Chase Pay Yourself Back Guide: CSP/CSR redemption rates have dropped, basically not worth using anymore!

Chase quietly changed the redemption rates for Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve Pay Yourself Back from the original 1.25/1.1 to 1.2/1.05, making them basically not very useful anymore. I still recommend using UR to transfer to miles or hotel points if you can; at the very least, you can use them through Chase travel.

• Chase Sapphire Preferred: adjusted to 5%-10% rewards, meaning 100 UR = $1.05 or $1.10 in eligible category spending (previously it was a flat $1.10). It’s only a little extra, and the difference from redeeming cash at 1:1 is not that big anymore.

• Chase Sapphire Reserve: everything was adjusted to a flat 20% reward, meaning 100 UR = $1.20 in eligible category spending (previously it was $1.25)

About Pay Yourself Back (PYB)

A lot of Chase cards now offer the PYB feature. You can use Ultimate Rewards (UR), and even co-branded Southwest, UA, and Aeroplan miles, to offset eligible category spending from the past 90 days. Different cards have different redemption rates and categories, but the basic idea is the same. Be sure to check the rate before deciding whether to redeem.

Chase’s own cards

Chase’s own cards used to have quite a few promotions, like 25% rewards for dining and 25% rewards for grocery stores. But in 2024, there haven’t been any new reward categories for now, so there’s no need to rush. You can wait until new categories are announced before redeeming. Anyway, spending from the past 90 days can be redeemed.

Chase Sapphire Reserve

Chase Sapphire Reserve: the UR offset value is 1.25c/p-1.5c/p. Of course, all other spending can be redeemed at 1c/p, which is basically the same as cashing out points directly. Details are below: Grocery, Gas, Pet, Annual Fee

• Grocery Stores, Gas, Pet: 1.25 c/p (that is, 100 points offset $1.25 of spending)
• Annual Fee: 1.25 c/p (that is, 100 points offset $1.25 of spending)
• Select charities: 1.50 c/p (that is, 100 points offset $1.50 of annual fee)

These extra bonus categories are a Q2 limited-time promotion, and the offer runs through June 30, 2025. JP Morgan Reserve is probably the same categories.

Sapphire Preferred/Freedom series

Chase Sapphire Preferred: the highest rate is 1.25 c/p, meaning $125 of the above category spending requires 10,000 UR. But right now the only category is charitable donations.

• Select charities: 1.25 cents per point, $125 of spending requires 10,000 UR.

Freedom series

Freedom, Freedom Flex, and Freedom Unlimited also only have this donation category.

• Select charities: 1.25 cents per point, $125 of spending requires 10,000 UR.

Ink series

Ink Preferred, Ink Unlimited, and Ink Cash also only have the 1.25 c/p donation category.

• Select charities: 1.25 cents per point, $125 of spending requires 10,000 UR.

Co-branded cards

Most PYB features on co-branded cards were launched last year. The most useful categories are redeeming for annual fees and the Aeroplan co-branded card; the others are pretty average. Make sure to check the category before redeeming. Also, Chase generally does not distinguish the source of co-branded miles, so you can earn miles from flying, transfers from other credit cards, or card spending, and then cash them out through the Chase co-branded card PYB feature.

Aeroplan

If you hold the Chase Aeroplan co-branded card, you can use Aeroplan account Air Canada miles to reimburse spending on the card. Starting in 2024, the annual redemption cap is 50,000 AC miles. On July 1, 2025, department and utility will be added, and on October 1 Amazon will be added; the redemption rate is unknown.

• Travel category: 1.25 c/p, meaning 10,000 Air Canada miles = $125 in travel spending
• Dining & Grocery, Gas, Home Improvement.: 0.8 c/p
• Annual fee: 1.25 c/p redemption, meaning a $95 annual fee requires 7,600 miles to redeem

We’ve discussed Air Canada mile redemptions quite a bit in the co-branded card section. The key is not to redeem too many, or you may run into risk controls. Chase still doesn’t really like using Air Canada miles earned from other channels for reimbursement. For details, see our summary discussion:

• Chase Aeroplan co-branded card

Southwest

If you hold a Southwest co-branded card, you can currently redeem annual fees at 1 cent per point.

• Southwest Plus
• Southwest Premier 
• Southwest Priority
• Southwest Premier Business 
• Southwest Performance Business 

United

If you hold a United co-branded card, you can use 1.35 cents per point - 1.6 cents per point to reimburse annual fees. I think this rate is quite worthwhile, especially since United miles keep devaluing. In addition, United co-branded cards can also be used to offset United airfare at 1 cent per point, and the ticket price must be more than $50.

Marriott

Right now only the Marriott Bold is eligible. This card added Pay Yourself Back, allowing Marriott points to be used to offset airfare or Marriott hotel spending. The rate is $100 in spending for 12,500 points, which means Marriott points are redeemed at 0.8 c/p. That’s actually pretty close to the value you’d get from redeeming for rooms. In that case, if you don’t need a Marriott annual-fee card (or a Ritz-Carlton card), you can downgrade to Bold and add a Marriott points redemption option.

Categories may change from time to time without notice. Points can be redeemed for a statement credit in any increment, towards qualifying purchases with Pay Yourself Back at a value of $100 for every 12,500 points.

Unfortunately, this redemption has an annual cap of only $750, which means at most 93,750 Marriott points can be redeemed.

How to use it

After making spending in the categories above, simply select that purchase and choose how many points to redeem. Within three business days, you’ll receive the corresponding statement credit. You can adjust the number of points you redeem yourself. Note that only spending from the past 90 days can be offset.

