Question about the return and UR points on freedome

[Anonymous]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@kdm31091 wrote:
You should consider using the freedom for some amount of non bonus spend too. They may view that as abuse if you only use it for 5%.

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Personally, I wouldn't bother.   The Freedom is capped, so I doubt if they care that much.   And, if it turns out that they do, then I would stop using the card!  No reason to ever get 1% on a card these days as a condition to get 5% sometimes.

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If you have a CSP or an Ink you can essentially double the value of your Freedom points. 

The only reason to do this is to keep yourself at least somewhat profitable to Chase, so they don't take AA against you. 

[Christina_xyt]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@kdm31091 wrote:
You should consider using the freedom for some amount of non bonus spend too. They may view that as abuse if you only use it for 5%.

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Personally, I wouldn't bother.   The Freedom is capped, so I doubt if they care that much.   And, if it turns out that they do, then I would stop using the card!  No reason to ever get 1% on a card these days as a condition to get 5% sometimes.

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If you have a CSP or an Ink you can essentially double the value of your Freedom points. 

The only reason to do this is to keep yourself at least somewhat profitable to Chase, so they don't take AA against you. 

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I kinda doubt that only using 5% category will trigger AA..

I only used 5% category on SM.. they still gave me a very generous auto cli after six months... although i am talking about barclay instead of chase.. just thought that it would be unreasonable for them to take AA against you just based on you "not" using your card for other 1% purchases..

[kdm31091]

I would agree it seems silly to use a 1% card to sometimes get 5%. However, I see Chase's point of view. They want you to be a loyal customer, not just milking for the bonus 5% all the time.

The point is I think if you want a lender to view you favorably, you develop a long term relationship. You use their card sometimes even when it isn't the best deal for you reward wise. This way, you are a loyal customer and not just in it for the absolute best return. If you use Freedom instead of a 2% dining card on a $7 fast food purchase, just for example, you'd get 0.07 in rewards vs 0.14 in rewards with the other card. It's really not worth having a bad relationship with the lender over small things like that. At least throw them a bone and occasionally use the card for small non bonus purchases, IMO.

[nachoslibres]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

I would agree it seems silly to use a 1% card to sometimes get 5%. However, I see Chase's point of view. They want you to be a loyal customer, not just milking for the bonus 5% all the time.

The point is I think if you want a lender to view you favorably, you develop a long term relationship. You use their card sometimes even when it isn't the best deal for you reward wise. This way, you are a loyal customer and not just in it for the absolute best return. If you use Freedom instead of a 2% dining card on a $7 fast food purchase, just for example, you'd get 0.07 in rewards vs 0.14 in rewards with the other card. It's really not worth having a bad relationship with the lender over small things like that. At least throw them a bone and occasionally use the card for small non bonus purchases, IMO.

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I highly doubt they even know or look at this stuff unless they suspect MS'ing or fraudulent activity.  The people who actually use their reward cards correctly usually cost the bank money.  It's the people who carry balances thinking that the rewards or initial bonus would be worth it is where they make the money.  Yet they remain profitable because the money they make from interest charges, late fees, etc. more than makes up for the reward points we earn.  Don't think for a moment that if you get behind on payments or can't for some reason pay your balance in full that they aren't going to charge you those high fees or interest - and none of us would disagree if they did.

They know that there are going to be consumers who will always pay off their balance and will maximize their rewards and they are ok with that - it's part of the calculated risk. Besides, Chase's credit cards may have good reward rates but the interest rates on their checking and savings accounts (I have one of each) suck - so this is part of where I make up for that.

[Anonymous]

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@Christina_xyt wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@kdm31091 wrote:
You should consider using the freedom for some amount of non bonus spend too. They may view that as abuse if you only use it for 5%.

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Personally, I wouldn't bother.   The Freedom is capped, so I doubt if they care that much.   And, if it turns out that they do, then I would stop using the card!  No reason to ever get 1% on a card these days as a condition to get 5% sometimes.

---

If you have a CSP or an Ink you can essentially double the value of your Freedom points. 

The only reason to do this is to keep yourself at least somewhat profitable to Chase, so they don't take AA against you. 

---

I kinda doubt that only using 5% category will trigger AA..

I only used 5% category on SM.. they still gave me a very generous auto cli after six months... although i am talking about barclay instead of chase.. just thought that it would be unreasonable for them to take AA against you just based on you "not" using your card for other 1% purchases..

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I more or less agree with this. 

However, consider the different situations people have. Some people have hundreds of thousands of accumulated UR points. When Chase shuts you down for one card they shut down everything. Anything you can do to make you seem more like a boring old customer, I would do. When the downside is that big, even a very small risk is significant. 

[Anonymous]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

They will likely take them away and to be honest they should take them away. It's not really fair to keep points when you get a refund. You are getting points for free. You know how many people would game that?

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Their mistake, their dime.