It’s not every day that I receive an email from Chase for every one of our credit cards. So the mere number of the messages made me look a little closer than normal at the “changes in account terms” that I needed to accept if I wanted to keep my cards open.
The first one on the list was rather bland, increasing the late payment fee and returned payment fee. Blah, blah, blah.
FWIW, if you’re a good customer and forget a payment, you can always contact the bank and see if they’ll waive the fee.
However, this change to the account agreement stood out as significant.
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.
I think this is interesting because it cuts off newer ways some people have been generating points using credit cards.
I don’t follow the crypto world so you’d have to tell me if buying Bitcoin or any other currencies was a way to earn points. However, I know that many people use a service like Plastiq to pay bills online that don’t usually accept credit card payments. Any payment that would be considered a cash advance or cash-like transaction would not be approved by the service.
Chase is also counting all person-to-person money transfer services like cash advances.
I’m not big into the manufactured spending game, but I’d imagine that having a way to earn Ultimate Rewards or any points with any of the Chase co-brand card portfolio would be a huge loss if you were using any of these methods.
The amount of money this was costing Chase had to be significant enough for them to make this change to all of its accounts.
This isn’t going to change my spending patterns but heads up if you were using any of these methods to earn extra points or miles from Chase.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