• Select a qualifying transaction.
• Set the amount.
• Confirm and redeem.
• That’s it! Check Pay Yourself Back^SM now.

Redemption steps (illustrative)

“Note” The redemption ratio may differ from the current rate; the image below is only meant to show the overall process. Chase has, as promised, opened up Ultimate Rewards point redemptions. If you want to redeem, go into the Ultimate Rewards interface and find Pay Yourself Back in the menu. Then you’ll see all eligible transactions appear (supermarkets, dining, and home improvement within the last 90 days), and you can choose to redeem any amount. However, each transaction can only be redeemed once. In the example below, I used Sapphire Preferred to redeem, so the redemption value is 1.25 cents per point (if you have Chase Sapphire Reserve, the redemption value is 1.5 cents per point). Worth noting: the WeChat Pay charge I set up for my family in mainland China also qualified for redemption, probably because it was coded as dining. Today the $550 annual fee on Sapphire Reserve also posted, and it can be reimbursed through Pay Yourself Back as well. Personally, I think during the pandemic it’s good enough to get higher-value use out of your points. If you have an annual fee transaction within the last 90 days, it should probably all be eligible. But after checking, CSP can’t reimburse the annual fee. Here are a few quick tips:

• At the moment, completed transactions from the last 90 days can be redeemed
• If the redemption amount is too large and you don’t have enough Ultimate Rewards points, the redemption will ultimately fail
• If you redeem too many transactions, the system may hang; you can reimburse them in batches

What eligible transactions do you have? Share them below.

How to make the most of this feature

[Note] Right now the redemption rate is only 1.25c/p, which is honestly pretty mediocre. We’ll come back and update this section when there are better promos later! No need for it right now.

Apply for a Sapphire Reserve

If you really plan to cash out UR, my advice is to go all the way and get a CSR. If you don’t already have CSR, haven’t earned the CSR or CSP welcome bonus within the past 48 months, and haven’t opened more than 5 credit cards in the past two years, you may want to consider applying for one.

After all, the built-in $300 travel credit is easy to use, and the new feature can also reimburse dining expenses. If you get the card and use the $300 once, then pay the annual fee next year, use the $300 again, and then immediately close the card or downgrade it to get the annual fee refunded, the total comes to $600—well above the annual fee.

Upgrade to get Sapphire Reserve

If you can’t apply for the card, you can consider upgrading a Freedom, Freedom Unlimited, or Sapphire Preferred card to Sapphire Reserve. The requirements are:

• The card has been open for more than 1 year
• The credit limit is above $10,000. If the limit is too low, you can consider moving some credit line from another Chase card first.

Combine UR points

You’re all seasoned users here, so combining UR points should be second nature. Besides pooling points from UR cards under your own name, don’t forget that spouses’ Chase accounts on the same statement can also combine UR points! Of course, I wouldn’t overdo point transfers between accounts under different people’s names. Concentrating all UR points on Sapphire Reserve is the best choice.

WeChat Pay / Alipay / China spending (no matching category for now)

Chase benefits are usually valid worldwide. We can also cleverly use WeChat Pay balances as a spending pass-through, or spend directly outside the U.S., in order to redeem points or trigger reimbursements. With WeChat or Alipay, you don’t need to be in China yourself to make some purchases, or help family members complete WeChat/Alipay transactions. We’ve written an interesting article about this before:

• Can U.S. credit card grocery multipliers and dining reimbursements be triggered in China?

China spending without WeChat Pay or Alipay

If it’s a Chase card, as long as it codes as a restaurant or supermarket, these statement credits and reimbursements can be fully triggered.

• Dining: Chinese restaurants that accept Visa should all be fine.
• Supermarket spending: Costco China (Minhang, Shanghai), Sam’s Club, Walmart, Carrefour, and other multinational chain supermarkets will almost always code as supermarkets as long as they accept overseas Visa credit cards.

If you often go to Costco in Minhang or a Sam’s Club in mainland China, or if you have supermarkets nearby that accept Visa, make the most of it.

WeChat Pay

At the moment, most spending on overseas Visa credit cards in WeChat Pay is coded as dining, and many merchants already support in-store QR code scanning (merchant scans you or you scan the merchant) as well as online payment redirects. There are many clever tricks here, but I won’t go into them now—feel free to discuss in the comments. For a guide to using overseas credit cards with WeChat Pay, see KUKU’s summary article on this site:

• WeChat Pay + American Credit Card Complete Guide + Risk Control System Introduction

Alipay

“New”: Alipay now supports in-store QR code scanning (merchant scans you), has no fee, and codes as a supermarket category. See this site’s original Alipay guide. When using an overseas credit card on Alipay, there are two possible categories; one of them is supermarket, and you can use this data point (shown below) as a reference: Can U.S. credit card grocery multipliers and dining reimbursements be triggered in China? More data points are still needed to determine which transactions code as supermarket and which code as online purchases. My guess is that some Tmall and Taobao transactions may code as supermarket. If you really want to use it, Alipay charges a 3% fee, so pairing it with CSR’s June supermarket 5x would be better; I’d recommend testing with a small amount first. If Alipay can get going, there are also some special tricks, which everyone is welcome to discuss in the comments. For a guide to using American (overseas) credit cards on Alipay, see KUKU’s summary article on this site:

• Alipay + American Credit Card Complete Guide + Risk Control System Introduction [2020.5 update: Alipay has also tightened its risk control system]

Summary

In 2024, these PYB categories still aren’t that great. Everyone should wait until there are better categories and higher redemption rates before going all in