As reported moments ago, Chase has revealed their new Pay Yourself Back categories beginning October 1st. Noticeably absent from the is Grocery and Home Improvement purchases.
I know a lot of people found the Grocery category extremely useful, so I thought it worth a dedicated post to point out that today (September 30) is apparently the last chance to redeem against those charges.
If I buy at grocery today 9/30, can I still do PYB on that charge? Concern is that it’s only pending when the grocery category expires.
doubtfully. i think you can’t redeem until it posts, which usually takes 2-3 days
No
Thanks Doc. PC’d a Chase Freedom to CSR and was able to PYB on all old purchases from when I swiped the card as a Chase Freedom card.
Thanks for posting this Chuck. Is there an easy way to pull the statement credit out? Can I use the statement credit to pay one of my Chase freedom cards when I crank the 5% out of them next month? Amex would allow me to request a check, but haven’t dealt with Chase and statement credits. TIA.
I’ve had success requesting a check through secure message. Or after 6 months or so they just send a credit automatically. This was in 2020.
Thanks Dan I appreciate the DP
Thanks, Doc!
Wait why is everyone stressing? Airbnb makes this easier to cash out than Groceries.
Explain?
book, pyb and then cancel that booking at a later time. prob high risk, but no risk, no reward, i suppose.
book, cancel, pyb should work too until it stops working.
Once or twice is probably low risk (just like if you did something similar with a returnable purchase at a grocery story). But there are bound to be idiots who can’t restrain themselves and jeopardize it for everyone.
This would affect the host right? To book and then cancel?
Just book like a year out Jesus.
Shutdown by Airbnb, lol…
You doth worry too much. Chase shutting people down for cashing out $70,000 after using leaked black star apps or people with shitty credit is what happens. You cashing out pennies via Airbnb is not a shutdown risk.
That grocery category was nice… Esp with rising food prices.
For the sapphire preferred card, when should one call in to downgrade to avoid annual fee?
you have 41 days to PC/downgrade. the 41 day clock starts the day the statement cuts (the statement showing the posted AF).
Is there somewhere in writing that shows this policy? Do you think Chase would get mad (and possibly shut me down) if I did PYB against my annual fee and later downgraded and got the annual fee refunded?
Idk if this policy is written, but 2 reps both stated the same timing regarding the 41 days. I doubt you’d get shutdown for this alone. But when you call in to downgrade, that could put eyes on your account. If the rep notices other unusual activity, then that could trigger a financial review. End of the day, it simply depends on your risk tolerance. IMHO, I don’t think this alone is enough for a shutdown. If this were Amex, then I’d be more careful. With Chase, probably no refund and/or a warning, if anything.
Hopefully there will be some positive/negative DP over the next month before I need to decide what I’ll do. I haven’t decided anything yet. I might even keep the CSR for another year.
Since you asked 2 reps about downgrading, you must be in a similar situation to me. Is that correct? If so, what are your plans?
I downgraded to another Freedom. I plan to use up the 5x cats and then upgrade a different Freedom to a CSP pretty much only for referrals lol.
How long after the annual fee posted did you downgrade? Did you use points toward the annual fee before downgrading like I suggested?
30 days. It crossed my mind, but felt like I’ve abused them enough lol. I didn’t wanna press my luck.
Cashed in about 300K UR points a couple days ago. Glad I did.
No one asked you to flex here
Actually this is helpful. I was keeping mental count on his URs and this evens it out.
Well, summer, all I did was rest. And New Year’s, all I did was stretch.
Ha! 300K a “flex.” You’re funny.
Is there another point to disclosing the number (could have just said “a lot of URs”) and how happy you were about it?
Yes, the point was to get people to respond pointlessly. Point made!
Thanks you Doc! I completely missed that the extension till EOY didnt include the home improvement category, got to make a quick run to HD for the remaining items for the home reno!
I think you are too late for that…
Man.. I have yet to understand the point of PYB.. tried reading online but doesnt make sense
When you have thousands of UR points and no travel, PYB was a lot more value at 1.5¢ than cashing out a 1¢ for routine costs like grocery, dining and home improvement. Not as appealing with the new categories but still useful.
For those folks choosing not to travel during the pandemic.
or for those of us that had too much time on their hands during the pandemic and accumulated a ton of points. Only so much vacation time and points can drop dramatically in value.
many of us are now sitting on amex MR fortunes thanks to the plat offers. my main use of UR was transferring to BA (to use on AA short hauls). i transferred a whole bunch of MR to BA (40% bonus ends tonight). so good value to get the 50% on UR. if you plan to do a bunch of first international travel next year your calculus may vary.
Opened an account to get the 100,000 points (sapphire preferred). That’s equivalent to $1000 cash back. Or, buy something in the PYB categories at 1.25x. Bought $1250 worth of grocery gift cards from several grocers in the area. Once charges posted, paid for ’em with the 100,000 points. Net cost for $1250 gift cards was $0.