topic Re: Freedom Categories 2020? in Credit Cards

Freedom Categories 2020?

SoCalifornia — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 23:03:39 GMT

Chase Pay is set to be axed with the upcoming new year. And Amazon is picking up speed with it's own options. What are some educated guesses (or inside info) on Freedom's 2020 quarterly categories?

Re: Freedom Categories 2020?

Remedios — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 23:13:32 GMT

Seeing how unimaginative Chase has been lately

Magazine subscriptions
Sugar free protein bars
Local AM radio
Diesel and coal
Spaceships

Re: Freedom Categories 2020?

SoCalifornia — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 23:16:27 GMT

@Remedios wrote:
Seeing how unimaginative Chase has been lately

Magazine subscriptions
Sugar free protein bars
Local AM radio
Diesel and coal
Spaceships

😂🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😓...

spaceships... 🤔🤔🤔

Re: Freedom Categories 2020?

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 23:17:22 GMT

here is the history, go ahead guess yourself,

Re: Freedom Categories 2020?

K-in-Boston — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 23:19:22 GMT

@Remedios wrote:
Seeing how unimaginative Chase has been lately

Magazine subscriptions
Sugar free protein bars
Local AM radio
Diesel and coal
Spaceships

It's really all speculation. They only release new quarter information shortly before that quarter begins. It would be nice if they released a whole year like Discover has been doing so I'd know exactly when to plan for the card to be sock-drawered.

Also, Chase Pay itself is not going away in 2020, only the app. So while you won't be able to use it to order Five Guys online or pay at the pump at Shell stations, merchants that still accept Chase Pay online will continue to use it.

Re: Freedom Categories 2020?

simplynoir — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 23:20:48 GMT

@K-in-Boston wrote:
@Remedios wrote:
Seeing how unimaginative Chase has been lately

Magazine subscriptions
Sugar free protein bars
Local AM radio
Diesel and coal
Spaceships

It's really all speculation. They only release new quarter information shortly before that quarter begins. It would be nice if they released a whole year like Discover has been doing so I'd know exactly when to plan for the card to be sock-drawered.

Also, Chase Pay itself is not going away in 2020, only the app. So while you won't be able to use it to order Five Guys online or pay at the pump at Shell stations, merchants that still accept Chase Pay online will continue to use it.

I'm assuming that SP/CP link will just simply disappear?

Re: Freedom Categories 2020?

K-in-Boston — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 23:22:12 GMT

If it's linked through the Chase Pay app, certainly. I'm not too familiar with the Samsung process since I'm a fruitPhone person.

Re: Freedom Categories 2020?

simplynoir — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 23:54:37 GMT

@K-in-Boston wrote:
If it's linked through the Chase Pay app, certainly. I'm not too familiar with the Samsung process since I'm a fruitPhone person.

As long as it's a honey crisp apple which is the best apple

Re: Freedom Categories 2020?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 00:42:56 GMT

@Remedios wrote:
Seeing how unimaginative Chase has been lately

Magazine subscriptions
Sugar free protein bars
Local AM radio
Diesel and coal
Spaceships

These are good guesses and would certainly get some new niche customers. But I see local AM radio being problematic. Is it local relative to the billing address of the card, or to wherever you are when you make the transaction? Lots of calls to the billing centers for this!

Re: Freedom Categories 2020?

SoCalifornia — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 02:02:34 GMT

Touche,' you guys. Touche'

Re: Freedom Categories 2020?

ScoreSizzle — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 07:13:19 GMT

@SoCalifornia wrote:
@Remedios wrote:
Seeing how unimaginative Chase has been lately

Magazine subscriptions
Sugar free protein bars
Local AM radio
Diesel and coal
Spaceships

😂🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😓...
spaceships... 🤔🤔🤔

LOL!

Re: Freedom Categories 2020?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 23:56:21 GMT

I'm thinking they look at spend in aggregate for the current quarter and past quarters and then make a decision based on what might be most profitable for the next quarter, unlike DISCOVER which announces it for a full year.

