Goodbye Chase Trifecta

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Years ago I called having a Chase Freedom card, a Chase Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card® Card card, and a Chase checking account the Chase Trifecta.

Back then by having all 3 you could
-Earn 10 points every time you used your Freedom card
-Earn a 10% bonus on Freedom base spending
-Earn 5 points per dollar in rotating Freedom categories.
-Earn 2.14 points per dollar on airfare, dining, car rentals, hotels, and more with Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.
-Transfer the Freedom points to your Sapphire card to allow those points to be used for lucrative airline and hotel currencies.

I guess that was all too generous. The Freedom card first got rid of the 10+10% program (though some people still have it until today) though they actually improved the 10% by allowing it to count on bonus points. That made the quarterly rotating 5 point categories actually worth 5.5 points per dollar.
However now they announced the 10% will be going away altogether with the final annual bonus posting in 2016 for 2015 spending.  The same applies to Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card with the 7% annual bonus ending at the same time.

The good news is that the 10% language is still on the Freedom application, so you can apply now and still take advantage of that for 2014 and 2015 spending before its phased out.

I always thought it was a clever way to get people to bank with Chase, but the problem for Chase is that it was a hard benefit to communicate.

For now my old Ink Bold card still has its incredible exclusives benefits. Anyone care to guess when that will be phased out?

At any rate, Freedom and Sapphire remain a killer combo thanks to the 2 and 5 point bonus categories and Sapphire’s ability to transfer Freedom points to airlines and hotels (though Ink Plus and Ink Bold can do that as well). Come 2016 and it won’t be as lucrative as it once was.

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25 Comments On "Goodbye Chase Trifecta"

All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.

AR

Anybody else willing to speak the unspeakable-that the constant stream of bad news from the “points industry” is due to an explosion of available knowledge about it due to too many bloggers making too many bucks off it?

Dan

@AR:
Don’t see the connection.

The trifecta was far more lucrative than the competition and even without the trifecta it’s still more lucrative.

What does that have to do with bloggers?

As far as bad news, that’s what happens when industries realize they will make big profits either way. When there’s an economic downturn then more enticing offers return.

freedom late comer

I have now freedom (new , thanks to dan) and ink bold. no checking. I was told I can transfer UR from freedom to bold. correct?
do i get any 10%? need to open checking? what type?
Thanks

Dan

@freedom late comer:
Correct.
You need to open a checking account to get the 10%.

JoshBee

Not only the 10% is what they are discontinuing, the post gives you a whole list of things. #Chase

Dan

@JoshBee:
Nothing else important.

Timmy

I got in the mail about the chase sapphire having changes sometime in September. Is that the same thing ?

Dan
sara

So is it still worthwhile to have a chase checking account.
I have other banks available that don’t require monthly direct deposit to avoid monthly fee.
Any reason to keep account open now?

AR

@Dan: With all due respect, you can dismiss each individual case as having nothing to do with it, but I tend to think even you yourself would admit the “industry” has been souring on us for some time and things aren’t getting better. You’re failing to see (or to admit to) the big picture-that things are getting tougher, and that the more people know about things the tougher the industry gets. I think many observers can easily tell that things have been getting much harder recently-and simple intellectual honesty dictates that it’s at least partly due to the widespread publication of all sorts of these “tricks” by bloggers after financial gain.

Lonely

Sounds like the 10 points per charge still stays. So 25 ¢ for the muni meter still gives you 11 points.

meshugener

Hello Chase

My wife’s Freedom still gets 10×10!

Timmy

@Dan: It wasn’t that. It was about changes to UR points for travel.

Eli

@AR: @AR:
+1

Dan

@AR:
It’s great that you found a scapegoat, but it’s not nearly that simple.

The travel hacking folks (bloggers and their readers) are a miniscule percentage of the country.

Program changes that Delta and United are making are due to:
1. Industry consolidation.
2. Improved economic conditions and packed places.

