Update 10/6/24: A lot of people wanted to buy gift cards at CVS to earn 7x. However, it seems that recently the CVS system is not allowing Visa gift cards and other gift cards to be purchased with Paypal. The system only allows the fee to be paid that way and leaves the main balance for another payment method. (AFAIK, you can still pay with a credit card directly, but that won’t help for the use case being discussed.) You can still use this idea to get 7x on regular purchases from CVS.
Original Post 9/14/24:
Chase has released the 5%/5x categories on their Freedom and Freedom Flex cards for the fourth quarter of 2024, up to $1,500 in purchases:
- PayPal
- McDonald’s – this should be 7x on the Freedom Flex card since that card always gets 2x bonus points at Restaurants
- Pet Shops and Vet Services
- Select Charities – Direct donations to the following charities are eligible: American Red Cross, Equal Justice Initiatives, Feeding America, Habitat for Humanity, International Medical Corps, International Rescue Committee, Leadership Conference Education Fund, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, National Urban League, Thurgood, Marshall College Fund, United Negro College Fund, UNICEF USA, United Way, World Central Kitchen, GLSEN, Out and Equal and Sage.
Paypal is an easy win. Some people might find the other categories useful as well. Remember that you can use Paypal to pay taxes; give charity; pay at millions of businesses like Walmart.com, Bestbuy.com etc; and even possibly pay in-store at some locations. It should also be possible to send money to a friend using the Family & Friends option for a 2.9% fee.
It’s been mentioned the possibility of using Paypal at CVS stores to get 7x on the Freedom Flex card since that card also earns 2x extra points at Drugstores. (Update: this doesn’t seem to work.)
I don’t know if I missed this but I just received a new Freedom card and it does not have the embossed numbers. Finally!
I described my positive experience in Acme in #1936819 a couple of days ago. Today, I had a very different experience.
I went to the same Acme as last week. There was only 1 cashier open and I was surprised that there was no one on line at all.
Last week, it took me a couple of minutes to load the PP app and the people behind me had to wait. I didn’t want to be inconsiderate so this time I pulled to the left to load up the app before going on line.
Just as I loaded it, a woman with a cart filled with $450+ of goods cut in front of me. I feared this was a bad omen.
After that woman paid, I told the cashier (a different cashier than last week) that I wanted to load $500 to the gc. She immediately called a supervisor or manager. That manager/supervisor came over and asked to see my card and ID.
I explained that I was paying using the PP app and that it had worked fine last week. She insisted that she see my card anyway.
I had my physical CFF on me and I took it out. I then showed her that the same 4 digits on my physical card were shown on the card that I selected on the PP app.
That was not good enough for her. She insisted that the card on the app show my name also. I didn’t know how to view my name on the app so I left without making a purchase.
Do any of you know if there is a way to pull up my name and card # on the PP app? If not, what could I have done better to avoid this negative situation, if anything?
BTW, some of you might be interested in this comment that I just made in another post: #1938304 .
PayPal successful at CVS. Initially, I tried to use Google Pay with PayPal as the default payment method. It requested a six digit PIN for the credit card purchase. It failed. Finally, the cashier asked me to use PayPal app and scanned QR code which was successful.
PayPal successful at McDonald’s fast food restaurants. I had configured PayPal as the default payment option in the McDonald’s app but the first time it used Google Pay where I used Chase Freedom Flex as payment. The second I tested I was able to use PayPal as default app. Both showed 5X back.
In the past, I have used PayPal at Walmart. I needed to configure PayPal as the default payment in the Walmart app.
PayPal does not recognize default payment methods. I have learned from previous experience to remove all other payment methods from PayPal. For example, I have Chase Freedom original as my default payment method in PayPal. However, PayPal used my Chase Freedom Flex to pay my automatic Hulu subscription.
You successfully purchased what at CVS? Many of us have mentioned that it didn’t work on Visa gc anymore, not that it doesn’t work on anything.
Any dp on using freedom+paypal to irs taxes and still earn 5%
I don’t have a personal DP for the Freedom, but this should be fine. Tax payments count as purchases and earn points normally, so they will qualify for the quarterly bonus. Do note the 1500 max limit though.
I made a comment over a week ago that I went to Acme and the CS rep refused to let me even try to use my QR code to pay for a Visa gc. Last week, I went to a different Acme.
