In order to maximize my point earnings this month for Million Mile Madness, I downgraded my Chase Sapphire Preferred card to the Chase Freedom card.  This way, I could take advantage of the Freedom card’s 5X drugstore earnings this quarter.  Well, last week my new card arrived along with a brochure listing the card’s benefits.  And, in the brochure I found something new:

What I found interesting was the text that said “10% bonus each year.. only for Chase checking customers.  When you have both Chase Freedom and Chase Checking, you can earn an extra 10% on the cash back you’ve already earned each year as a bonus.”  This was interesting and surprising to me because I knew that Chase no longer offered their Chase Exclusives program which used to reward Freedom cardholders & checking account owners with an extra 10 points per transaction and a 10% bonus on base points earned. 

When activating my new card, I asked about this 10% bonus.  I do have a Chase checking account after all.  Is it only on base points earned?  I asked.  No, it is for all points earned on your Freedom card.  What about points earned through the Ultimate Rewards Mall?  Yes, any points earned on the Freedom card count.  I was so skeptical of this that I asked to speak to someone in the rewards department who then answered the same way.  Yes, she said, Ultimate Rewards Mall earnings will count.

Wow.  This is great.  This is very similar to the Sapphire Preferred card’s annual 7% dividend, but it is 3 percentage points better, as long as you have a Chase checking account.  This means that when you earn 10X bonus points through the Ultimate Rewards Mall, you will really earn 11X bonus points (in addition to 1.1X base points).  Similarly, when you earn 5X with the Freedom card’s rotating categories, you will now really earn a total of 5.5X when bonus points post at the end of the year.

The Points Guy also recently wrote about this new benefit here: Changes to the Chase Freedom 10% Bonus And What It Means For Your Points Strategy.  He didn’t mention the Ultimate Rewards Mall so I thought it was worth expanding coverage of this new benefit.

Selecting an account when shopping

If you have multiple Chase Ultimate Rewards cards tied to the same online account, you will be asked to pick one when you go to the Ultimate Rewards Mall.  In the past, there were often different bonus earnings for different cards so it was always best to pick the account with the highest earnings, but recently Chase seems to have kept the point earnings the same across cards.  As long as that holds true, the best account to choose when going to the Ultimate Rewards Mall is now your Freedom account (if you have Chase checking).  Next best is the Sapphire Preferred.

Sapphire Preferred vs. Freedom

If you already have and use a Sapphire Preferred card, its unlikely that the 3 percentage point difference in the annual bonus between the Freedom card and the Sapphire Preferred will make much difference.  For example, suppose you earn 20,000 points in one year.  If those points were earned on the Sapphire Preferred card you would get 1400 bonus points at the end of the year.  If those points were earned on the Freedom card, you would get 2000 bonus points.  The difference isn’t huge.  Of course, if you earn hundreds of thousands of Ultimate Rewards points in a year, then that difference will add up fast!

Also keep in mind that the Freedom card does not earn bonus points for travel and dining, nor does it allow you to transfer points to airline & hotel programs.  I think that the best strategy for most families is to keep one Sapphire Preferred account and one or more Freedom accounts.  Log into the Freedom account for online shopping.  Use the Sapphire Preferred for travel and dining.  Use the Freedom card for all 5X categories (up to $1500 per quarter) and for all non-category spend (in order to get 1.1 points per dollar).  And, of course, if you have a Chase Ink card, use it for all cable, telecom, internet, and office supply purchases (at 5X) and gas (at 2X).

Terms & Conditions

I found the Freedom card’s Ultimate Rewards Rules and Regulations here.  I’ve quoted some of the relevant text and bolded parts that I find interesting:

Earning Rewards:

