We’ve heard rumors of American Express making some big updates to its credit card benefits in response to the lack of travel and the stay at home orders across the world. I guess that once Marriott and American Express announced those changes, Chase had to join in on the fun. After all, if everyone is using your competitor’s products, that doesn’t bode well for you and your products, does it?
The News
Starting from May 1st and going until June 30th, Chase will be adding in grocery stores as a reward category. The actual points you earn at grocery stores depend entirely on which Chase card you have, and are broken down below:
- 5x: Sapphire Reserve, United Club Infinite/Club/President Plus,
- 3x: Sapphire Preferred, United Explorer, United MileagePlus, British Airways/Aer Lingus, Iberia, Southwest Plus/Premier/Priority, World Of Hyatt, Chase Hyatt, IHG Premier/Club/Select, Disney Premier
Final Thoughts
The only card left out of here is the Chase Freedom card, and that card happens to be earning 5% back on groceries until the end of Q2, which also coincides with these end dates.
I think this sort of move makes sense for Chase. All of these credit cards listed above are travel orientated cards. Without the real ability to travel as intended, these cards wont get much use. Depending on where you are located, grocery stores may be one of the only essential businesses, definitely a safe bet that you can use your credit card there!
Keep in mind, that these cards earn points that are worth different values. 3 IHG points is not worth the same as 3 Hyatt points. With that said, the best card I can see here is the Sapphire Reserve. You’ll get 5 points that can be transferred to many other programs instead of being tied down to one program, but the choice is yours.
If we compare what Chase is offering on its cards what American Express is offering, I do have to give it to American Express on this one. Still, we’ll have to wait and see if Chase will try to compete with American Express or not. I feel that with a June 30th deadline, they’ll have to either extend this, or offer different things.
What do you think about these changes? Are you going to be using your Chase card at a grocery store sometime soon? Let us know down in the comment section below!
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