Author Topic: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature  (Read 24097 times)

bryan995

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #150 on: September 23, 2021, 08:45:55 PM »
Staying true to the thread title, prior to the pandemic we had a little over $6000 worth of chase points saved up.  We were planning for some epic travel but ended up burning all of it via the pay-yourself-back-feature throughout the past 18 months.  Saved a ton on various spending categories (granted it was all free point via sign up bonuses).  They mis-classified clothing stores, home supply stores etc.  It was working on far more than 'dining'.

Just transferred a final $1000 of points from my freedom card to my wifes CSR card to applied it all to previous purchases.  Will now be cancelling the CSR.  Great program, would love to partake again - thank you chase.

That was intentional. https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/how-to-use-chase-pay-yourself-back

Oh interesting. Maybe it started as only dining? Either way - was a great use of the points!

dragoncar

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #151 on: September 23, 2021, 11:28:22 PM »
Downgraded the CSR on Tuesday.  Immediately the new card displayed in the dashboard.  Today I looked under "open an account" and saw the CSP offered.  Applied with referral link and approved.  So it only took 2 business days for me, but it seems like the "open an account" offerings are an accurate indication that you're eligible for another sapphire card again.

I was getting antsy about missing the 100k promo, even though there's really no indication it's going away soon

dragoncar

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #152 on: October 04, 2021, 12:51:35 AM »
Looks like they changed up the categories:

Airbnb and Away (through awaytravel.com), dining at restaurants (including takeout and eligible delivery services) and select charities

Pretty useless to me, so I'll probably wait for better categories or travel plans before jumping back to the CSR

Duke03

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #153 on: October 04, 2021, 07:04:26 PM »
Looks like they changed up the categories:

Airbnb and Away (through awaytravel.com), dining at restaurants (including takeout and eligible delivery services) and select charities

Pretty useless to me, so I'll probably wait for better categories or travel plans before jumping back to the CSR

You can always book an Airbnb a few months out in advance then use the PYB feature and cancel the booking.....thus refunding the Airbnb back to the account and you'd have a statement credit to spend as you'd like or request a check to yourself as a 100% cash out......

dragoncar

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #154 on: October 04, 2021, 08:45:28 PM »
Looks like they changed up the categories:

Airbnb and Away (through awaytravel.com), dining at restaurants (including takeout and eligible delivery services) and select charities

Pretty useless to me, so I'll probably wait for better categories or travel plans before jumping back to the CSR

You can always book an Airbnb a few months out in advance then use the PYB feature and cancel the booking.....thus refunding the Airbnb back to the account and you'd have a statement credit to spend as you'd like or request a check to yourself as a 100% cash out......

We got an evil genius here, folks!

dragoncar

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Jack0Life

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #156 on: October 08, 2021, 10:59:32 PM »
Yes, the online sign up is back to 60,000 now.
I still have a referral link I created before for 100,000. If you still want the 100k, hit me up.

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #157 on: October 11, 2021, 11:44:32 AM »
dining at restaurants (including takeout and eligible delivery services)

This category doesn't exist for my Sapphire account, just Airbnb, AwayAll and Select charities.  Bummer, glad I redeemed 50k points last month!

seattlecyclone

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #158 on: October 11, 2021, 11:54:50 AM »
Lol, they let me "pay myself back" for an Airbnb trip I booked earlier in the summer and later cancelled. The booking and original refund both occurred prior to the points redemption, and prior to Airbnb being pay-yourself-back-able at all.

cannotWAIT

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #159 on: October 16, 2021, 10:07:08 AM »
Looks like they changed up the categories:

Airbnb and Away (through awaytravel.com), dining at restaurants (including takeout and eligible delivery services) and select charities

Pretty useless to me, so I'll probably wait for better categories or travel plans before jumping back to the CSR

You can always book an Airbnb a few months out in advance then use the PYB feature and cancel the booking.....thus refunding the Airbnb back to the account and you'd have a statement credit to spend as you'd like or request a check to yourself as a 100% cash out......