You will earn 1 base point for each $1 of Net Purchases. You will earn an additional 1 point for each $1 of airfare and hotel accommodation Net Purchases when you book at chase.com/ultimaterewards. You will also earn a 10% Bonus on all new points earned with your Chase Freedom card during billing cycles within the previous Year when you, as the primary cardmember, were the sole or joint owner of an open Chase checking account. Your 10% Bonus is calculated after your billing cycle with a December closing date (“Year” means the twelve billing cycle period beginning the day after your billing cycle with a December closing date through your billing cycle with a December closing date of the next year.) Your Chase checking account must be open, and your Chase Freedom card account must be open and not in default, at the end of the Year. Your 10% Bonus points will appear on your January or February billing statement. You will not earn the 10% Bonus on new account bonus points, previous 10% Bonus points awarded, or points transferred into your account. (“Net Purchases” means purchases of goods and services made by you or any authorized user on your Account minus any returns or refunds.) Point accrual will begin upon the Enrollment Date in the Program. (“Enrollment Date” is the day on which we approve you as a Program member.) No retroactive points will be awarded. You do not earn points on balance transfers, cash advances, cash-like charges such as travelers checks, foreign currency, and money orders, any checks that are used to access your Account, overdraft advances, interest, unauthorized or fraudulent charges, or fees of any kind, including fees for products that protect or insure the balances of your Account. Points will be deducted for any returns or credits made on your Account. Points will appear on your monthly statement.

Notice above that all new points earned on the Freedom card count except those earned from a sign-up bonus or transferred from other accounts.

Background: Early in January, I introduced the idea of challenging myself (and anyone foolish enough to join me) to earn a million points in one month. So, starting March 1, I’ll do everything I can to earn as many points as I can while keeping within my ethical boundaries. As a reminder, I don’t expect that a million points will have been credited to my account by March 31st: points often take quite a while to get credited. Instead, I’ll track all of the points that I expect, and I’ll declare victory if the expected total is over a million. Oh, and to keep things challenging, I will try to keep my net costs below $1,000.

Previous Million Mile Madness posts include:

• A crazy million mile idea. Should I do it?
• Million Mile Madness, it’s on
• Million Mile Madness: Strategy
• Million Mile Madness: Preparing to buy & sell
• Million Mile Madness: Tracking points and expenses

Credit Card churn planning

In order to earn a million miles in a month, I plan to sign up for lots of credit cards with the best signup offers.  These won’t get me all the way to a million points, but they’ll go a long way.  First, though, I need to plan carefully.  In this post, I’ll discuss my thoughts and plans concerning Chase credit cards, and I’ll follow up in future posts with similar discussions about Amex, Citi, and others.

Current cards

With Chase, if you already have a particular credit card, you can’t get the same exact one again.  Even if you cancel the card, you are not eligible for another signup bonus if you get that card again.  Some say that you can get the bonus again if you wait two years after cancelling, but I don’t have personal experience with that, nor do I have time to wait two years for this challenge.  One area where that rule isn’t followed is with business cards.  In my experience, you can get another card and get the signup bonus again if you sign up with a different business.  In my case, I have two businesses, so I have successfully signed up (and received the bonus) for two Ink Bold cards.  Another case where the rule doesn’t hold is where there is a card with the same name, but it is considered a different product by Chase.  For example, there are two versions of the Sapphire Preferred card: one is a Visa and the other is a MasterCard.  While Chase doesn’t seem to like people to have both, they will award the bonus for each if you manage to convince them to give you a second card (or if you cancel the other card first).

Anyway, that was a long winded way of saying that its necessary for me to review the Chase cards I already have (or have recently cancelled) before planning a new churn. Here’s what I currently have:

• Ink Bold, business 1
• Ink Bold, business 2
• Sapphire Preferred Visa
• British Airways Visa
• Marriott Premier Visa
• Priority Club Visa

I also cancelled an Ink Bold card last year, but it was a prior generation of the current Ink Bold card and so is not relevant.  Of the cards listed, only one of the Ink Bold cards is due soon for its annual fee.

In order to get approved for new cards, its usually necessary to give up old Chase cards or let Chase move credit from one to another.  For this churn, I’m willing to give up the Ink Bold card that will soon be due for its annual fee.  I’m also willing to give up my Marriott card now that Marriott has severely devalued their program.  I used to highly value the category 5 free night certificate earned each year with this card, but now there are far fewer desirable category 5 properties.  See this post by LoyaltyLobby for details.  I also wouldn’t mind giving up my Sapphire Preferred card (since that will free me up to get the MasterCard version in the future) or my British Airways card.

