qualifies, from the no-fee Triangle® Mastercard® up to the Triangle® World Elite Mastercard®.
The final 1% is the fussiest. You only get it when a Triangle® credit card is set as your payment method for Scan & Pay inside the Tims app, so tapping the physical card at the counter caps you at 4%.
For context, the base Triangle Rewards rate at Canadian Tire’s own stores is 0.4% in CT Money, which makes 2% to 5% on coffee a striking figure by this program’s standards.
A few purchases don’t count toward the pre-tax tiers. Canadian Tire’s terms exclude catering orders, Smile Cookies, bottled drinks, specialty items, and merchandise.
Not every restaurant participates either, with hospital, airport, and university locations called out as the usual exceptions. There’s also a minimum spend of 10 cents before tax, which even a single Timbit clears.
One restriction is worth being clear about. CT Money earned at Tim Hortons is only redeemable at Canadian Tire Corporation banners, and Tims Rewards points are still only good at Tim Hortons. The participating banners are:
- Canadian Tire
- SportChek
- Mark’s and L’Équipeur
- Party City
- Atmosphere
- Pro Hockey Life, Sports Rousseau, Hockey Experts, and L’Entrepôt du Hockey
- Participating Sports Experts locations
Where the Triangle® World Elite Mastercard® Fits
The Canadian Tire Triangle® World Elite Mastercard® earns 4% in CT Money at Canadian Tire banners, 3% at grocery stores, and 1% on everything else, with no annual fee. Restaurants have always fallen into that 1% bucket, so for existing cardholders this partnership effectively turns Tim Hortons into an up-to-5% category overnight.
I ran the numbers for a fairly typical coffee habit. Someone spending $20 a week at Tim Hortons puts through about $1,040 a year, and linking alone returns roughly $21 in CT Money. Add a Triangle® credit card at the counter and that climbs to about $42, or $52 if you pay through Scan & Pay in the Tims app.
That’s a respectable amount of CT Money for something you were going to buy anyway, but nobody should apply for a credit card over coffee. The value here is for people who already carry a Triangle® card, or who shop at Canadian Tire often enough that the 4% in-store rate justifies the card on its own.
There’s a better play for most readers, though. The 2% for scanning posts no matter which card you use, so link the accounts, scan your barcode, and pay with whichever card earns the most on dining.
The American Express Cobalt Card earns 5 points per dollar on eats and drinks, which works out to roughly 11% back by our valuation of Membership Rewards points, and the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card returns 5% in Scene+ points on dining. Even the RBC® ION+ Visa at 3 Avion points per dollar clears the Triangle® card’s extra 3% in CT Money comfortably.
The Triangle® World Elite Mastercard® only wins this comparison if you’d rather hold Canadian Tire Money than points, or if your dining spend has already run past the Cobalt’s $2,500 monthly cap.
Cash back rates
4%Canadian Tire5-7¢/litre%Gas3%Groceries1%Everything Else
Key perks
- Canadian Tire Roadside Assistance Gold Plan
- Make bill payments from the credit card
Cash back rates
4%Canadian Tire5-7¢/litre%Gas3%Groceries1%Everything Else
Key perks
- Canadian Tire Roadside Assistance Gold Plan
- Make bill payments from the credit card
One thing the terms make clear is that the card’s 2% is its earn rate at Tim Hortons, not a bonus layered on top of the regular 1%. Treat 5% as the ceiling, not 6%.
What Canadian Tire Is Really Building
This is the fourth partnership Triangle Rewards has added in about two years. Petro-Canada came first in 2024, then an RBC link that pays 3x CT Money at Canadian Tire banners, then WestJet Rewards in March, which lets linked members earn WestJet points at Canadian Tire and CT Money on WestJet flights.
Tim Hortons is different from the other three. The RBC and WestJet deals mostly reward you for spending at Canadian Tire, or on the occasional flight, whereas this one pays out at the partner’s counter every single morning.
Put those pieces together and Triangle starts to look less like a retailer’s points card and more like the coalition model Air Miles built its name on. A gas station, a bank, an airline, and now the country’s largest coffee chain all feed one currency. The obvious comparison is PC Optimum, which owns everyday spend through groceries and pharmacies, and Canadian Tire is clearly chasing that kind of daily frequency.
From Canadian Tire’s side, the logic is simple. CT Money can only be spent at its own banners, so every dollar earned on a coffee run is a dollar that eventually gets spent at Canadian Tire, SportChek, or Mark’s. Aeroplan has built similar everyday partnerships with Starbucks and Uber, with the difference that Aeroplan points can be redeemed for flights rather than being tied to one retailer’s stores.
How to Link Your Accounts
Linking takes a couple of minutes, and both programs are free to join.
- Go to triangle.com/timsrewards and click Link Accounts.
- Log in to your Triangle Rewards account, or create one.
- Log in to your Tims Rewards account, or create one.
- Follow the prompts to confirm the link.
You can also link from inside the Triangle Rewards app or the Tim Hortons app. From there, scan your Tims Rewards barcode as usual, and choose a Triangle® credit card as your payment method in the Tims app if you have one.
The linked 2% and the Scan & Pay 1% show up in your Triangle account right away, while the credit card portion takes five to seven days to post. Leave the accounts linked until it does, since unlinking early forfeits anything pending, and you’re limited to two link or unlink actions in any 24-hour period anyway.
Conclusion
Canadian Tire and Tim Hortons have linked their loyalty programs, and linked members now earn up to 5% in CT Money on eligible Tim Hortons purchases on top of their regular Tims Rewards points.
My honest take is that this is a link-it-and-forget-it move rather than a reason to change how you pay. If you belong to both programs, spend the two minutes and collect the 2%.
If you already carry a Triangle® credit card and want CT Money, set it as your Scan & Pay method and take the full 5%. If you’d rather earn points, scan for the 2% and pay with your best dining card, since the Cobalt’s 5x beats the Triangle® card’s extra 3% comfortably.
If you don’t have a Triangle® card, the coffee math alone won’t justify one. Let your Canadian Tire spending make that decision, and keep paying for coffee with the card that earns the most.
The more interesting story is what Triangle Rewards is turning into. Four partners in two years, and the newest one meets Canadians at the counter every morning.
This story originally appeared on princeoftravel
