Frequent Miler is reporting that they have received a report from a trusted source indicating that Chase is actively looking at eliminating the ability to pool Chase Ultimate Rewards accounts between cards and households. The reason this is an issue is because that the points can be used for different things based on the card, for example:
- Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Ink Plus/Bold/ and Chase Ink Preferred all give you the ability to transfer these points to travel partners at a 1:1 rate.
- Chase Sapphire Preferred makes points worth 1.25¢ each when redeeming via the Chase travel portal, Chase Sapphire Reserve makes them worth 1.5¢ each
Even though the Chase Freedom, Chase Freedom Unlimited & Chase Ink Cash cards are marketed as cash back cards they actually earn Chase Ultimate rewards points. For example the Chase Freedom Unlimited currently offers 3% back in the first year on all purchases, that’s actually 3x Chase UR points.
It’s important to note that currently it looks like Chase are still considering these changes rather than having formally decided to implement them. Chase sent out a survey last year regarding similar changes and some of the suggested changes were:
- “When you combine the Ultimate Rewards points on eligible Chase Cards they would retain their original redemption value – that is, when transferred the points would retain the redemption value of the product they were initially earned on. For example you would not earn a travel redemption bonus if your transfer from a no fee card to a Fee card.”
- “You can only combine Ultimate Reward points between no-annual fee cards or between annual fee cards. You cannot combine Ultimate Rewards points between a no-annual fee card and an annual fee card.”
- “You can combine Ultimate Rewards points on eligible Chase cards at a 3:2 conversion ratio. For example if you would like to transfer 15,000 points from your Freedom Unlimited card to your Sapphire Reserve account, your Sapphire Reserve would be credited with 10,000 points (a 3:2 ratio). The transferred points would be granted the redemption value and options of the account to which they are transferred into.”
Because of this I’d strongly recommend transferring points to your most valuable card immediately and then continue to do so on an on going basis. I suspect we will get some warning when/if these changes do come into effect (even if only through a leak) but I wouldn’t rely on it. We’ve also reached out to our own sources to find out more, but it’s possible they won’t know anything if it’s still in the planning stages.