My Plan

I would like to signup for the following offers:

• United MileagePlus Explorer card 55K bonus + $50 statement credit
• Freedom card, which offers 5X this quarter at gas stations, drug stores, and Starbucks for up to $1500 in spend.
• Ink Plus 50K bonus after $5K spend, business 1
• Ink Plus 50K bonus after $5K spend, business 2

United MileagePlus card

This FatWallet thread details how to get targeted for the United card offer.  I just tried it and it worked.  I’m hoping that it will still be available on March 1!

Freedom card

In my experience, Chase won’t usually approve two new personal cards in the same month, so my thought here is to downgrade an existing card to the Freedom rather than apply new.  That means giving up the 10K signup offer for the Freedom card, but I think its worth it to avoid a credit pull.  In the next few days I’ll call Chase and ask to downgrade one of my cards (probably the Sapphire Preferred).  That way, the Freedom card will be ready to go in March.  Plus, if the United card offer is no longer available in March, I’ll be well positioned to sign up for the Sapphire Preferred MasterCard.

Ink Plus cards

I don’t know if this will work, but I’m hoping that I’ll be able to qualify for two Ink Plus cards on the same day.  The primary difference between the Ink Bold and Ink Plus cards is that the Bold cards are charge cards that have to be paid in full each month, whereas the Plus cards are credit cards in which you can run a balance from month to month.  I think it will be an easy argument to make that I want the ability to run a balance on my cards which is why I want the Plus cards (even though I don’t plan to actually use that feature…).  After applying for these cards, I’ll call Chase’s business reconsideration line.  In order to free up credit for these new cards, I’ll offer to cancel one of my old Ink Bold cards, and I’ll offer to cancel or move some credit from one of my personal cards (most likely the Marriott card).

For all of the above cards, once approved, I’ll ask Chase to rush the cards to me since I need them right away for planned purchases.

My hopeful tally

If I manage to sign up successfully for all of the cards listed above, I’ll qualify for signup bonuses totaling 155,000 United miles and Ultimate Rewards points.  Now look at the spend I hope to put on each card:

• United card: Requires $1K spend = 1000 additional miles.
• Ink Plus cards: Require $5K spend each.  If spend is entirely within 5X categories (e.g. office supplies, etc), then total would be 2 X 5000 X 5 = 50,000 additional points.  In future posts I’ll speak more to how I hope to achieve this.  You can get some ideas from this post.
• Freedom card: If I spend $1500 within its 5X quarterly categories, then I’ll earn 1500 x 5 = 7500 additional points

So, all-in, I can earn up to 155,000 signup bonus miles & points plus 58,500 additional miles & points for a grand total of 213,500 miles & points all from Chase!

Reader Feedback

Please let me know what you think about the above plan.  Do you have other ideas or suggestions?

Related Posts & Pages

• Best credit card offers
• How to sign up for the Ink Bold (or Ink Plus)
• Credit card churn planning

A couple of weeks ago, at Frequent Traveler University, I showed multiple ways of earning 5 points per dollar for all credit card spend.  Soon, I’ll post an outline of these techniques, but first I find it necessary to warn you of some dangers and headaches these techniques offer…

American Express Financial Review

I don’t have first hand experience with this, but I know a couple of people who have recently had their American Express credit card accounts frozen.  They had been selected by American Express for Financial Reviews.  In each case, these individuals had spent large amounts of money at drug stores in order to buy reload cards.  They had paid with their American Express Hilton cards which earn 6 points per dollar at drug stores.  As part of the Financial Review, American Express asks customers to fill out IRS form 4506-T so that Amex can examine the individual’s federal taxes.  Presumably American Express does this in order to determine whether the individual can really afford as much as they have been spending.  Often, people get through the Financial Review unscathed and with their accounts restored.  Sometimes it doesn’t work out as well and the individual’s American Express credit card accounts are closed altogether.  American Express prepaid accounts are unaffected.