Meanwhile credit card companies have some of the richest offers they’ve ever had. However as 99% of the public had no idea they were getting the 10% exclusives it was a pointless benefit as far as Chase is concerned.

If anything there aren’t enough bloggers talking about the obscure benefits of the card to keep it alive.

I’m not saying bloggers don’t effect any change, but to blame this kind of stuff on the boogie man bloggers is naive.

Anonymous

i know not the right place for this but with the big delta bonus for amex out there and people wanting to max out the bonuses on perhaps 2-3 cards i have this question: is it still possible to do 2bm with amex ? i tried twice for me and another to apply with 2bm and it didnt work. the first try one card got put(for five full days , then was approved-that was the amex gold business) on hold and the other(personal delta platinum)was approved right away. the second time both were put on hold (i think because i did it on two computers and pressed both submits together where as the other try i pressed the submit button a few seconds later)i spoke with amex about it they told me that when a to apps are submitted on same day they will not get instant approval.

lobbel

Hi Dan
I just got aproved for the united explorer card, today i got a email from united to aply for the explorer card, can i apply again ?

puzzlefighter

Boo. Chase Freedom’s rewards used to be the best by a mile. Now, they are essentially just another Discover card with rotating categories. Thankfully they still allow transfer of Chase UR points, so its 5% categories will remain of value. Sadly, for my day-to-day shopping on things that don’t meet the criteria for one of the other 2+% CB category cards I have, I can’t see me using the Freedom any longer. The 1.1 points + their value to transfer to a Sapphire Preferred/Ink Plus UR account was enough to keep me from looking for a higher return card. I still like the Chase online banking system more than any other I have used, but it is a bummer that I won’t get the 10% side-benefit.

AR

@Dan: “Credit card companies have some of the richest offers they’ve ever had”. Really? What about AMEX’s new policy of restricting bonuses to once per lifetime? Do you not see that that is clearly the result of the info becoming widespread? If, for example, only 1,000 people a year were “abusing” the program with constant sign ups AMEX would not have bothered changing their program rules. Obviously, sometime in the past year or so the number of people abusing it (like you’ve seen in frum papers ads for free and fast money off this) has reached a point at which AMEX could no longer ignore it. Do you not admit that that is solely the result of bloggers disseminating the info and too many people (and many with lacking sechel)getting hold of it and using it to make fast cash?
Furthermore, do you not see that this has become a general trend with the news getting worse and worse? How long do you really think this can last for given that this stuff is common knowledge in the frum world, which is wasn’t just a few years ago? My point being that more and more people are learning about this and blogs like this are their main source.

Rich

Dan is it still possible to apply for 3 Chase cards using 3 different browsers and only getting 1 hard pull? Thanks for your help.

Anonymous

@AR: @AR: so whats your point of all this? you want dan to stop sharing info/knowledge with us? btw if he does shut things down which he will prob never do -whats to say another person will step in and take his place? we cant control what the cc companies are doing now or what are they are going to be doing in the future and anything that dan or other bloggers do wont change anything!

Mishka

AR is right. Dan is wrong. Natural to be defensive if it’s what you do.

DP7

Wow, just realized I am still getting 10 points per purchase on my freedom card, thought it was supposed to end a long time ago.

DP 7Q

Q, do new cards get 10 points per swipe?
any reason now to open anew chase bank account? what would be the benefit?

Thank you

samuel

@AR

Well! Looks like you are suffering just like me from the points being worth for less then it used to be. But i think that me and you and everyone on dansdeals should first acknowledge that the way you got to own some points was through him. Without dansdeals you wouldnt have so many points so instead of teasing and blaming him, you should thank him.
Next! You blame him for the “point bas news”? I think the fault is totally on the PEOPLE WHO BUY AND PAY FOR POINTS. They are the guys asking everyone to open cards. I just saw yesterday an ad frop a milage buyer who advertises you can get 5k for hiving him your ss. He opens, spends, and pays you. THATS what makes points being worth less!

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