Credit card companies have added all kinds of temporary perks and benefits in light of the current pandemic. One very popular limited time perk that Chase introduced, known as “Pay Yourself Back”, has been confirmed to be extended.
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Apply Now: Open a Chase Sapphire Preferred card and receive 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening – that’s $750 towards travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Chase “Pay Yourself Back” Feature
Earlier this year, Chase added the new feature “Pay Yourself Back” along with a bunch of other awesome, but temporary benefits.
The “Pay Yourself Back” is available on select Chase consumer and business credit cards. It allows those cardholders to redeem points for cash at favorable rates under categories like grocery store, dining, and home improvement store purchases:
- Chase Sapphire Reserve card can redeem Ultimate Rewards points for 1.5 cents per point towards eligible purchases
- Chase Sapphire Preferred card can redeem Ultimate Rewards points for 1.25 cents per point towards eligible purchases
- Chase Freedom card can redeem Ultimate Reward points for 1.25 cents per point towards eligible purchases
- Chase Ink Business line of cards can redeem Ultimate Rewards points for 1.25 cents per point towards eligible purchases
Chase is offering great sign-up bonuses for those that want this benefit, but don’t have an eligible card:
- Chase Sapphire Preferred card: 60,000 point sign-up bonus (worth $750)
- Chase Business Ink cards: $750 to $1,000 cash bonus
Normally, you’d earn only 1.0 cent per point on purchases. For example, if I wanted $100 in cash back, I’d need to redeem 10,000 points. You can calculate the 1.0 cent per point value by dividing $100 over 10,000 (100 ÷ 10,000 = .01):
“Pay Yourself Back” Extension
This limited time feature was initially planned to be only available through September 30, 2020.
Recently however, the Chase PR team has confirmed via email that this benefit indefinitely:
- The eligible purchase categories could change each month/quarter (right now it’s grocery stores, dining, and home improvement stores)
- The eligible purchase categories could rotate on a regular basis
Obviously great news for consumers.
Before this feature was introduced, the only way to get more than 1.0 cent per point through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal was to book flights and hotels.
The pandemic has really changed consumer spending behavior so it’s great that there are other valuable redemption opportunities being added.
How To Use “Pay Yourself Back”
Using the “Pay Yourself Back” feature is really easy. All you have to do is follow these 3 simple steps:
Step 1: Go To The Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal
You can find the “Pay Yourself Back” benefit by logging into your Chase account and clicking through to the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal – or – you can enter the portal directly.
Once you’re on the Ultimate Rewards site, you’ll find the Pay Yourself Back icon as a drop down menu under the Earn/Use tab:
Step 2: Select Eligible Purchases To Pay Yourself Back With
The next screen will show all your eligible purchases you can pay yourself back for. You can select just one transaction or multiple ones.
You have 90 days from your purchase date to use this feature. Any eligible transaction that is more than 90 days old will stop showing.
For simplicity sake, I’m going to convert my $500 I spent at a grocery store called Market Basket:
Step 3: Enter The Dollar Amount To Get Back
On the final screen, it will ask you how much cash you want and show you the points needed in order to redeem for that cash amount.
I want to get the entire $500 back so I’m going to apply for the full amount. It tells me this will take 33,333 points. Since I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, this translates to a cash back rate of 1.5 cents per point (500 ÷ 33,333 = .015):
If I had redeemed it through the traditional cash back option, you can see I would have needed 50,000 points instead of the 33,333 points for the “Pay Yourself Back” feature:
The Bottom Line
This is big news!
Cash is king in the current environment and many people have been hoarding Chase points for aspirational travel redemptions. With travel in flux, this is a great way to transfer points to cold hard cash.
Personally, I won’t burn all my points with this. I’m still hoping the world fully opens up by 2023 and my family can go somewhere nice at that time, but I’m definitely redeeming a chunk.
Earning millions of points is easy – turning them for cash at a decent value is not.
What are other ninjas doing with your points? Are you guys keeping them? Using all of it?
Apply Now: Open a Chase Sapphire Preferred card and receive 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening – that’s $750 towards travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
