On September 9th Chase announced that it had officially launched the Chase Freedom Mobile Application both the Apple App Store & Google Play as well. This new app allows Chase Freedom cardholders to use their cash back directly at over thirty merchants, basically how it works is that users select the amount they want to redeem and then an electronic gift card is generated on the app for that amount which can be redeemed instantly.
Interestingly Chase didn’t think it was necessary to give a full list of the 30 merchants that this is available with, but they gave the following shorter list instead:
- Gap®
- Target®
- Lowe’s®
- Starbucks®
- Toys”R”Us®
- TGI FridaysSM
- Regal Entertainment Group®
This is similar to what American Express has been doing with merchants such as McDonald’s, Chili’s, AirBnB and Best Buy. The key difference is that American Express is usually giving cardholders better value using this partnerships than they would get if they redeemed the points with cash. With Chase you’re getting the same 1¢ per point value regardless. To make matters worse, all of the partners have a minimum redemption value of $5-$15 so it’s not like this is an easy way to use up a few orphan points (minimum cash redemption is $20 with Chase).
It’s also important to keep in mind that the points that the Chase Freedom earns can be transferred to Chase’s travel partners if you also hold a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Ink Plus/Bold, most people will get better value doing this than redeeming for cash/statement credit/at merchants.
Personally I don’t see any value in this new app from Chase, fingers crossed they offer some promotions to make it more interesting but at the moment it’s a big pass from me.