Instead of going to CS, I went to a regular cashier and attempted to purchase a Visa gc using my QR code. Instead of asking for permission like I did before, I simply pulled up the PP app on my phone and showed it to the cashier to pay.
He scanned the QR code 2 or 3 times but nothing happened. I then thought of clicking on the QR code with my finger to zoom in so the QR code took up the entire screen. The cashier scanned the QR code again and the transaction went through and my receipt printed out.
It took almost a week total for the transaction to post and for the Rewards to show. It showed up as “Professional services” for the “Merchant type” so it would not count as “Grocery” doing it this way.
Of course that’s a moot point for this promo, but it could be important to know for future promos.
askmrlee wrote something similar in this post.
Anyway, I confirmed on Chase’s site that I received 5% CB for the purchase for “PayPal”.
Thanks for your interesting DP. I would test Kroger out next time.
Kroger doesn’t accept PayPal. It can only done at Albertsons and their subsidiaries
I don’t usually shop at Kroger but it shows available for in-store QR code payment in the PayPal app.
Where in the app are you able to see stores that accept it?
Also, do you know the answers to either of my questions in my long comment?
Here they are again: “Do any of you know if there is a way to pull up my name and card # on the PP app? If not, what could I have done better to avoid this negative situation, if anything?”
Menu –> In-person & QR Code –> Pay with PayPal nearby
I guess self-checkout is the answer to your question.
That’s a nice find by you. It only shows up to 5 miles though. There was nothing of interest that I found so far. There were many CVS stores that showed up, which was like a punch in the gut.
I looked back at your previous reply to me and you told me that you purchased a Visa gc at SCO. How much was the Visa gc? The reason that I ask is because I know that CVS limits the amount of the Visa gc that can be purchased at SCO and I’m wondering if Safeway stores do the same thing.
500
You were correct that it works at SCO. However, you apparently forgot to mention to me that it requires an override by a worker at that amount. 😉
Thanks for the update. You sure are persistent! Interesting that it was shown as Professional services. Mine simply says ” Paypal* Safeway……Groceries
Yes, I sure am. 😀
For me, it shows “PAYPAL * ACME” under “Description” but it shows “Professional services” under “Category”. Are you saying that it shows “Groceries” there for you?
In the interest of science to see how many offers I can stack, I tried to use PayPal to mobile order McDonald’s. The dang thing automatically used my PayPal Mastercard, even though all of my settings are set to use my Freedom Flex.
Figured it out, evidently when you first add your PayPal account to the McDonalds app it makes you choose at that time which card it uses. You can’t choose per check out.
Not that anyone wants to eat McDonalds right now.
I just downloaded the Mcd’s app for the first time to see if I can stack it with Paypal’s 10% offer. Will find out tomorrow.
Shoprite and Safeway works. You have to “show” the QR code instead of scanning the QR code.
Did you try it for Visa gc at both places?
Can you clarify what you mean by “You have to “show” the QR code instead of scanning the QR code.”?
Can confirm that it works for other stores of the Safeway family too.
Sucks to not get the 7% for drug stores, but at least it’s somewhat easy to churn through all my Freedoms…
Safeway works for in-store PayPal payment; however, using it to buy a gift card did not work.
My flex card had 5% grocery and gas for a year and I wanted to stack it with 5% PayPal. Went to Safeway, bought $15 Starbucks gift card, scanned the QR code at customer service (they didn’t know what that was) and actually got 9% back.
Went I tried to do the same with $500 gift card, payment didn’t go through. So I guess it is working but for smaller amounts. Same thing with gas stations. I bought Shell gift card for $100 and got 9% back but $200 transaction didn’t go through.
Was the $500 gc a Visa gc or some other kind of gc?
Are you sure that it wasn’t a fraud alert that prevented it from going through?
It was a Target gift card for 500. I would think it’s probably fraud alerts because smaller amounts worked for me.
I used my Freedom Flex to buy VGCs on thegiftcardshop since they accept Paypal and have a code for 100% off fees. The charge posted today with no points awarded. I’m wondering if Chase is starting to crack down on cash-like transactions.
could you contact chase support and ask why no points were awarded?
PayPal fails when I try to pay National Grid gas and electric utilities bills. I get an error message that my accounts are not recognized. Any have success paying National Grid with PayPal? Failure and error messages as well?
If you’re trying to use PayPal Bill Pay, I’ve had the same problem.