Chase Freedom New 5X Categories
For several years the banks have been pushing “Mobile Wallets” onto consumers. While several brands have come and gone in that space (anyone remember ISIS?) things seemed to have matured. As of now the space is dominated by a few major players including Apple, Google and Samsung.
Now that Mobile Wallet technology has matured, it seems that banks want to incentivize its use. As we now know the brand new U.S. Bank Altitude card launching on May 1 is going to pay 3X points on Mobile Wallet purchases. Now, it seems that Chase is considering adding “Mobile Wallet” as a bonus category to the Freedom card along with recurring payments.
julesj88 on Reddit has posted some interesting details of a targeted customer survey. Here is a quote:
Freedom is also considering making a new 5% category that would reward you for using your Freedom card for recurring payments, like your mobile phone bill, electricity, streaming subscriptions, and more. This category would also be in addition to the existing 5% categories.
Freedom is also considering making a new 5% category that would reward you for using your Freedom card in digital wallets, such as Android Pay, Samsung Pay, Chase Pay, etc. This category would also be in addition to the existing 5% categories.
Drive Card Use
Chase isn’t stupid and both of these new categories are specifically designed to wrap you up in their ecosystem. By paying a bonus on recurring payments, they are ensuring that you use your card often. If you are already earning points on your Freedom for your recurring bills, then why not just use the card all of the time for simplicity?
Additionally if you load your Freedom card into your mobile wallet then you are more likely to use it a lot. The bonus will likely have a cap, but you won’t care since you love paying with your phone and that Freedom card just happens to be at the top of your payment app.
Conclusion
This is an interesting development and one that perhaps has something to do with U.S. Bank’s new offering. Of course everything with the Freedom card is capped and I would expect these new categories (if they ever surface) will be capped as well.
Keep in mind this is just a survey and this stuff may never actually happen, but it does show that Chase is looking to keep the Freedom card fresh. If that means additional 5% categories, I say it is a good thing.
HT: Doctor of Credit
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How do you pay bills with mobile wallet??
Cool. Interesting categories.
Does anyone have clarity if 3X Mobile Wallet means only contactless or also in-app, or in-browser payments that are not of course not contactless. I am assuming this is only contactless since there’s a contactless payment flag on transactions.
Never mind. I now see that it includes both in-store and online.
Can we buy VGC’s at grocery stores with Apple pay:) Darn spending caps!
that’s why we la l ove competition amex where are you now ?