I can't find an example at present, but I can confirm by experience that with Freedom when buying something that earned you quarterly 5% and then *within that quarter* returning it, you'll lose the 5% and it will also reverse the amount you've spent of the bonus limit for the quarter. For example, if you had maxed out your bonus spending at $1,500 and returned $500 worth of stuff, then you'll be back to earning 5% on the next $500 of merchandise. But it doesn't retroactively affect previous spending over the limit. Again, with the previous example, if you had kept bonus spending after the $1,500 and thus had only earned 1% on that overage, then even when a later return will bring you back down below the $1,500, Chase won't adjust the bonus up on the purchases you had spent when over the $1,500 even though now the return has brought you below $1,500.
Now, once the quarter is over (excepting the rare occasions where a category persists from one quarter to the next), then returns will result in only 1% loss of rewards (and will not affect the $1,500 spending limit for the current quarter). You could exploit this, of course. Go out between now and the end of June and spend $1,500 at Home Depot or Lowes (obviously this exploit is more difficult with categories like grocery or gas), earning 7500 URP. Then on July 1, waltz back into the store and return the $1,500 of merchandise, losing 1500 URP. That's a nice $60 cash profit. To a smaller extent I've done this, not completely intentionally. Not sure exactly what I'd need, I've overbought, knowing that I'd be returning some stuff, and "procrastinate" on the return until the start of the next quarter. I suspect that if you really game this, the store and/or Chase will get wise and slap your wrist or worse. Buyer (and returner) beware.
It's been a while, but with Discover, I've found that even within the quarter, returns may only lose the base rewards. YMMV.
Chris.