I don’t know what level of spend is likely to trigger a Financial Review.  It probably depends somewhat on your historical spend patterns with American Express.  It may also have something to do with your overall credit line: if you regularly spend right up to your limit, that could look suspicious.  Or, if you pay off your account multiple times per month, that can look suspicious as well.

Chase Account Closure

There have been incidents in the past in which Chase has abruptly, and without warning, closed accounts where they suspected customers of “perk abuse”.  This is where people use credit card benefits in a way that Chase determines is “not as intended.”  One example is where a guy bought thousands of 1 cent e-gift cards in order to earn 10 points per transaction thanks to his Chase Freedom card / Chase checking account combination.  Chase wisely shut him down.  For more details, please see my post “Why Chase cancels accounts (and how to protect yourself).”

So far, I haven’t heard of any confirmed cases in which Chase has shut down Ink cardholders for abusing the 5X perk, but it could happen at any time.  No one knows what levels of 5X spending are safe.

Prepaid Account Closure

Many of the 5X Everywhere techniques rely on prepaid products of one type or another.  If you regularly load and unload large amounts of money to and from these accounts, you run the risk of having your account abruptly closed.  This has happened to many people with the NetSpend card (see “We’re sorry, there is a problem with your account“).  I haven’t yet heard of American Express doing this to anyone, but its always a possibility.  The worst part of having your account shut down is that the issuing bank may not be quick to send you your balance.  I know people who have waited about two months for their NetSpend checks, for example.  On the other hand, when this happens, there is no impact on your credit report so unless you have a lot of money tied up, it’s really not a big deal.

Prepaid Headaches

There are lots of little potential “gotchas” with prepaid products.  Here are a few:

• Reload cards not working.  Many people have reported having trouble loading a Vanilla Reload card onto their new Amex prepaid card.  Sometimes these problems are resolved by simply waiting 24 hours and trying again.  Other times people have had to get everyone involved from Incomm (the company behind Vanilla Reload cards), to American Express, to the merchant they bought the cards from.  This has never happened to me, but it sure sounds like a huge hassle!
• Fraudulent charges.  A reader told me about a situation in which he reported to American Express a large fraudulent charge that had appeared on his Bluebird account. American Express put the amount on an 8 day hold while they investigated.  That meant that this individual could not get to these funds (his funds!) for 8 days.
• Fees.  I love the American Express prepaid products since they are almost fee-free, but most other prepaid cards charge fees for just about everything.  The MyVanilla Visa card, for example, charges 50 cents for each credit or debit transaction, and $1.95 for each ATM withdrawal.  The first time I tried to use my MyVanilla card at an ATM, the request was declined and I was charged a 75 cent ATM Withdrawal Decline fee.  When I called to ask why, I was told that there is a $400 limit per day for ATM withdrawals and since I had tried to withdraw $400, the ATM fee put me over $400.  Therefore, the request was declined and I was charged a decline fee.  Nice.
• Limits. Each prepaid product has different limits regarding how much can be loaded, spent, or withdrawn each day or month.  These limits aren’t the end of the world, but they can make prepaid products a pain to use day to day.
• Tracking expenses.  If you like to track credit card expenses through services like Mint.com, you might find yourself out of luck.  With most prepaid products its necessary to log into their own proprietary web site in order to view and track expenses.

Is it worth it?

The rewards in earning 5X Everywhere can be huge, but each person needs to decide for themselves whether the rewards are worth the dangers and headaches.  I do practice these techniques, but in moderation.  Due to recent news about Amex Financial Reviews, I plan to be even more cautious with my Amex credit cards.  How about you?  Has this post changed the way you think about “5X Everywhere”?

The Mayan calendar ends on December 21 2012.  Many believe that the end of the Mayan calendar signifies the end of the world as we know it.  Is it possible, though, that the real meaning is the end of “5X everywhere”? 

