Forced into Freedom (Chase card)
October 23, 2010
My letter of doom arrived on October 15th. It was a Friday. It was a payday. It was, in all other ways, good. Then the letter arrived.
A thin envelope from Chase which had no business being here, no rewards check having been ordered recently, no changes to terms or conditions anticipated. No reason at all for this surprise delivery from the postperson.
That envelope contained a missive from my former favorite bank/credit card stating that my go-to credit card, my Chase Cash Plus, 5% cash back on all gas, groceries and drugstores card was being converted into a Chase Freedom card.
FREEDOM. Freedom they call it. Freedom to go …. never mind. Freedom it is, then.
Freedom to earn a paltry 1% cashback on all purchases and a bonus 5% for three short months on their select categories of the season. This winter (Oct 1-Dec 31st) will be groceries, department stores and movie theatres. Never ye mind I don’t shop at department stores or go to movies more than few times a year, forget during these three months of the year. The pink French washed sea salt in an already searing wound? A customer is now required to sign up every three months for the categories for which they desire the bonus % cash back.
O bitterness! There was much rending of garments and remonstration.
**For the record, PiC was puzzled and unmoved. He clearly has some conversion to the world of personal finance left to do. Now I have to find a better go-to card. Bischla.
That sucks.
The new credit card act has really cut into rewards programs. The AMEX I use has been discontinued for new customers and the rewards have dropped, so I’m interested to see what you come up with. The best I’ve been able to come up with is the Chase Amazon card – 3% Amazon.com, 2% restaurants, dining, and gas, 1% everything else.
Keep us posted!
wow, that really sucks. it’s more freedom when they give us cold cash. 🙂
hope you find a new CC company replacement.
Bischla? I wish I knew what that meant. Credit card rejiggering is indeed a sign of the times. A pox upon their house!
Yeah annoying. Citicards made that switch sometime last year… and I hear they even started charging a fee to folks who aren’t big spenders (apparently we escaped that axe).
Yup, they pulled that on me last year! buggers.
I like my Zync card with Amex because I can choose the points programs that work for me. Although, yes, this is an annual fee charge card, and that doesn’t work for everyone. The green pack was free to add and most of my grocery shopping earns triple points. That was a big selling point for me.
General note – yes I now realize I’ve been spoiled having the card for this long undisturbed.
@The Lost Goat: I semi-accidentally (blogging later) picked up a new card that will be a temporary stand in for a few months, but I’m still on the hunt.
@AP: I know! But I AM a deadbeat customer so no real surprise there.
@Dogfood Provider: It’s my form of cursing without cursing 🙂
@Nicole: I have a feeling Citi’s gearing up to implement an annual fee on little used cards soon enough, I see a $0 fee “charged” every so often.
@Sense: my condolences.
@Danielle: I still can’t quite bring myself to accept an annual fee yet. Perhaps when the return value is high enough for my internal threshold.
Hmmm…. Interesting. But not unexpected.
I also use Costco’s AMEX for its cash back — has a kickback that’s about the same as the Chase Amazon card The Lost Goat describes.
Prob’ly I’d still use it if they quit giving the kickback, because it’s convenient. I’m not interested in blandishments other than cash rewards, so if they quit kicking back cash I’d probably start using my Visa instead, since more places accept it, and reserve the AMEX for Costco, which won’t take anything else.
The minute AMEX starts charging a fee for that Costco card, though, is the minute I start paying Costco in cash.