Update 4/19/21: Plastiq has confirmed in a statement that these changes have no effect on Plastiq payments, and that Plastiq does not process any payments which are cash advances so there’s no need to worry. They’ve also tested it out themselves and have not seen or heard of any cash advance issues.
We understand that Chase made an announcement a few months ago about cash-like transactions and third party payments, effective April 10. There was some concern that Plastiq’s transactions would be impacted. At the time of the announcement, we were assured by the card networks that Plastiq transactions would not be impacted by those changes and we communicated that to our customers who inquired. Transactions that would be treated as cash advances are not possible on Plastiq.
Update 4/18/21: Reposting this since it recently went into effect. I haven’t heard any practical ramifications yet, seems it was more of a warning shot. We’ll see.
Original Post:
Chase sent out an email blast today on both consumer and business credit cards indicating that beginning in April they’ll broaden the cash advance category to include many ‘cash-like transactions’. These transactions would incur a cash advance fee, and won’t earn credit card rewards.
The new rule could make things funding bank accounts, buying crypto, lotto/gambling, P2P payments on Venmo or Paypal, PayPal Key, and even using bill payment services to be considered cash advances. (Plastiq is pretty good at figuring out when their transactions will be cash advance, and I expect they’ll let us know if there are any changes.)
Cash-like transactions will be treated as cash advances. Cash-like transactions include, but are not limited to, the following transactions to the extent they are accepted:
• purchasing travelers checks, foreign currency, money orders, wire transfers, cryptocurrency, other similar digital or virtual currency and other similar transactions;
• purchasing lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, race track wagers, and similar offline and online betting transactions;
• person-to-person money transfers and account-funding transactions that transfer currency; and
• making a payment using a third party service including bill payment transactions not made directly with the merchant or their service provider.
The effective date for this change is either April 10th or 16th with some people seeing one date and some seeing the other. We won’t know for certain how all this will all play out until we get there and see what happens on the ground. Most people got this on Chase business cards, but some are getting this on personal cards too, so it seems it’ll be true across all cards.
Thinking of using Chase Freedom Unlimited to fund the US Bank offer. Any recent DPs on that? I saw one about Chase Ink posting as a purchase. Would all Chase cards code the same?
I found some DPs from March/April 2023.
Anybody have any successful or unsuccessful datapoints using Paypal “paying for an item or service” with Chase?
I’m crossposting this on https://www.doctorofcredit.com/q4-2021-5-quarterly-categories-activate-offers-suggestions-freedom-flex-discover-dividend-cash-more/ .
Tried to use my new CSP with plastiq and it’s being charged as cash advance. It looks like chase swung the hammer. Ugh..
Heads up that my most recent Chase statement has a purchase interest charge on it. The statement balance was paid off on time. I have $100 cash advance limit. I made some lottery charges with it, the balance subject to purchase interest is about 60% of the amount of the lottery charges. I’m going to call them and see what it’s all about. The lottery charges posted as purchases and earned ultimate rewards.
Ignore this, I apparently paid .68 instead of .86 on my last statement so this is not related! At least they volunteered to reverse the interest charge.
copy/paste (from emailed statements) is your friend
Does anyone know of anybody who has been successful funding a bank account with a Chase card during the last couple weeks? If so, did it post as a purchase? And what was the transaction date? (Doesn’t have to be precise, but the more recently the better.)
Venmo or other cash-like transactions are also useful case studies, though my chief interest is in bank account funding.
My cash advance limit is $100.
Outstanding! Thanks.
I was declined today CSP at a local CU that had previously worked with Chase cards. They approved the new account (a CD) but told me the credit card funding failed. CA limit $250, tried to purchase about $1k.
And you are certain that the bank in question (in your case) permits CC funding of $1000? Sometimes the problem occurs at the bank’s end (the one that has the checking or savings you are trying to fund). Even when it used to work a few years ago the bank’s internal policies or algorithms can change.
The other “fine print” thing I have seen for some banks is that Mastercards no longer work, only VISA.
Was the Chase card a direct Chase card (e.g. Sapphire family etc.) or was it a Chase co-branded card?
Yes, both P2 & I have opened multiple CDs at this CU with other Chase cards in various higher amounts in the past and the card we tried to use this time was a CSP Visa. Their application states it works with Visa & MC with a much larger max than $1k and the message we received from the rep is that the credit card was declined, not that they didn’t accept it for funding.
Yes it is certainly possible that the CU changed their policy but not their application, just providing a data point.
I took the dive with my Chase Sapphire Preferred and the $1000 funding posted several days ago as a purchase. I am encouraged that even in late May we are having a number of Chase cards/banks where bank account funding is working. If Chase had truly implemented its policy of no more funding (as a purchase) then we wouldn’t be seeing this.
Likely your CU, not Chase. p2 and I both opened new accounts with each of our CFUs and it went through yesterday.
we just made 3x > $100 Venmo P2P transactions on April 30 after setting cash advance limit to lowest possible $100. all 3 transactions went through, posted as regular purchases, and show UR points as pending.
Are the UR points from the Venmo purchases still listed as pending? And are the transactions still listed as regular purchases? I am very interested in using my recent CSP to fund a bank account, but would like to obtain some more positive datapoints before I try.
Anyone try funding Redstone CU (w/ Chase) since this policy went into effect? Shame if it no longer works.
Same question. Anyone try to fund Redstone CU with Chase since after April 16?
Hi Aaron and Blissful. There are a number of positive datapoints above which imply that the threatened revocation of all CC funding of all banks/CU accounts using ANY Chase card has not yet gone into effect. Multiple people are reporting success with CC funding using Chase cards and also cash-like transactions using Chase cards. Of course, any particular bank may refuse to code funding as a purchase with any card (Chase or otherwise) but that’s always been true.
Is Redstone supposed to be very friendly to large amounts of CC funding? Regions used to be very friendly ($2000) but a recent DoC post suggested that the limit is now $250.
I’d like to see what happens when people use their Chase cards to pay their taxes using Pay1040.com. That’s a site I use to pay my quarterly, but didn’t know this past week because I used my Amex cards to pay.
It worked for me…both state and quarterly federal.
That’s awesome, and they didn’t count it as a cash advance?
I sent money to family member via Paypal using CSR on 4/18. Looks like it posted as regular purchase, no CA fees so far. Will update if it changes.
Please do. Very curious about this.
UPDATE – statement closed and no CA fees, posted as a purchase
If Paypal Key is treated as cash advance, this move effectively kills Paypal Key