I stupidly missed the window to redeem my CSP Pay Yourself Back points for Home Depot purchases, of which I had MANY. Frustrating! So are you saying that I could book an Airbnb for let's say $1250, use my 100,000 points to pay for it (getting the 25% bump), cancel, then I would have a $1250 statement credit? Is this a strategy known to work? I would have assumed they would either refund it as points or at least claw back the $250 bump.

dragoncar

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #160 on: October 16, 2021, 01:12:09 PM »
You have to be careful to book a fully refundable Airbnb… each place has different rules and some are extremely inflexible.  But yeah, try it.  As long as it’s refundable the most you can lose is a little time trying it

elaine amj

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #161 on: October 26, 2021, 10:45:45 PM »
I have done this before with Expedia (book and cancel). Be super careful reading the cancellation policy. You don't want to find any part of it not refundable.

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elaine amj

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #162 on: October 26, 2021, 11:01:45 PM »
If you want premium travel, I agree - using your UR points to transfer to other reward programs is much more lucrative.

For us, we have a family of 4 and my priority is to stretch my limited points to as many trips as possible. Using our points for premium travel would give me fewer trips.

E.g. previous example of using Hyatt points.


I have always transfer Chase pts to Hyatt or Southwest. Best value for your points.
Most Hyatt Place are 8,000 pts and that translate to $100 in PYB. I usually only use points for Hyatt when I can get 1.5x or 2x the value.
We went to Paris and stayed at the Hyatt Regency Paris Étoile which cost 15k/night. At that time the rooms were over $500/night making it over 3x the value.
Southwest is the same .A lot of their one way flights are under 10k. Especially is you have companion pass for SW, the points become even sweeter.

I'd have 3 options:
- spend 8000 pts for Hyatt Place
- spend 15000 pts for Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile
- get $100 statement credit in PYB and stay at a Comfort Inn for $40.

While I'd enjoy a stay at the Hyatt regency and that is the most return on point value, with PYB, I'd get over 4 nights stay at a heavily discounted Comfort Inn compared to one night at the fancy Hyatt Regency.

I should note that I do splurge with my points every once in a while :) But overall, we are fine with staying at a Comfort Inn. Especially since it has free breakfast lol.

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Can you please point out to some Comfort Inn for $40 ?? That should include taxes.
I must admit that I have never stayed in a Comfort Inn but a quick check for Comfort Inn runs around $60-$100 not including taxes.
I don't doubt you can find some Comfort Inn for $40 on deals from time to time but $40 is no where near the norm. You can't even find Motel 6 for $40 these days.

When I post Hyatt for 8000 pts, that's the norm. I can pretty much travel to most cities and find Hyatt Place for 8000 pts. There are also plenty of Hyatt for 5000 pts. In fact outside the US, there are very nice Hyatt for 5000 pts.

My last inquiry is where can I find a Comfort Inn in any where near Paris ??
You'll be lucky to find a night stay in Paris for $200.
Hyatt and Comfort Inn aren't in the same category.
If you're looking just for a place to sleep, then that's fine but that's like saying a why buy a Lexus when a Kia when get me from point A to point B just fine.

We're here on MMM after all - a Kia suits me just fine.  I did point out your strategy is perfect for premium travel. Just saying budget travel works fine for me and suggesting a different way of valuing the points.

I do occasionally splurge if it is a resort with tons of included amenities (like the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress which doesn't charge the resort fee for award stays - so free kayaks, canoes, aquabikes, surrey bikes, rock climbing, pitch n putt golf, driving range, etc etc) or a super convenient location where I want to be.

For Comfort Inn, every year the US Travel Association runs the Daily Getaways promo (actually happening right now). For $285 you can scoop up 55,000 Choice points ($0.0052/pt). Comfort/Quality Inns start at 8000 points or $41.45 per night.

That said, if I had been in Paris and wanted to stay in the location of your Hyatt Regency and couldn't find anything under $200/night, I would have used the 15,000 points and enjoyed the luxury. That said, the $500/night valuation is meaningless to me as I wouldn't pay over maybe $150 a night unless I had a really, really good reason. I value the points at the max I would pay in cash - not the actual hotel cost.

