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What is Chase Pay Yourself Back?
Earlier this year, Chase launched Pay Yourself Back, a new feature on the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Chase Sapphire Preferred credit cards that enables you to redeem at the travel value of your card for certain non-travel purchase categories (meaning with a value of 1.5 cents per point on the Sapphire Reserve and 1.25 cents on the Sapphire Preferred).
You can redeem in the same manner as you previously have in the Chase Travel Portal for grocery stores, home improvement stores and dining, including restaurants, takeout and eligible delivery services. Instead of using a “portal” to make the purchases, you just pay as you normally would and then go into the Chase website to “pay” for that purchase with points. You will get the same 1.5 cents per point in value with the Reserve and 1.25 cents per point with the Preferred as you get booking travel. The feature is branded “Pay Yourself BackSM“.
The only requirement is that the merchant category be in one of the specified categories and you must “Pay Yourself Back” within 90 days of purchase.
Chase Extends Pay Yourself Back Through April 30th, 2021
Originally intended to be only through September 30th, it’s now officially going to be with us through April 30, 2021 on the Sapphire cards(though I’d heard a while back that Pay Yourself Back may be here to stay.
They have also added 12 charities for which you can donate and Pay Yourself Back.
- American Red Cross
- Equal Justice Initiative
- Feeding America
- Habitat for Humanity
- International Medical Corporation
- Leadership Education Fund
- NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund
- National Urban League
- Thurgood Marshall College Fund
- United Negro College Fund
- United Way
- World Central Kitchen
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Earn 75,000 bonus Ultimate Rewards points (worth over $900 in free travel) when you spend $4,000 in 3 months. How to apply for this offer.
Pay Yourself Back Expanded to Ink Business Cards
From October 1, 2020 to Dec 31, 2020, you can Pay Yourself Back on Chase Ink business cards.
Now, OMAAT says that the Chase Ink Preferred, Chase Ink Unlimited, and Chase Ink Cash are all eligible, while CNN Underscored says it’s just the Chase Ink Preferred and legacy Ink Business Plus. I guess we’ll know soon enough which is correct. Both get their info straight from Chase, so it’s odd that this part is contradictory.
Here, you will be able to for shipping and select advertising expenses (I believe this largely means online advertising on search engines and social media) as well as the same charities mentioned above.
Don’t forget that, as I previously wrote about, you can also get 5X on shipping and advertsing purchases on your Ink Business Preferred through October 31st.
Pay Yourself Back Added to Freedom, Freedom Flex, and Freedom Unlimited – Sort Of
The Chase Freedom Flex, Chase Freedom Unlimited, and legacy Chase Freedom cards will be able to make the charitable contributions mentioned above at a rate of 1.25 cents per point. This is notable since if you don’t also have a premium fee-based Chase card, you can never otherwise get more – or less – than 1 cent per point in value. If they allowed for any other categories, it would completely change the math on those cards, which is why I suspect it’s limited to the charitable contributions.
I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t get the full tax deduction for these charitable contributions, so that’s a win-win.
Overall
It’s nice to see Chase expanding the Pay Yourself Back feature, generally. More flexibility in how you can spend your points and receive more than a penny a point is always a Good Thing.
Thoughts?
Let me know below in the comments, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group.
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You can find credit cards that best match your spending habits and bonus categories at Your Best Credit Cards.
New to all of this? My “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available on Amazon and at major booksellers.