OK, settle down, I made the title of this post purposely provocative in order to get your attention.  I don’t really think that “5X everywhere” is coming to an end, but rumors are spreading and it would be irresponsible of me not to warn you of the possibility…

Background

“5X everywhere” is a technique for earning 5 points per dollar for all spend (see   “One card to rule them all“).  This technique relied on, among other things, being able to buy Vanilla Reload cards at Office Depot.  Some believed that “5X everywhere” was dead when Office Depot stopped carrying Vanilla Reload cards (see “Office Depot discontinues Vanilla Reload cards“).  Many of us, though, continue to earn 5X everywhere the easy way (see “Almost too good to be true“) or the hard way (see “The reload game is on“).  Recent rumors, though, make me wonder if even these techniques are near an end…

The rumor

A couple of readers have recently and independently reported the same story:  when they went to Office Depot to buy gift cards with their Chase business card, the cashier told them that Chase has stopped awarding 5X for gift card purchases.

Is this true?  I know that on my most recent statement I still saw 5X for gift card purchases.  Is it even possible for Chase to distinguish regular purchases from gift card purchases?  I don’t know.  What if you buy gift cards and a pack of gum at once?  Will Chase somehow see the details of the transaction and be able to award 5X for the gum, but not for the rest?  It seems unlikely to me.

Why spread a rumor?

You might wonder why I would bother reporting this with so little information either way.  Normally, I wouldn’t.  But this feels similar to something that happened before where rumors eventually evolved into fact…

Vanilla Stories

I first wrote about Vanilla Reload cards in May 2012 in the post “One card to rule them all.”  A few days later, I received an email from a reader who was told by an Office Depot manager that Office Depot would no longer carry Vanilla Reload cards.  Naturally, I was worried about this, but soon found that it wasn’t true.  At least, it wasn’t true nationwide.  Office Depot kept selling them. 

A week later, I received a very similar email.  The gist was the same: Office Depot would stop selling Vanilla Reload cards.  And then, a week or two later, I received another email just like it.  About once a week I heard the same story.  But Office Depot kept selling the cards.  In fact, in some cases, the same store that reported the end of Vanilla would restock and continue selling them!

In November, things changed.  The rate at which I received these reports spiked up suddenly.  It was time to take the reports seriously.  So I called a number of Office Depot stores and heard the same story.  The end had come for real.

From rumor to fact

So, the Vanilla rumor evolved from fiction to fact in a period of 6 months.  What about this new one?  Will it pan out?  Or, is there just a single misinformed cashier spreading this misinformation?

Reader input

Have you recently bought gift cards at Office Depot with your Chase business card?  Did you hear anything like this from the cashier?  Did you receive the full 5X points on your statement?  Unfortunately, its not easy to check.  See “Chase Ink: Check your X” for details.

“Since this activity is prohibited, we have closed the account…”

One of the best features of the Ultimate Rewards program is that points can be moved freely from one account to another.  Families can combine points.  Individuals can transfer points to or from others.  But now such transfers can lead to trouble…

The problem is that transferring points to anyone other than your spouse or domestic partner is against Chase’s terms & conditions (bolding is mine):

Transfers may only be used to combine points/rebates belonging to the same individual or business in the Program; or for the purpose of enabling spouses or domestic partners to combine points/rebates earned in their respective names.

Despite these terms, Chase makes it very easy to transfer points to anyone, and people do so often.  Unfortunately, as reported on this FlyerTalk thread, Chase has started to crack down.  Some people who have transferred points in or out of their Sapphire Preferred accounts have received letters stating that their accounts have been shut down.  Here is an excerpt from one such letter:

Your Ultimate Rewards Redemption Rules do not allow the transfer of rewards points into your account from anyone other than a spouse or domestic partner.  Since this activity is prohibited, we have closed the account shown above

Luckily, Chase is giving people a chance to use or transfer their points (to a loyalty program or to another Chase card, for example) before closing the account completely.  Also, they appear to be closing only the one account that is effected.  Other cards (Freedom, Ink, etc.) owned by the same person have not been closed.

My view is that Chase is trying hard to crack down on people who have been buying and selling Ultimate Rewards points (and maybe they’ve caught some innocent people in the cross-fire).  Clearly, moving Ultimate Rewards points between unrelated people can be a red flag.  What’s unknown is whether Chase tracks transfers to loyalty programs.  For example, if I transfer my points into another person’s United Mileage Plus program (which I’ve done several times in the past!), would Chase flag that?  At this point, its too early to tell.  I hope that we’ll learn that such transfers are fine, but until we know more I plan to hold off on doing any more transfers like these.