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« Last Edit: October 26, 2021, 11:03:33 PM by elaine amj »

dragoncar

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #163 on: May 10, 2022, 07:14:59 PM »

You can always book an Airbnb a few months out in advance then use the PYB feature and cancel the booking.....thus refunding the Airbnb back to the account and you'd have a statement credit to spend as you'd like or request a check to yourself as a 100% cash out......

Update: I’m trying this

After a couple CSP bonuses and Freedom categories, we need to cash out like 300k in points.  When my CSP annual fee hit I asked them to product change to reserve to get the 1.5x on the points.  Booked some kind of rip-off motel for $1k/night about 12 months from now… fully refundable. 

Hopefully it goes smoothly.  Not sure if I’m going to ask them to cash out my negative balance or try to transfer it to another account

edit: sorry duke, this was your brilliant idea and I quoted myself!
« Last Edit: May 10, 2022, 11:02:05 PM by dragoncar »

elaine amj

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #164 on: May 10, 2022, 07:46:34 PM »
Cashing out a negative balance is easy - just call and ask them to mail u a check.


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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #165 on: May 10, 2022, 08:24:00 PM »
You have to be careful to book a fully refundable Airbnb… each place has different rules and some are extremely inflexible.  But yeah, try it.  As long as it’s refundable the most you can lose is a little time trying it

Update: I’m trying this

After a couple CSP bonuses and Freedom categories, we need to cash out like 300k in points.  When my CSP annual fee hit I asked them to product change to reserve to get the 1.5x on the points.  Booked some kind of rip-off motel for $1k/night about 12 months from now… fully refundable. 

Hopefully it goes smoothly.  Not sure if I’m going to ask them to cash out my negative balance or try to transfer it to another acount

So you're spending points for the motel but getting refunded in real money (x1.5)? That's great, if so. I got the x1.5 on a few pay yourself back categories, but I was only using it for the SUB so I quit using the card.
And does the reserve have a yearly fee? I'm going to need to downgrade soon, too.

charis

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #166 on: May 10, 2022, 08:51:47 PM »
You have to be careful to book a fully refundable Airbnb… each place has different rules and some are extremely inflexible.  But yeah, try it.  As long as it’s refundable the most you can lose is a little time trying it

Update: I’m trying this

After a couple CSP bonuses and Freedom categories, we need to cash out like 300k in points.  When my CSP annual fee hit I asked them to product change to reserve to get the 1.5x on the points.  Booked some kind of rip-off motel for $1k/night about 12 months from now… fully refundable. 

Hopefully it goes smoothly.  Not sure if I’m going to ask them to cash out my negative balance or try to transfer it to another acount

Can you explain this hack? Or should I read the entire thread?

dragoncar

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #167 on: May 10, 2022, 10:51:57 PM »

Can you explain this hack? Or should I read the entire thread?

It's a long thread so I'll summarize:

Someone else discussed above but basically you book a fully refundable AirBnb with your Reserve (CSR), say for example $1500.  You pay in full at booking.  You don't "pay with points" through the Chase portal, but book directly at AirBNB.

Through 6/30, you get a 1.5x multiplier on points used for AirBnb using a feature called "pay yourself back".  It was previously other categories, and pundits think chase will continue extend the program again, possibly with different categories.  But for now, we are only concerned with AirBNB

Once the charge posts, you visit the "pay yourself back" tab in the chase rewards website and select that charge.  In this example, you can spend 100k points to pay off the $1500 airbnb charge.  Within a couple days, chase posts a $1500 credit to your account.  Then you cancel the AirBNB and a few days or maybe a week later AirBNB refunds the original $1500.  So now you have a -$1500 balance.  You can ask chase to cash it out or use it to offset other spending. 

