@yfan wrote:
Since several people have brought up the point of whether an extra point in one category was really hurting Chase, I want to address this. It may very well have been if you look at the bigger picture of URs. Chase's UR points transfer generously to many highly valued rewards programs. But those transfers don't come for free to Chase. They need to make enough from swipe fees to be able to pay for those high value transfers.
If the fans are also correct that each UR is worth somewhere around 1.6 to 2 cents when transferred, even if Chase gets a discount on those, they are still spending signifciant amounts. Add to it the fact that people are smarting up and transferring their Freedom points to CSP and using it more for the bonus categories quarterly, compounding the transferable points.
For a highly valuable transfer program like this to stay highly valuable, they need to earn swipe fees far beyond the bonus categories, find a way of restricting earning, or devalue the points. Chase is choosing the second option; slowly but surely making earning extra points from the same spend more difficult.
It would be interesting to know the cost to Chase for UR transfer. It is more or less than the 1c per UR that they have to pay people who cash out? (Citi was said to have got a lot of AA really cheaply as part of financing, but not a precise figure.)
If UR transfer is more expensive, it wouldn't amaze me if Chase one day stopped the transfer from the Freedom, and made it pure cashback like Discover IT. While that would certainly annoy some, with Freedom also being a Chase entry-level card, many people probably use it like that anyway.
