Rumors abound that Uber increases the price of rides for those with Uber gift cards, promos, or credits on their accounts. I wasn’t comfortable posting about this without having solid data until a reader linked us to this Youtube video. It’s not exactly the same discussion, but it leads in the same direction.
Many people have suggested, anecdotally, when they have an Uber credit in their account they’ll get charged more for the ride. For example, if Uber knows you’re getting $15 off the ride with your AmEx Platinum credit, they can charge you more for the ride since you’ll still end up with “a good price” and probably better than on Lyft.
- VFTW wrote about this recently and suggests using your Uber credits on UberEATS purchases where you should be able to monitor that pricing is consistent.
Even more shocking, multiple people seem to be noticing that when they have Uber Cash in their Uber account their ride fares are higher.
See also this Reddit report of someone who tested it out with two Uber accounts and found these issues as well.
- Reader King offers a suggestion: apparently, Uber allows you to apply gift card credit for previous orders, up to 30 days prior. And so you can save your Uber gift cards and then every 30 days load up your Uber balance with the amount needed to cover the prior 30 days of purchases.
- A similar suggestion is to charge the ride to your card and then change it to a gift card afterward. Some suggest even this can help control costs (despite the gift card balance being there in your account).
- These tricks only helps control the gift card overpricing, it won’t help control for credits or promos on the account.
- Another benefit of adding the Uber Cash afterward is keeping the initial charge on a credit card for added security. When getting overcharged on a gift card payment there is little recourse, like I learned the hard way.
We’ve also heard multiple reports/rumors of those with the Chase Sapphire Reserve card saved in their Lyft wallet get quoted higher prices on Lyft. The idea is similar: since Lyft knows you’re getting 10% back they can charge you more.
Overall I’ve seen less complaints of Lyft’s pricing algorithms than those of Uber, yet there does appear to be some shady pricing going on there too. We haven’t yet heard of people complaining that Lyft charges more when a gift card balance is saved to the account.
- A reader gave us the following suggestion for Lyft: delete the Sapphire Reserve card from your saved payment methods and pay with Apple Pay using the Sapphire Reserve as the Apple Pay payment source. This way, Lyft won’t up-charge and you’ll still get the 10x from the credit card.
In my opinion this is all scandalous and likely illegal: you can’t offer a benefit (for which people are paying a hefty annual fee) which is then negated with higher pricing. And the gift card overcharging from Uber seems like outright fraud.
Had two 40 percent off promos, one expiring later this month and another expiring next month, until yesterday. Had added 100 in Uber cash last week. Now both promos gone
The Uber cash was bought for 75 for 100 worth from Costco, and for some reason I’ve got free Uber one for the next six months. So it all is kind of a wash
But nevertheless, shady. Why take my promos away, huh
I also wonder if they charge more for Business Uber. Seems like if a user is going to expense the ride, there would be less of a concern on price for em.
Not to say Uber/lyft never done this, but I just checked on my wife’s phone with my Plat credit and she using a visa and the prices were within 10 cents.
My Lyft has CSR and hers has a CSP and her rates are marginally better. I have a 50% promo but the “before” rates are about $3 higher for an identical ride.
So on the rare instance I need a ride somewhere, I’ll keep comparing the rates
When I am out with friends I almost always get lower prices with them at the same time going to the same destination.Uber has pricing that figures out how gullible likely they think a rider will be and pay the stated fare.They now know that folks are addicted to ride share.Even when taxis may be less than half the price folks still click for an uber/lyft and wait longer
If you frequently don’t book & pay their higher rates you will likely see lower pricing when they are slow enough to get you to bite the next time you click for a ride.I do the gift card thing and I haven’t noticed the problem of higher rates but my perception is it really depends where you live and driver demand as how many games they will play
Personally, I don’t believe it. It is highly illegal and would be a massive class action lawsuit and secondly it would completely ruin Uber’s reputation. Uber’s partnerships with Costco and AMEX would be finished. Just can’t imagine them being that stupid.
It always amazes me how conspiracy theories like this get mainstreamed.
There is also the rumor that you’ll get charged more with uber if your battery is low. Go figure…
I’m sure people are charged differently going to the same location but that is due to uber’s pricing model which takes into account time of day, demand, etc. etc. etc. It’s not
about whether you have a gift card balance or whether your battery is low.
You can personally believe this is a conspiracy theory all you want. I for one believe the price fixing is true and have experienced it myself with Lyft.
With the pricing algorithm being a black box, they can charge you whatever they feel like and how can you argue? But at least this community has provided some useful tips to working around their shenanigans until the government catches up with them.
Uber has always been shady. Check out the Wikipedia article on all of the controversies it has been involved with over the years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_surrounding_Uber
By your logic, no large company would ever intentionally violate the law because it’s too risky, or they are too well advised. History is littered with examples to the contrary.
Including how such services flaunted the laws when they started up.
I have a feeling Lyft disabled my ability to use a family plan. They know I’m getting 10% back on my Sapphire Reserve. I’ve had a pending ticket for them to fix the issue for over a year now. One day I was no longer able to add more people .
Has anyone filed a complaint with the FTC, DOJ, and DOT? This is completely illegal.
My experience as well. I expect this will blow up in the near future.
Wonder if Amazon is doing the same if you have a promo or gift balance. I wouldn’t be surprised
I don’t think Amazon do this. My girl friend’s price always same as mine while I usally have a large amount of Amazon gift card.
Amazon does frequently give you a lower price if you have a business account, but I don’t think they hide the fact that this is the case.
I thought this was common knowledge. I found out about two months ago. I tested it by using card versus gift card over and over for the same trip, canceling and reordering. Using uber credit was CONSISTENTLY about 5 dollars more expensive