Speculation at this point:
In the Chase login it’s showing the Sapphire Reserve ‘Pay Yourself Back’ categories of Gas, Annual Fee, Select Charities at 1.25% are being extended through June 30, 2024. However, the Grocery category 1.25% is still showing the March 31 deadline which seems to indicate it’s ending soon.
For me this is a big blow as my Gas category usage is limited whereas Grocery is easy for me. You’ll want to cash out whatever you can before the 31st. Possibly purchases made today, 3/29, will show as available for cashout by Sunday, 3/31. (I don’t recall how these things settle over weekends.)
Hat tip to reader Celia
Costco pharmacy worked
DP : 03/29 charges did post today (in time). New categories seem to be live. “Wholesale clubs” & “Pet supply stores & services”.
Honestly wholesale clubs isn’t that bad, might even be better than groceries.
My grocery charge from 3/30 that posted on 3/31 didn’t show up for PYB until 4/1 and is NOT able to use the previous 25% bonus
Wholesale clubs is a pleasant surprise. If I end up getting a CSR, I might just have to find a good deal to get a new BJ’s membership.
What’s up with Chase war groceries, we only get 5% on$1500/yrs with the Flex and that’s it. This is the main reason I keep the Amex gold.
Pay Yourself Back was a lockdown-era program that gave cardholders some value when they were unable or unwilling to travel. The types of categories and value per point have dwindled as travel rebounded. I’m surprised that 1.25 cpp for gas stations is still included for another quarter.
All that is left for CIP at 1.25 cpp is Chase’s select list of left wing charities. I foresee Chase only keeping the charity list and annual fee for the CSR into the future.
I’ve cashed out $20-25k over the past few years.. been a good run. Especially hurts cause I’m half way into my double cash back freedom unlimited that I’ve been maxing out at pharmacies
how many gcs out of every 10 you get are bad and need replacement?
Is 1.25 cpp considered good value for Ultimate Rewards points these days? I never really considered this redemption as I considered the value to be higher (at least 1.5). Am I missing something?
I’ve cashed out over $20k in the past 3-4 years through UR grocery PYB. Much more appealing to have cash in hand (invested) than being forced to spend it on the portal which I don’t think is really competitive most of the time. And trust me I’m good at math
It’s not. I suppose if you are on team cash back, you can make more than 2% on Chase’s bonus categories across their UR card portfolio. But transfer partners remain the most lucrative way to utilize UR points.
I was able to net 6cpp on a few recent Hyatt redemptions as a point of comparison.
Some people MS millions of UR per month and don’t want to live in a hyatt. cpp talk is largely meaningless anyway, if you could convert the UR to 6cpp you’d surely pick a better deal than the hyatt you ended up at. Broker rate is > 1.25cpp so pyb is mostly useless.
NO, but this is a mindless way to spend UR point better than 1.0CPP.
Majority of people don’t like to go through the trouble to get point transfer out and
think about how to maximize the point value
Or they’re just not doing enough travel to use millions of points
When you are generating millions of UR per year, you’re never going to be able to spend them all on travel.
Oh man, that sucks. Never used the grocery cash out option yet as I figure 1.5x on travel portal hotels/cruises is a slightly better deal than 1.25x on groceries. Plus I’d have to put the spend on the CSR instead of on whatever new card SUB I am working on.
Still a nice “safety valve” to cash out big $$$ if I ever wanted to get a bunch of cash instead of tons of points for travel.
That’s fine. The pyb program has always been a scam. It’s great for those with no math skills but otherwise useless.
Not everyone travels, so for those people, getting 1.25X is better than getting 1X. If you can’t understand that, maybe you are the one with no math skills.
But for someone who doesn’t travel- wouldn’t they not even have the Sapphire Reserve card at all? It’s a high annual fee card, and most (all?) of the benefits you get for that fee are travel-related.
Normally, you would be correct. However, during Covid-19, I converted 1 of my CFs to a CSR so I could get 1.5X on my large amount of UR points that I had been hoarding.
I am considering applying for a CSR soon so I can get the SUB and so I can get 1.25X (rather than 1X) on my large amount of UR that I have accumulated since I closed my CSR. This update (if correct) could put a wrinkle into my strategy though.
CSP usually has a significantly better SUB than CSR.
Seems to be the same
https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/23Q4/sapphire/dual?
Right now. But about 80% of the time CSP has better SUB.
Even if what you wrote is correct, that wouldn’t do me any good for my plan to cash out my UR stash at 1.25X.
I have a lot of 5x spend on Ink cards that nobody else offers, personally – and I don’t travel nearly as often as I used to so having non-travel redemptions for UR points is important.
Freedom rotating 5x is also hard to beat.
When you acquire UR inexpensively through churning inks, PYB can make sense
CSR used to have an edge over the CSP but after the CSP was refreshed, I’m not sure why anyone wants the CSR long-term over the CSP, especially after the PYB nerf.
CSP offers the same transfer partners, same rental car insurance, only slightly worse travel insurance, and the same 3x on dining. It even offers 3x on online grocery which the CSR doesn’t even have. Don’t tell me Lyft Pink, $5/month in Doordash, and $15/month in Instacart make up for the difference.
The 1.5 in travel portal redemption makes the difference for me. The DD, Instacart, etc are just bonuses. But I suppose like any credit card, it depends on the user. 🙂
Got a 3/27 store charge that hasn’t posted yet so I’m not gonna try anything today