The point is that you aren't locked into booking through the chase travel portal to realize the 1.5x CSR bonus.  First, I prefer booking directly with airlines and hotels... the chase travel portal is backed by expedia and they kinda suck although I've never had an unresolvable issue (in my case I have a lap infant and I can't book that online I have to call).  Second, maybe you don't have any travel planned and want to liquidate your points.  Third, even if you wanted to use your points towards travel, if you spend points for a booking through the chase travel portal you don't earn any more points.  If you do it this way, you can still book the same trip and get the 3x points on that booking (worth 4.5%)

And bonus I also got the $300 travel credit since I just upgraded.


So you're spending points for the motel but getting refunded in real money (x1.5)? That's great, if so. I got the x1.5 on a few pay yourself back categories, but I was only using it for the SUB so I quit using the card.
And does the reserve have a yearly fee? I'm going to need to downgrade soon, too.

Not sure if we are on the same page but see above.  Essentially if you start with a $0 account balance and 100k points, you can end up with a -$1500 account balance and 0 points.

The reserve has a whopping fee of $550.  This is offset by the $300 travel credit, and other less tangible benefits like the priority pass, global entry every four years, and 3x earnings on travel and dining, etc.  The 3x earnings are not really that great now that a few of the no fee cards earn 5x on travel booked through the chase portal and 3x on dining.  It's widely speculated that the CSR is due for a revamp of earnings multipliers/categories but it hasn't come to fruition.

Lets call it a net $250 annual fee vs. something free like the freedom cards.  So what makes it worth it?  Well lets say you have a lot of points.  The 1.5x point multiplier pays for the net $250 if you are cashing out 50k in points that year (your 50k points are worth 75k, so 25k more).  Similar math can be applied to the CSP with it's $95 annual fee (for many people the CSP is a better deal).

Personally I'm heavily in the Chase ecosystem so I earn a lot of chase points... easily more than 50k even in years where I don't get sign up bonuses.  But at this point, I was looking at a 300k point balance and I'm just not comfortable leaving that on the books.  Chase (and other banks) sometimes shut down accounts capriciously.  If that happened to me, I'd probably still get 1x value out of the points, but why leave an extra $1500 on the table?

I also had a global entry renewal coming up so I could use that credit this year.* 

Another bonus is that the CSR annual fee does not post right away.  Some reports are like 3 months later but I'll report back.  Not only does that give you "free" use of the benefits, but theoretically you could double dip the travel credit when you cancel the card.

I may have to keep this card more than one year though because I don't really want to burn my relationship with chase.  From what I've read, they don't really care about any of the above "hacks" as long as the spend is real.

*There's an Amex Platinum hack for global entry that I've somewhat abused already (free gold authorized users still get a global entry credit.. I've got like 6 at this point but I don't mind burning my amex account)

and with that said, bombs away on step 2 (pay yourself back)
« Last Edit: May 10, 2022, 11:02:48 PM by dragoncar »

dragoncar

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #168 on: May 10, 2022, 11:07:27 PM »
Cashing out a negative balance is easy - just call and ask them to mail u a check.


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Thanks, I'm mostly worried about getting "eyes on" my account by a real human when I try to cash out like $5k (including the travel credit) for a card that I haven't even paid the upgraded annual fee yet (if you wanted to be a real psychopath you could do what I'm doing and then cancel the card before the AF posts.. but even I'm not that sick).

But I don't really have enough spend on my other personal cards this quarter (amazon is not a great option for the freedom categories because it requires mostly being a consumer sucka to max out).  I'd try to transfer the credit to a business account but I suspect that's some kind of red flag in their system
« Last Edit: May 10, 2022, 11:10:34 PM by dragoncar »

charis

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #169 on: May 11, 2022, 07:44:57 AM »
Thank you for the summary. I just got done with the venture X with a $395 fee - but $300 travel credit on a refundable pay up front Capone travel portal reservation. I got the credit, cancelled the reservation for a refund and they didn't claw back the $300 credit.

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #170 on: May 11, 2022, 07:55:28 AM »

Can you explain this hack? Or should I read the entire thread?

