Chase Flexible Rewards Program

[Anonymous]

DF received a letter today that her Chase Universal Studios MC will be discontinued at the end of next month, and at that time her card will be converted into a Chase Flexible Rewards card.

She likes the Universal Studios rewards program because for every 900 points she gets a free movie ticket, which runs about $11 in our neighborhood, so that ends up being a pretty nice return, better than the 1% standard anyway.  Thanks to this card, we never pay to go to the movies anymore.  We probably have 5 or 6 movie passes sitting around here that we haven't even used yet.

Now that we know this card and rewards program will be discontinued, I'm curious about the Chase Flexible Rewards program.  Does anyone with access to the program have any input on how the Chase Flexible Rewards program stacks up to other programs, like Citi ThankYou Network, for example?  Is it the standard gift cards and merchandise kind of program, with the typical 0.8% return?  It doesn't sound very appealing if that's the case.

If she decides she doesn't want this card after all and would prefer Chase Freedom or something along those lines, Chase is pretty good about product change, aren't they?

[Anonymous]

What about this card Cheddar, if she wants to keep with Universal Studio's? It's not through Chase but GE.

http://www.myuniversalcard.com/

[Anonymous]

---

stef37 wrote:

What about this card Cheddar, if she wants to keep with Universal Studio's? It's not through Chase but GE.

http://www.myuniversalcard.com/

---

Thanks, stef.  I'm not sure that card would work for her, though.  She's not really interested in getting a brand new card, just in exploring the options regarding this Chase card.  The movie ticket rewards were nice, but she's willing to give them up if she can get another decent rewards program.  She's just not sure if Chase Flexible Rewards fits the bill, since you can't access the details of the program until you're enrolled in it.

I looked at the GEMB Universal Rewards program, and the movie pass is 2,000 points anyway, as opposed to 900 points in the old Chase program.  That's more than twice the required spedning for the same product!  Yowza.

Appreciate the input, anyway.

[haulingthescoreup]

I looked at the Flexible Rewards card, and I was kind of ehh.

The CSR told me that they couldn't convert my Borders card, as it's an affinity card, but that they would convert among the straight Chase cards.

I'm waiting to see if Barnes and Noble buys out Borders, in which case, maybe I'll get an offer like this! If so, I'd switch to Freedom, unless they come up with something more interesting.

[Anonymous]

---

haulingthescoreup wrote:
I looked at the Flexible Rewards card, and I was kind of ehh.

---

Were you able to find a detailed description of the rewards, including redemption options and point values?  I sure can't find it anywhere.

Bumping.  Surely someone has a Flexible Rewards card.

[haulingthescoreup]

No, they keep that carefully hidden until you get the card! Even now I don't have an online site where I can look this up. They have mailed me full-size, four-color glossy brochures showing what my points can be traded in for. These are in a stack of other Special Things around here somewhere.

That's my issue with my Borders card: points, points, and more points, and not a lot of clarity as to what the heck I can do with them.


whoops: I lied, I found the link on my statement. But it's tied to my log-in, so I don't know if you can access it. And of course, this is for the Borders. But here it is:

https://www.choosemyrewards.com/Media/C-TheBorders3-2-1Visa.pdf

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 05-31-2008 06:43 PM

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

DF received a letter today that her Chase Universal Studios MC will be discontinued at the end of next month, and at that time her card will be converted into a Chase Flexible Rewards card.

She likes the Universal Studios rewards program because for every 900 points she gets a free movie ticket, which runs about $11 in our neighborhood, so that ends up being a pretty nice return, better than the 1% standard anyway. Thanks to this card, we never pay to go to the movies anymore. We probably have 5 or 6 movie passes sitting around here that we haven't even used yet.

Now that we know this card and rewards program will be discontinued, I'm curious about the Chase Flexible Rewards program. Does anyone with access to the program have any input on how the Chase Flexible Rewards program stacks up to other programs, like Citi ThankYou Network, for example? Is it the standard gift cards and merchandise kind of program, with the typical 0.8% return? It doesn't sound very appealing if that's the case.

If she decides she doesn't want this card after all and would prefer Chase Freedom or something along those lines, Chase is pretty good about product change, aren't they?

---

I'm not sure about the converting between specialized cards or not, but they were more than happy to convert my Signature Freedom card to the normal Freedom Visa.

[Anonymous]

I changed my Chase Free Cash Rewards card to a Freedom card last year, without any problems.  My credit line, history and APR remained unchanged.  Chase even transferred my rewards points to the new card.  The rep told me that the only thing that was going to change on my account was my rewards program. 

[Anonymous]

Cheddar,

This website explains the basics of the Chase Flexible Rewards card (generally issued as a Platinum Visa). I've carried one of these ($4k limit, 8% fixed APR) for about 3.5 years now and would say it is overall a general basic rewards card (1% everywhere, but often 2% during certain times of the year). You'd also have access to Chase Rewards Plus shopping, of course, for those specific stores that yield 10-15% rewards. This card came into being around the height of the rewards card frenzy earlier this decade but has since been surpassed by the Freedom product line in my opinion. Originally, this was for those with excellent credit but has since slipped to good, I believe (the Freedom kind of took its place in the excellent credit category). Chase doesn't advertise it, but they do have a Signature tier version of this card available - assuming you want one and can score a credit line of at least $5000. That number seems to be the breaking point for at least Capital One and Chase regarding Platinums and World/Signature cards.

http://www.chasecreditcards.com/chase-flexible-rewards.asp    OR

http://www.firstusa.com/cgi-bin/webcgi/webserve.cgi?partner_dir_name=cac_chase_flex_rewards&page=ind...

(I recommend the 2nd link)