In April, I posted “Why Chase cancels accounts (and how to protect yourself).”  In that post I warned people about dangers in maximizing credit card perks (like the Ink Bold’s 5X office supply category).  Specifically, I wrote:

Use tricks that maximize credit card perks in moderation.  For example, buying Visa gift cards at Staples to help meet the Ink Bold’s $5K spend requirement (for the signup bonus) should be fine if you spread out the purchases over several months.  If you suddenly start spending $10K per month at Staples, though, I expect you’ll get noticed (in a bad way).

Since writing that post, the Ink Bold’s minimum spend requirements have doubled to $10K in three months, and I posted a better way to leverage the Ink cards to earn 5X everywhere by buying Vanilla Reload cards at Office Depot (see “One card to rule them all”).  Later, Chase unveiled a new Ink card (the Ink Plus) with the same earning structure and signup bonus as the Ink Bold.  All of those happenings have combined to lead many people to spend lots of money at Office Depot stores.  There’s little doubt that Chase is well aware of this phenomenon, and they’re probably not happy since a 5X payout is far more than they earn from merchant transaction fees.

Account closures

In my post about why Chase cancels accounts, I wrote about people who took extreme advantage of Chase’s AARP 5% cash back, and others who took advantage of Chase Freedom’s 10 points per transaction (when combined with a checking account).  Chase shut down those accounts without warning and with no explanation.  At that time, I had not yet heard of anyone getting shut down for overuse of the Chase Ink 5X categories.

After I wrote “One card to rule them all,” some people asserted that they or a friend had been shut down.  Often, though, comments like these come from people who intentionally want to scare others away.  They want the deal to last longer for themselves and hope that scaring people away will help.  I didn’t give much credence to those comments at the time, but I saw them as a fair warning nevertheless.

More recently, though, I’ve received a couple of emails about account closures that seem legitimate.  One person admits that he not only bought lots of Vanilla Reload cards at Office Depot, but also did many other things to “manufacture spend”.  In his case, Chase called to question him about his account activity, but when he failed to adequately explain his purchases, they shut down his accounts.  If history is a guide, he should eventually get paid 1 cent per point for his point balance, but it may take a while.  I have much less information about the second person who was shut down.  Apparently he tried to log in one day, but couldn’t.  When he called Chase, one of the managers asked him a number of questions about his Office Depot purchases, so he assumes that those purchases are to blame for his shutdown.

Both of these recent stories are scary for those of us who buy gift cards and reload cards at office supply stores.  Were these guys really shut down because of their Office Depot transactions?  There are other possibilities.  Auditors may have identified them as bad credit risks.  Or, their overall spending behavior may have triggered alarms.  Maybe they regularly spent more than expected.  For example, they may have been spending more on their Ink cards than what they reported their business income to be on their credit application.  There are many possibilities, but unfortunately we’re unlikely to ever know the truth for certain. 

So, what’s safe?

People ask me this all the time.  Can they safely buy $1000 worth of Vanilla Reload cards per month?  $2,000?  $3,000?  $4,000?

Sadly, I simply don’t know.  I expect that the answer varies depending on your circumstances.  If you are a big spender with a thriving business and a long history of excellent credit scores, then I’m sure you can get away with much more than someone with otherwise low spending patterns, small reported business revenue, and a short credit history.

My advice is to examine your own situation as if you were a Chase auditor.  Do your spending patterns look suspicious?  Are you a bad credit risk?  Are you an unprofitable Chase customer?  If you answer yes to these questions, then reduce your office supply purchases accordingly.  Also consider your own risk tolerance.  If you find yourself stressed out over whether or not Chase will shut you down, it’s probably not worth playing this game.

Protecting yourself

Some people proactively cash out their points or transfer them to their favorite loyalty program (United, for example).  The hope is that if Chase cancels their accounts they will at least still have profited from the points earned.  It seems unlikely that Chase will try to claw back points already redeemed. 