Re: Freedom Categories 2020?

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 00:05:58 GMT

Not sure about how they did it, but they ended up with pretty much same thing year after year.

Grocery, gas, drugstore, home improvement, PayPal, Amazon.

Re: Freedom Categories 2020?

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 00:27:34 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Not sure about how they did it, but they ended up with pretty much same thing year after year.

Grocery, gas, drugstore, home improvement, PayPal, Amazon.

Yes, not sure what the selection process would be. I assume that any 5% category that is actually used is unprofitable on those transactions, so presumably the idea is to make the selections appear useful enough to get people to use the card, and to continue to use it outside those categories as time goes on.

And if they find that people forget to sign up and shop in those categories anyway, all to the good.

Re: Freedom Categories 2020?

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 01:51:08 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Not sure about how they did it, but they ended up with pretty much same thing year after year.

Grocery, gas, drugstore, home improvement, PayPal, Amazon.
Yes, not sure what the selection process would be. I assume that any 5% category that is actually used is unprofitable on those transactions, so presumably the idea is to make the selections appear useful enough to get people to use the card, and to continue to use it outside those categories as time goes on.

And if they find that people forget to sign up and shop in those categories anyway, all to the good.

Streaming and drugstore might minimize their loss. For a lot of people, it's harder to get to $1500 on those items. Grocery and dining are easier to achieve for most people.

My favorites are dining and gas.

Re: Freedom Categories 2020?

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 02:23:48 GMT

Chase and Discover are in interesting situations when it comes to these 5% categories. They lose money on them. There's no other way around it. I think that they purposely have one or two good categories per year and then one or two bad categories. If everyone maxed out each category, it wouldn't look too good for the banks.

Re: Freedom Categories 2020?

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 02:39:17 GMT

Streaming is the most useless category to get cash back. I mean honestly who is really getting the full value of streaming when at most even if you subscribe to every channel coming out (Apple +, Disney etc.) plus the old standbys like Netflix, at most it’s what $100 a mth? $200 a mth? I wish they included internet/WiFi, cable and amazon prime membership and cell phone bills in that category then it would be somewhat more useful. Or even better, 5% off your credit card bill every mth! They wouldn’t make any money off of us if they did that. I have my CF card and it’s so useless to me half of the yr. I wish more banks had a card like US Bank+ where I think you can just pick your 5% CB category every mth. That might be my next app..after a yr of gardening since anything more than 1 new app is “credit seeking” for them it seems.

Re: Freedom Categories 2020?

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 02:57:21 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Streaming is the most useless category to get cash back. I mean honestly who is really getting the full value of streaming when at most even if you subscribe to every channel coming out (Apple +, Disney etc.) plus the old standbys like Netflix, at most it’s what $100 a mth? $200 a mth? I wish they included internet/WiFi, cable and amazon prime membership and cell phone bills in that category then it would be somewhat more useful. Or even better, 5% off your credit card bill every mth! They wouldn’t make any money off of us if they did that. I have my CF card and it’s so useless to me half of the yr. I wish more banks had a card like US Bank+ where I think you can just pick your 5% CB category every mth. That might be my next app..after a yr of gardening since anything more than 1 new app is “credit seeking” for them it seems.

US Bank+ is one I looked at. I decided against it because its 5% categories are in too many of those low spend categories.

Re: Freedom Categories 2020?

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 03:06:25 GMT

I just looked up the Us Bank categories and I see 2 of them are electronics stores and furniture stores...I could max out the $2K easily with 1 trip to IKea or Best Buy. And $2k quarterly limit is higher than CFs.

Re: Freedom Categories 2020?

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 03:11:14 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I just looked up the Us Bank categories and I see 2 of them are electronics stores and furniture stores...I could max out the $2K easily with 1 trip to IKea or Best Buy. And $2k quarterly limit is higher than CFs.

Yeah, but to have those recurring every year may not be optimal. In any given quarter, it can be great.