A while back, Chase extended the Pay Yourself Back categories through April 30th. It wasn’t known whether it would continue getting extended or not, but early indications are that – indeed – after April 30th the existing categories will no longer be valid:
Reader Peter shares a screenshot from within his Chase login (taken on February 26th) which shows all eligible PYB transactions from February to have a 62 day expiration, meaning that the transactions can be redeemed PYB through April 30th. That’s less than the typical 90-day allotment, presumably because after April 30th these categories will not be eligible.
Last time around, people were wondering why Chase showed the full 90 days, despite the entire PYB benefit expiring in less than 90 days; then, Chase extended the benefit and it all made sense. This time, they took the pains of changing the number of days left which would seem to indicate that the existing PYB categories will not be extended beyond April 30th.
Most likely there will be new eligible categories beginning May, but we don’t know what they’ll be – it’s worth cashing out now if you find the Grocery and Dining categories easily usable. Grocery also works out now with the 3x Sapphire Reserve grocery multiplier.
Oof. I guess I’m canceling when I’m up for renewal in May (when it will probably a $550 fee again too). I’m not traveling any time soon.
As of this week I can confirm that AF is still 450. I know this is expected to change Apr 30 as well, but just confirming that this week it is sill 450.
What would a good downgrade card for this be? I have the CSR, Chase Freedom Unlimited and Chase Freedom already. . I downgraded my Citi Prestige the other day to the Double Cash (2% CB) because I didn’t value TYP and without the 4th night free (was great when it was unlimited) being used anytime soon, it made no sense.
I do most of my “biz” through Chase, so I have quite a stash of UR’s that I’d like to keep for travel when it gets back, but just can’t justify a $550 card in these times.
Any suggestions on what to downgrade to? TIA!
Another freedom. Only the CSP, CSR, and CIP can transfer for rn, we’ll see what happens if/when chase refreshes the CSP, CSR, and maybe the no af OG Sapphire. You could try when you want to make a big transfer upgrading to a CSP from the CFU, make the transfer to hyatt or AC(late ’21) or United(Why???) and then downgrade it back within 30 days to get the af refunded. I make no guarantees tho, maybe look for dp’s first.
I really wish they’d keep the CSR at 450… the doordash credit is running out for 2021, if they dont introduce anything new to take its place, it would be pretty hard to justify 550 🙁
Fine timing for me. I have ~$500 left in UR points. Easy to use by April 30th.
Lots of news Chase offers Best Western and Starbucks and more
Ah yes, the classic 10% back(SC not UR) at Starbucks up to $1.50 back. Pass.
Of course, right when my 48-month SUB prison sentence is over and I’m preparing to apply for CSP…
Apply for CSP (higher bonus), upgrade another card to CSR 🙂
I thought you can only hold one Sapphire
You’re (technically) ineligible to apply for a new one if you currently hold one, but you are able to PC up without receiving a bonus.
See @Matt’s reply in #1152538 re MDD for both as well
Do MDD and grab both SUBs. The CSR is more than paid for by benefits if you PC after a year.
I use my points mainly for travel, but I am still outraged.
Horrible. I burned through 500k of points on groceries and restaurants since the PYB started… Was counting on the rest of it – another 500k.. Really annoying. And folks are saying no retention as well? wow… Yeah I might be also downgrading it as well.
It was an absolute excellent move to allow for groceries redemption… they are ending it too soon. I am not boarding a plane anytime soon and I wonder who is. Judging from the skies of nyc there are very few planes flying and I wonder how empty those few that do fly are…
I can confirm no retention, at least for me. No effort whatsoever to try to get me to keep it, didn’t even try to get me to downgrade. I cancelled it outright this morning. I’m at 48 months next month with it so I’ll pick it back up when travel kicks back in.
That was imo a bad move. Should have downgraded to a Freedom anyways to get the 5% quarterly categories (I accumulated “a lot” of Freedoms this way over the years…)
P.S.: Also I hope you knew that you can use your $300 travel credit twice (it resets once CSR AF posts, but you have 30 days to use it and then change CSR for a full refund of AF)
Wiped out my entire UR cache across 6 cards (P1 and P2) for PYB, used my 300 twice last year as my year reset in December. Wiped out my Doordash credit this year as well.
Honestly, it’s difficult to accumulate spending for me at this point. I have so few expenses and prepaid most of those already for the year, including all my business expenses. And I have no travel or anything for at least 6 months. I do appreciate the comment though.
QQ lol
Just MS at $7500 some grocery stores and redeem for points.
Or buy items, redeem and then return those irems so you get $ back for points at 1.5x
Seriously? I think they call that fraud.
I haven’t done this, but doesn’t seem like fraud to me. There are legitimate reasons why someone might want to return something. I don’t think redeeming via PYB should be a commitment to not returning an item.
Intending to do it that way is fraud. An honest return is a totally different.
I hear ya, I can see it both ways. Funny how I open up new credit cards and bank accounts fully intending to switch over my spending/banking, then change my mind after I receive the bonuses.
This is what
Swastik Agrawal is advising the OP to do.
“Return abuse is a form of “friendly fraud” where someone purchases products without intending to keep them.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_fraud
I think we can all agree it’s dishonest, very similar to cashing out travel points with bookings that you later cancel. It’s following the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law. To me, it doesn’t seem much different than other activity on here, but clearly it crosses the line for some people.
I would think that buying something from a store with the intent of returning it is more fraudulent than cancelling a booking. Some stores take losses on returns as well as employee time, etc. There’s a reason some stores charge restocking fees.
I’ll toe the line on some things but I would think that would cross the line.
For those buying $500 gift cards at the grocery store and then paying yourself back, is there a limit to how many gift cards that we should be buying so that you don’t risk getting a shutdown? Right now I have been limiting myself to buying 1 card per week but would there be a risk in upping it to 2 per week?
I don’t know why it would. I’ve purchased thousands in gift cards using the Flex card at the grocery store in 1 month.
I bought (2) $500 gift cards per week and never had an issue. However, I would also buy an item or two with it so that the charge didn’t come out to $506.95. The first $500 gift card I purchased at my local store, without any additional grocery items, triggered a fraud alert and resulted in the card being declined. After that, I started mixing in some grocery shopping with the gift card purchase and never had a problem from then on. Personally, I would limit it to 2 gift cards per week for a couple of weeks, and then you might be able to bump it up to 3, but I wouldn’t buy (3) $500 gift cards every single week. Mix up your spending at the grocery store every week. That’s my advice…
I’ve done 3 in one transaction at 2 separate stores on the same day, several times.