Personally, I highly value the ability to move Ultimate Rewards points to various loyalty programs as needed.  I don’t know right now whether I’ll want to move my points to United or Hyatt, for example.  I also don’t know who’s account I’ll want to move the points to.  It’s great that Chase allows you to move points to other people’s accounts, and I highly value that option.

Another possible way to protect yourself is to move keep points as Ultimate Rewards points, but transfer them to a friend or relative (assuming the friend or relative is less likely to get shut down).  The risk with this approach is the possibility that this action will cause your friend or relative to get shut down as well.  I’m not saying that’s a likely outcome, just that it’s possible.

For ongoing discussions about this topic as a whole, see this FlyerTalk thread. 

My plan

For now, I’ll scale back my Office Depot purchases a little bit, and increase my use of Chase cards for non bonus spend.  No, the sky isn’t falling:  I’m still not convinced that Chase is gunning for people who buy gift cards and reloadables at Office Depot, but it makes sense to be cautious.

Reader experiences

Has Chase called you to ask you to explain your office supply purchases?  Have you or someone you know had your accounts shut down?  Please comment below.

In April I published a scary warning: Why Chase cancels accounts (and how to protect yourself).  In that post, I reported that Chase had been shutting down accounts due to “perk abuse” and/or bad credit risk.  A few weeks later, a thread titled “Nervous about high Ultimate Rewards balance?” appeared on FlyerTalk.  Within that thread, quite a few people reported that they were transferring points out of the Ultimate Rewards program to try to protect themselves in case Chase decided to shut them down.  The issue was that most people who were shut down lost all of their Chase points.  Calls, letters, and emails to Chase had no effect.

Yes, it is scary, but…

In my opinion, a large part of the value of Ultimate Rewards points is their flexibility (if you have either the Sapphire Preferred or the Ink Bold). When I want to fly on a Star Alliance airline I simply transfer my points to United.  When I want to stay in a hotel I transfer my points to Hyatt (other hotel options aren’t as good of deal, in my opinion).  And, when I want to ride the train, I transfer my points to Amtrak.

To me, the risk of getting shut down is smaller than the benefit of keeping Ultimate Rewards points.  In the post cited above, “Why Chase cancels accounts (and how to protect yourself),” I gave a list of Dos and Don’ts.  If you follow that advice, I believe the risk of getting shut down will be very low.

Chase pays back

A few days ago, a reader sent me a link to this Fatwallet thread in which a guy reported that Chase redeemed themselves by sending him a check for the points that had been accrued in his forcibly closed accounts.  This led me to the AARP thread in which many people reported the same thing. 

To me, this turn of events is a big relief.  It would still be a terrible thing to be shut down by Chase, but at least I would be likely to receive a penny for each point I had saved up.  It helps me feel secure in my decision to keep my Ultimate Rewards points until I need them.

One FatWallet contributor posted a copy of his letter from Chase:

A word to Chase

Chase, if you’re reading this, I’m giving you a big thumbs up for the decision to pay back your customers for the points earned.  I’d ask, though, that you make one more change: don’t close accounts without warning.  I understand the need to tackle fraud head-on, but you should give customers a chance to challenge your findings.  Give them a chance to prove their innocence before you lose them as customers forever.  Sure, if you need to, freeze accounts until the matter is cleared up, but don’t walk out on your customers without a conversation.  You may be surprised at what you find.

Reader experiences

Have you had any run-ins with Chase freezing or closing accounts?  Care to share your experiences? Are you keeping your Ultimate Rewards points or transferring them out?  Comment below.

Why can’t I see Ink online? 

When I first signed up for the Chase Ink Bold card (back in the pre 5X for office supplies days) I ran into a little issue when the card arrived.

At the time, I already had several personal Chase credit cards and an online account for managing them.  Each time I signed up for a new personal card it would automatically appear in my online account once I was approved for the card.  The Ink, however, played coy.  It didn’t show up in my online account and I couldn’t figure out any way within my account to add it in.  Finally, I called Chase to get things straightened out.  In case you’re in a similar situation, here is what I learned:

You can add personal cards to a business online account, but you cannot add business cards to a personal account.