It's a long thread so I'll summarize:

Someone else discussed above but basically you book a fully refundable AirBnb with your Reserve (CSR), say for example $1500.  You pay in full at booking.  You don't "pay with points" through the Chase portal, but book directly at AirBNB.

Through 6/30, you get a 1.5x multiplier on points used for AirBnb using a feature called "pay yourself back".  It was previously other categories, and pundits think chase will continue extend the program again, possibly with different categories.  But for now, we are only concerned with AirBNB

Once the charge posts, you visit the "pay yourself back" tab in the chase rewards website and select that charge.  In this example, you can spend 100k points to pay off the $1500 airbnb charge.  Within a couple days, chase posts a $1500 credit to your account.  Then you cancel the AirBNB and a few days or maybe a week later AirBNB refunds the original $1500.  So now you have a -$1500 balance.  You can ask chase to cash it out or use it to offset other spending. 

The point is that you aren't locked into booking through the chase travel portal to realize the 1.5x CSR bonus.  First, I prefer booking directly with airlines and hotels... the chase travel portal is backed by expedia and they kinda suck although I've never had an unresolvable issue (in my case I have a lap infant and I can't book that online I have to call).  Second, maybe you don't have any travel planned and want to liquidate your points.  Third, even if you wanted to use your points towards travel, if you spend points for a booking through the chase travel portal you don't earn any more points.  If you do it this way, you can still book the same trip and get the 3x points on that booking (worth 4.5%)

And bonus I also got the $300 travel credit since I just upgraded.


So you're spending points for the motel but getting refunded in real money (x1.5)? That's great, if so. I got the x1.5 on a few pay yourself back categories, but I was only using it for the SUB so I quit using the card.
And does the reserve have a yearly fee? I'm going to need to downgrade soon, too.

Not sure if we are on the same page but see above.  Essentially if you start with a $0 account balance and 100k points, you can end up with a -$1500 account balance and 0 points.

The reserve has a whopping fee of $550.  This is offset by the $300 travel credit, and other less tangible benefits like the priority pass, global entry every four years, and 3x earnings on travel and dining, etc.  The 3x earnings are not really that great now that a few of the no fee cards earn 5x on travel booked through the chase portal and 3x on dining.  It's widely speculated that the CSR is due for a revamp of earnings multipliers/categories but it hasn't come to fruition.

Lets call it a net $250 annual fee vs. something free like the freedom cards.  So what makes it worth it?  Well lets say you have a lot of points.  The 1.5x point multiplier pays for the net $250 if you are cashing out 50k in points that year (your 50k points are worth 75k, so 25k more).  Similar math can be applied to the CSP with it's $95 annual fee (for many people the CSP is a better deal).

Personally I'm heavily in the Chase ecosystem so I earn a lot of chase points... easily more than 50k even in years where I don't get sign up bonuses.  But at this point, I was looking at a 300k point balance and I'm just not comfortable leaving that on the books.  Chase (and other banks) sometimes shut down accounts capriciously.  If that happened to me, I'd probably still get 1x value out of the points, but why leave an extra $1500 on the table?

I also had a global entry renewal coming up so I could use that credit this year.* 

Another bonus is that the CSR annual fee does not post right away.  Some reports are like 3 months later but I'll report back.  Not only does that give you "free" use of the benefits, but theoretically you could double dip the travel credit when you cancel the card.

I may have to keep this card more than one year though because I don't really want to burn my relationship with chase.  From what I've read, they don't really care about any of the above "hacks" as long as the spend is real.

*There's an Amex Platinum hack for global entry that I've somewhat abused already (free gold authorized users still get a global entry credit.. I've got like 6 at this point but I don't mind burning my amex account)

and with that said, bombs away on step 2 (pay yourself back)

Side note, you will end up with negative points on the Reserve card when the AirBNB trip is canceled (triple points for travel, so maybe more than expected).

dragoncar

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #171 on: May 11, 2022, 11:28:55 AM »


Side note, you will end up with negative points on the Reserve card when the AirBNB trip is canceled (triple points for travel, so maybe more than expected).

