Chase Flexible Rewards Platinum Visa Review
Summary - The Chase Flexible Rewards Platinum Visa® Card is a basic reward card from Chase. The Flexible Rewards program comes with the regular Chase Platinum Visa or MasterCard as well. Find out more about this card.
Reward Formula - The Chase Flexible Rewards Visa® Card is a general reward program credit card. You earn one point for every dollar you spend. You can earn up to 5,000 points in a month and up to 60,000 points in a year. You will earn 1,000 points after your first purchase. Points can be redeemed for travel (airline tickets, hotels or car rentals), merchandise, gift cards or cash rebate.
Flexible Rewards - How good is the chase flexible rewards program? Well, let's take a look. In terms of airline travel rewards (which is what most folks look out for), the Flexible Rewards allow you to redeem points for miles in a few ways. Firstly, you can use your points to buy airline tickets (through Chase). You will need 100 points to redeem $1 in actual ticket cost. You also need to redeem a minimum of 15,000 points (ie min ticket price of $150. You can also use 25,000 points for a economy class domestic roundtrip ticket.
Exchange Points for UA, Continental OnePass Miles or BA Miles
Or you can choose to transfer points to United Airlines Mileage program, Continental OnePass Miles or British Airways miles. Hence, this card may offer a better alternative for Continental OnePass or United Mileage Plus members. (Note that this information cannot be found on the web unless you are a cardholder, which I am!)
Other Rewards - Aside from the travel rewards exchange option, the reward program compared to other cards not very good. Though it has improved a lot the last couple of years in terms of the number of merchant partners, the Membership Rewards from American Express is still a much better program. For example, to start off, Chase requires 1500 points to get a $10 gift certificate. The Membership Rewards program only requires 1,000 points!
Fee - There is no annual fee. The APR is either prime rate plus 5.99%, 9.99% or 14.99% depending on your credit profile. New cardholders get a 0% APR for purchases and balances for up to 12 months. You have to pay a balance transfer fee even during the introductory period. The Chase Flexible Rewards Platinum Visa® uses the average daily balance method (including new purchases) to calculate your monthly balance.
Chase Flexible Rewards Peer Comparison
Before we reach a verdict about this card, let us compare it some of it's peers.
Chase Flexible Rewards vs Amex Blue - The Amex Blue Card is American Express no annual fee reward card. To compare both cards is to really compare their reward program. In terms of travel, the Blue allows you to use points on their online travel portal. 100 points gets you $1 in value. The Chase Flexible Rewards also has that feature, but in addition to that, you can transfer points to their airline partners like Continental and BA. The Membership Rewards program is still better than the Chase Rewards program in terms of merchandise gift cards and non-travel stuff.
Chase Flexible Rewards vs Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards - Update - the Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards has been replaced by the Citi ThankYou Preferred Card. To compare this card, we are essentially comparing the two reward programs again. Citi's ThankYou program has been through some changes recently. Their travel portal is powered by expedia.com and recently, they have stopped offering American Airlines on expedia and Citi's travel portal. Because SouthWest is not on anyone's portal, this has really handicapped Citi. Hence, at the margin, this card beats out Citi's reward cards.
Chase Flexible Rewards vs BOA WorldPoints Visa - The WorldPoints reward program from Bank of America is pretty similar to the Chase Flexible Rewards in the area of gift cards and merchandise. Once again, the difference is in the travel rewards. We have already mentioned that the Chase Flexible Rewards allow you to transfer points to their partner airlines. That is their main differentiation. The BOA WorldPoints differentiation is that aside from letting you use points to book travel (100 points equals $1), they still have the old style system whereby for 35,000 points, you can redeem a domestic ticket for up to $500 in value. Once the ticket value exceeds $500, the reward ratio reverts to 100 points for $1.
Chase Flexible Rewards - Is This A Good Reward Card?
Pros - Allows you to transfer points into miles of their airline partners.
Cons - Other than travel, the reward program is not as comprehensive as others.
Verdict - I personally have this card and would say that the Chase Flexible Rewards Platinum Visa® Card is not the best reward card out there. I still prefer my other Amex Cards for using earning reward points. But the unique feature is that you can actually transfer points to their airline partners. While Amex charge cards have that feature, they come with an annual fee. The fact that this card does not have an annual fee makes this feature unique.
Update - Chase is no longer offering the Flexible Rewards Card. In fact, my card has been updated to the Chase Freedom Card. Other card holders have has their cards changed to the Chase Sapphire Card. The reward program is now called the Ultimate Rewards program and is (in my opinion) one of the best programs out there right now.
| Chase Flexible Rewards Platinum Visa® Card | |
| Reward Formula | |
| Reward Formula | Earn 1 point for every dollar you spend |
| Caps on Points | Earn up to 5,000 points per month or 60,000 per year |
| Cost/Fees/Interest rates | |
| Introductory rate | 0% fixed APR for 12 billing cycles (purchases and balance transfers) |
| Annual Fees | No annual fee |
| Purchase APR | Prime Rate plus 5.99%, 9.99% or 14.99% |
| Balance Transfer APR | Prime Rate plus 5.99%, 9.99% or 14.99% |
| Cash Advance APR | Prime Rate plus 15.99% |
| Penalty/Default Rate | Prime Rate plus 23.99% |
| Min Finance Charge | $1.00 |
| Grace Period | 20 days |
| Balance Calculation Method | Average Daily Balance (including new purchases) |
| Balance Transfer Fee | 3% min $5.00 max $75.00 |
| Cash Advance fee | 3% min $10.00 |
| Foreign Currency Conversion fee | 3% |
| Over-the-credit-limit fee | $39.00 |
| Late Payment fee |
$15.00 - up to but not including $100.00 $29.00 on balances of $100.00 up to, but not including, $250.00 $39.00 - more than $250.00 |