We Gave Away A Tesla (And We’re Giving Away A Lot More Very Soon!)

The dust has finally settled on one of the biggest giveaways in Canada. creditcardGenius was proud to announce that our winner, Tony Yip, was able to pick up his brand new Tesla Model 3 in November 2022.

Here’s how that day went.

It was a long and rewarding journey to bring such a big contest to Canada, but with all the smiles from Tony and over 6,000 others who were able to score some free cash along the way, it was more than worth it.

But how did we get to this point? Why did we even decide to give away a Tesla? Was it worth it?

Let’s take a step back in time and relive this crazy journey.

How the launch of GeniusCash (and MrBeast) inspired the Tesla Giveaway

The launch of GeniusCash was a monumental landmark in creditcardGenius history.

For the first time, the creditcardGenius team was now able to directly reward Canadians for making wise credit card decisions instead of relying on 3rd party products such as free Amazon gift cards.

But we didn’t want to just have a simple, $1,000 giveaway. We wanted to go big.

And one of the inspirations was MrBeast, the famously generous YouTuber, who in the past had given away ridiculously lavish gifts, including giving 40 cars at once to his 40,000,000th subscriber. And yes, one of those 40 cars happened to be a Tesla with a custom vinyl wrap with the words “40 million” on it.

So what would be an appropriate gift for a company called creditcardGenius? Frankly, we couldn’t think of something smarter than a pioneering electric vehicle that can drive itself. Thus the idea of giving away a Tesla Model 3 was born.

Initial challenges for the creditcardGenius Tesla giveaway

As you know, the smartest cars on the road aren’t cheap. So if we were to have a promotion that helped spread the word about GeniusCash, but didn’t bankrupt our marketing department, we had to set a goal.

If we reached 5,000 approved GeniusCash credit card offers, we were going to give away the brand new Tesla.

But if for some reason we weren’t able to reach that magic number, we still wanted to go big, and give an alternative prize of $10,000. Not as flashy or exciting as a Tesla, but still far larger than anything we had ever given out before. Thus the “Win $10k or a Tesla giveaway” was officially launched.

How we were cautiously optimistic about reaching 5,000 entries

We really, really wanted to give away the Tesla. But we did specify that we needed to hit 5,000 payouts first.

From day one, it was clear that reaching our goal needed some good-old fashioned hard work, gumption, and determination. You know…everything our grandpas would constantly remind us that they had to do to succeed in the 50’s.

But progress didn’t happen as quickly as we thought it would. We thought the idea of giving cash back, helping people find the right credit card, AND having the chance to win a brand new Tesla would be more than enough to make the offer go viral.

Nope.

In fact, it took several months to reach the first 1,000 GeniusCash payouts.

Thankfully, our small but mighty team is not one to give up easily. They put in the extra hours to ensure that not only would we meet our goal of 5,000 satisfied customers, but also make sure GeniusCash was a long-term success

But at the end of the day, success was heavily dependent on you, our beloved readers. Without your help, there would be no creditcardGenius.

We knew it wasn’t a given that we’d hit 5,000 entries, so we worked that much harder to make sure as many people as possible were aware of the contest.

Suddenly trouble near the finish line

The original deadline for the end of the contest was the end of June 2022. And as the deadline approached, we made steady progress towards the magic 5,000 GeniusCash payouts. Unfortunately, it was becoming clear that we would just barely miss the mark.

So we had to make a choice:

1. Give away $10,000 just like we promised.
2. Extend the deadline for JUST a bit longer to make sure we hit the 5,000.

After long consideration, the temptation was simply too great. We REALLY REALLY wanted to see one of you drive away in that Tesla, meet you in person, and celebrate together.

After extending the deadline by a month, we didn’t just meet 5,000, we exceeded it by 1,600!

We had our Tesla giveaway winner – here’s how we got him the car

Fast forward to the big day – August 12, 2022. The day we officially chose our winner.

With a full 80’s retro futuristic theme and clothing to match, we got up bright and early to draw the winner. Months of work all led up to this point, and we were all brimming with excitement.

We could tell you about it, but why not show it to you too?

To make the draw happen, we took all valid entries, placed them in a random name picker called AppSorteos, and drew 4 names. The 1st one being the winner and 3 backups who’d be contacted if we couldn’t reach Tony within 72 hours of the draw. Thankfully, we did.

Our excitement when we drew the winner

Once the event was over, we reached out to Tony (who actually happened to be living in the same city as one of our staff), who promptly reached out to our customer service team inquiring if this whole creditcardGenius Tesla Giveaway was a scam or legit.

Spoiler alert: It was legit, and the brand-new Tesla Model 3 was given away…months later.

The long wait for the Tesla order

Ordering a Tesla isn’t as simple as driving to a local dealership, taking it for a test drive, signing the papers, and driving away.

Tesla is a different beast. The ordering process is done online, and orders are fulfilled months down the road. The chip shortage and general supply issues the whole world faced between 2020 – 2022 certainly made things more difficult.

In addition, Tesla delivers their cars as soon as they are available. Estimated time of delivery could change quickly, and buyers might be expected to pick up their car with just a week or 2 of advance notice.

Normally, this isn’t that big of a deal. But for a company primarily staffed by Maritimers, who also needed to coordinate banners, videographers, scripts, flights, hotel tickets, etc., 2 weeks is an extremely short amount of time.

So of course, we immediately contacted Tony and asked if he was available the following week to come pick up the car, be interviewed, and hang out with a couple of the cool guys from our team.

He was, and after a few meetings with Tesla, the date was set for pickup. Now that’s grrrrrreeeaat!

We flew out to Vancouver to meet our winner

It was a super-tight schedule, but we made it work. Our content marketing specialist flew all the way across the country, and met up with creditcardGenius’s editor on location.

It was a cold, crisp November Saturday morning.

The creditcardGenius representatives, the videographers, and our winner met up at the Vancouver Tesla fulfilment center.

Tony arrived to whoops and hollering of, well…4 people.

Due to Tesla’s internal policies, we weren’t allowed to film on location and capture the exact moment Tony signed the final documents that officially made him the owner. So to capture his thoughts and help celebrate the end of the biggest giveaway we’ve ever done, we took him to Stanley Park to celebrate.

After an interview and some photos, we bid adieu to Tony and got off his property (after giggling like caffeinated chipmunks), and made our way home.

It was a long day (more like a long 12 months!), but we had done it. We had given away a Tesla.

The future: The Mountain Of Prizes giveaway

After giving away such a momentous prize, we got some questions about when our next contest would be.

As much as we would love to give away an electric car every year, we decided that it would be in everyone’s best interest if we got back to what we do best: reviewing the best credit cards in Canada, and telling you about the best deals in Canada.

So for the moment, there is no grand contest on creditcardGenius.

However…

We do have another contest that’s currently running on our sister site, moneyGenius.ca, called the Mountain Of Prizes.

moneyGenius goes beyond just credit cards. It also compares, reviews, and recommends hundreds of personal finance products across 7 categories. From credit cards and banking, all the way to loans and insurance.

And whenever you get a financial product with the GeniusCash logo, not only will you receive GeniusCash cash back, but you’ll also receive a chance to win one (or more) of 15 prizes.

Yes, the combined value of the prizes in the Mountain Of Prizes contest is over $20,000, and we’re just itching to give it all away.

You can have up to 5 entries and each entry is eligible to win any prize in the contest, so stack them up and you could be in line to win more than once.

And even if you don’t win, you’ll still be the proud owner of one of the most solid financial products in the country and have some extra GeniusCash in your pocket.

So good luck, we’re cheering you on!