Good note but in my case I don’t expect that to happen since the Airbnb charge and refund should post within the same billing cycle.  I can see that the $300 in points might be lost but my booking was also slightly more than the points I had so it won’t be a large negative balance and by the time the negative points show up I’ll still have net positive from other accounts

Also just to be clear chase doesn’t usually care about negative points balance, YMMV if you try to cancel an account with large negative points balance

elaine amj

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #172 on: May 11, 2022, 12:20:55 PM »
I am still trying to figure out how the airbnb thing would be beneficial. I have the CSR and use 1.5x pay yourself back primarily on dining these days and have no issues using it up.

I agree - it’s better than using the Chase travel agency, I also prefer booking direct. Although for anyone renting cars - I recently got a great rate through the Chase travel portal :)


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dragoncar

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #173 on: May 11, 2022, 12:41:13 PM »
I am still trying to figure out how the airbnb thing would be beneficial. I have the CSR and use 1.5x pay yourself back primarily on dining these days and have no issues using it up.

I agree - it’s better than using the Chase travel agency, I also prefer booking direct. Although for anyone renting cars - I recently got a great rate through the Chase travel portal :)


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Depends on your spend.  I barely eat out and nowhere fast enough to spend $4500

We don’t know what the categories will be after June 30.  They might be better for me (grocery!) or they could end PYB entirely and I’ll be stuck with travel portal

Even when the travel portal has a good deal I’d rather get cash for my points and then Use my freedom unlimited to get 5% back (worth 7.5) on my portal spend
« Last Edit: May 11, 2022, 12:44:05 PM by dragoncar »

elaine amj

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #174 on: May 11, 2022, 03:06:03 PM »
I am still trying to figure out how the airbnb thing would be beneficial. I have the CSR and use 1.5x pay yourself back primarily on dining these days and have no issues using it up.

I agree - it’s better than using the Chase travel agency, I also prefer booking direct. Although for anyone renting cars - I recently got a great rate through the Chase travel portal :)


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Depends on your spend.  I barely eat out and nowhere fast enough to spend $4500

We don’t know what the categories will be after June 30.  They might be better for me (grocery!) or they could end PYB entirely and I’ll be stuck with travel portal

Even when the travel portal has a good deal I’d rather get cash for my points and then Use my freedom unlimited to get 5% back (worth 7.5) on my portal spend
Makes sense. I used up my bonus points back when groceries counted so only have points earned from regular spend now so dining easily uses that up. Good reminder to use up all my points by June 1 though.


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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #175 on: May 11, 2022, 03:54:47 PM »
Trying to make sure I understand the Airbnb option as I want to cancel my CSP card before the next annual fee. Let’s say I have 100k points to spend. I make a refundable reservation for about $1250, then when it shows up I pay myself back, using up my 100k points. Then I cancel the Airbnb, which means I’ll have a -1k balance in Chase points (if it’s the next billing cycle), not the -100k. Correct?

Thanks!

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #176 on: May 13, 2022, 10:37:03 AM »
Trying to make sure I understand the Airbnb option as I want to cancel my CSP card before the next annual fee. Let’s say I have 100k points to spend. I make a refundable reservation for about $1250, then when it shows up I pay myself back, using up my 100k points. Then I cancel the Airbnb, which means I’ll have a -1k balance in Chase points (if it’s the next billing cycle), not the -100k. Correct?

Thanks!

Why would you cancel the card instead of just downgrading to the Freedom?

We be free if we try

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #177 on: May 13, 2022, 11:27:09 AM »
TomTX, good point. I’m pretty new to credit card hacking. Until reading this post, I didn’t know this was possible. I prefer to only have a couple cards open at one time. But I agree I could do as you suggest, and then use the points whenever, and that’s less hassle.
Thanks!

seattlecyclone

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #178 on: May 13, 2022, 11:31:24 AM »
In my case I've already got three Chase Freedom cards, with a combined credit limit way above anything I need, so if I get rid of the CSR I see no downside to cancelling it instead of getting Chase Freedom #4. :-)

dragoncar

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #179 on: May 13, 2022, 06:27:22 PM »
Ok I’m all done.  Pretty painless, really.  Highly suggest this to anyone who wants to cash out points before July

Alternatively call JG wentworth “it’s my money and I need it now!”