I don’t know why Chase has this rule, but there it is.  As a result, you can either maintain two separate online identities: one for business and one for personal use; or you can setup a business account as your primary account and add all of your personal cards to that.

In my case, I wanted all of my cards in one place AND I wanted to keep my usual ID and password.  Chase was able to help me as follows:

STEP 1: Chase changed my personal ID to something else

STEP 2: Chase created my business account and used my original personal ID

STEP 3: Chase added my personal cards to my business account

STEP 4: I changed the temporary password on my new business account to the password I know and love

Now I have my original log-in ID and password, but can see and manage all cards on one account.  Excellent!  I listed the steps above because I’ve heard from a few people who have struggled with this.  Give Chase a call and tell them what you want to do.  If the Chase rep you speak too can’t figure out how to do this you may need to call back again until you find someone who can help.  Good luck!

Related Posts

• How to sign up for the Ink Bold
• How to increase the Ink Bold bonus by 27K
• One card to rule them all
• Let’s just be friends
• What’s my X?

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On Friday morning after walking the dog, I saw I had received a voicemail from Chase.  They were calling in regards to some recent online activity.  That didn’t sound good.  I tried to log into my account and found this:

Uh oh.

I’ve written before about Chase shutting down accounts.  If you’re a bad credit risk, or you get too greedy with their perks, you could be in danger.  For details, see: “Why Chase cancels accounts (and how to protect yourself).” Did this happen to me?

I know I’m not a bad credit risk.  I pay my bills in full every month.  I have an excellent credit score and a long spotless credit history.  Sure I’ve taken advantage of quite a few credit card sign-up offers, but not nearly as many as many others have, and my credit score has actually increased since I started.

What about “perk abuse”?  Have I been hitting Office Depot too hard with my Ink Bold?  I wrote recently about how to earn 5 points per dollar everywhere through an easy trick that involves buying reload cards at Office Depot (see “One card to rule them all”).  In that post, I also warned people not to go too far with this.  “You could get shut down,” I said…  Had that happened to me?  Had I gone too far?  I thought I was staying within limits that would keep me in Chase’s good graces.  I even wrote a love letter to the Ink Bold, for goodness sake!

I called Chase.  The first person I talked to didn’t see flags on any of my accounts, but she then transferred me to security.  My heart pounded like crazy.  “Please don’t shut me down, I promise I’ll be good!” I begged silently. 

Security made me prove my identity.  What year was your father born?  Which company in this list have you been affiliated with?  What was the first name of your first girlfriend?

I passed the tests.  They believed I was me.

It turns out that I had made a large transfer of funds from my new Chase checking account to my money market.  Oh yeah…  In my fear, I had forgotten about that….  They simply needed verify that it was me, and that I intended to do that.  YES! 

And, just like that, my account was restored.

I asked: Why had my account been frozen?  Three things: 1) This was the first transfer out of my checking account; 2) This was a large transfer; and 3) The request was made from a different IP address than I normally log-in with.  The first two reasons made sense to me.  The 3rd is strange since I had used the same laptop from the same home network that I almost always use.  Ah well, all is fine now.  My heartbeat rate is finally settling down from its all time high.

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On May 1st, I described some great new bonus opportunities in the post “Ultimate Rewards Awesomeness.”  Among other opportunities listed in that post, I wrote:

Sephora at 20X!  Holy cow, that’s a big number.  Someone with a Freedom card, please do a double dip experiment right away!!!

One reader reported that the experiment didn’t work, but another named Matthew reported complete success.  He wrote:

Update: I got an email late last night saying the my UR points for the Sephora purchases has posted. Sure enough, I got 200 pts for a $10 eGift card purchase and then another 200 pts for redemption of that gift card

Great news, right?  This means that Matthew earned 40 points per dollar at Sephora!  Unfortunately (and unbeknownst to me), the 40X deal only lasted until May 8th.  Matthew went on to write the following:

Unfortunately, the email came so late that I was unable to capitalize on the deal bonus before it was reduced to 5x points this morning. It would have been simply amazing to get 10,000 pts for a $250 eGift card purchase and redemption. Well played, Chase. Well played.

Oh well.  Easy come, easy go.

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