Review of Chase Student Flexible Rewards Platinum Visa

Summary - The Chase Student Flexible Rewards Card is a great reward card for the college student. It allows you to earn great rewards and build your credit history at the same time. Find out more about this card.

Reward Formula - The Chase Flexible Rewards 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. Points can be redeemed for travel (airline tickets, hotels or car rentals), merchandise, gift cards or cash rebate.

Flexible Rewards - The most attractive feature of the Chase Flexible Rewards Visa is the flexibility of its reward program especially in the area of airline travel. As a brief background, there are two extreme versions of airline rewards in a reward program. Programs like American Express membership rewards allow you to transfer points to actual frequent flyer programs itself. Most other credit card reward program allow you to redeem points for airline tickets, but you loose the flexibility in the choice of airlines.

The Flexible Rewards is unique in that there a three ways to redeem points for airline tickets. The first method is the conventional method where you exchange points for a free ticket, but you cannot choose your airline. Alternatively, the flexible rewards allow you to redeem tickets in Continental Airlines, which require less points than the former method. 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!)

The other rewards in the program are on par with other reward programs.

Fee - There is no annual fee. The apr is either prime rate plus 9.99%. New cardholders get an introductory 0% apr on both purchase and balance transfer for 6 billing cycles. The Chase Student Flexible Rewards Platinum Visa uses the two-cycle average daily balance method (including new purchases) to calculate your monthly balance.

Verdict - I personally have the regular version of this card. The rewards are very comprehensive and the you have great flexibility in redeeming your points for travel rewards. Being a college student is the only time when it is relatively easy to get a credit card even though you have no credit history. I always recommend getting a reward credit card rather than a basic credit card because you might as well enjoy perks given by a credit card issuer. I have no hesitation in recommending the Chase Student Flexible Rewards Card.

Note - Chase is no longer offering this card on this site.

Positives

Very good reward program

No annual fee

Chase Student Flexible Rewards Platinum Visa
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 6 billing cycles (purchases and balance transfers)
Annual Fees	No annual fee
Purchase APR	Prime Rate plus 9.99%
Balance Transfer APR	Prime Rate plus 9.99%
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	2-cycle 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	$35.00
Late Payment fee	$15.00 - up to but not including $250.00 $39.00 - more than $250.00