In my case I've already got three Chase Freedom cards, with a combined credit limit way above anything I need, so if I get rid of the CSR I see no downside to cancelling it instead of getting Chase Freedom #4. :-)

Hey we’ve got 7 in the household, can still max them out during a good category like grocery but it’s getting more difficult

PayPal was the absolute best category when paypalkey existed (they shut it down… assume only people using it were churners)

seattlecyclone

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #180 on: May 13, 2022, 06:41:36 PM »
I'm not quite organized enough for "buy $1500 worth of gift cards per credit card, bank the points, and remember to use the gift cards in a timely manner" to be a profitable plan for me. I've tried it before. Lose one gift card or fail to use it before VTSAX goes up by another 5% and the whole scheme falls apart. More power to you if you make it work!

The PayPal category was still nice for me this year because I found several of the charities I was going to donate to anyway ran their online payments through PayPal. That was only enough to max out two cards though.

dragoncar

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #181 on: May 13, 2022, 08:37:23 PM »
I'm not quite organized enough for "buy $1500 worth of gift cards per credit card, bank the points, and remember to use the gift cards in a timely manner" to be a profitable plan for me. I've tried it before. Lose one gift card or fail to use it before VTSAX goes up by another 5% and the whole scheme falls apart. More power to you if you make it work!

The PayPal category was still nice for me this year because I found several of the charities I was going to donate to anyway ran their online payments through PayPal. That was only enough to max out two cards though.

I’m a quarterly tax payer and so can you!  Seriously I know everyone has a different story but I “spend” my cards within a few months and Figure I can lose like 1 in 50 and still come out ahead

Over three months it’s not hard to pick up three gift cards each time I do my weekly grocery shopping. 

It’s a few minutes of time to earn like $75… not everyone wants to do that but it’s just a hobby at this point

TomTX

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #182 on: May 14, 2022, 12:36:57 PM »
TomTX, good point. I’m pretty new to credit card hacking. Until reading this post, I didn’t know this was possible. I prefer to only have a couple cards open at one time. But I agree I could do as you suggest, and then use the points whenever, and that’s less hassle.
Thanks!

Happy to help.

Having longer-term (older) cards is helpful for your credit as well. If there's no annual fee, I typically just let them accumulate - with an alert set up if there is spend on them.

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #183 on: September 26, 2022, 08:19:35 AM »
Any word on how Pay Yourself Back will change/not change after the end of this quarter? Hoping they keep Airbnb as an option personally.

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #185 on: September 29, 2022, 01:12:45 PM »
Seems like it’s still dining and Airbnb, minus AF.  Websites haven’t fully updated yet so JUST WAIT LONGER

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #186 on: January 04, 2023, 03:47:21 PM »
Good times are over.

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #187 on: January 04, 2023, 05:39:21 PM »
Yep, back to stockpiling points until it's time to buy a plane ticket.

JLee

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #188 on: January 04, 2023, 05:44:58 PM »
Reserve goes from a 50% bonus to a 25% bonus -- not quite as good, but not exactly worthless either.  Better to travel if you have travel, but the Reserve now just has the Preferred's old rate.

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #189 on: January 05, 2023, 05:40:41 AM »
Going to miss the 50% on dining. Was a huge discount! We ended up using quite a bit just before the 12/31/2022 deadline.

It seems that any dining after 12/28 or so did not qualify - will need to call them.

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Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve - Pay Yourself Back feature
« Reply #190 on: January 05, 2023, 12:12:25 PM »
Reserve goes from a 50% bonus to a 25% bonus -- not quite as good, but not exactly worthless either.  Better to travel if you have travel, but the Reserve now just has the Preferred's old rate.

Maybe if they cut the AF to the old preferred AF

Still pencils our for me, but it’s much closer at the margins now.  I’ll probably use my freedom unlimited even less now