peachfront

They're not really. I'm married to a person of a different last name, in as far as I know the single most popular county in the entire United States for getting married other than Clark County itself...for sure the southern United States ...and I really don't know if credit card companies are searching Garland County marriage records or even know where Garland County is. In theory it's a matter of public record. In reality I would have to spend some trouble and money myself to prove it really happened. Chase ain't gonna. If you live at the same address, you're married/domestic partner and if you don't, you aren't. My theory and two cents anyhoo...

But., at the end of the day, Chase is doing you guys a favor. If you become known as the "go to" person for freebies, your life will become a living heck. Siblings, parents, grandparents, not to mention random cousins and friends of friends... you know what? NOTHING good comes of giving expensive gifts like air tix and upgrades to other adults that are not your spouse. I could insert a long sad story here but I give up. If you are a professional masochist and want your siblings to walk all over you, Chase will not enable it and I for one say good for them.

iamthehpt

I'm concerned about Chase's apparent change of policy/enforecement of rules. My boyfriend (different name, different address) called Chase several months ago to see if he could transfer his UR points to my account (we were using them for an immediate booking.) Chase told him no problem and did the transfer over the phone. If the transfer isn't allowed, then the Chase reps should say so. So far our accounts are fine, hope it stays that way. My condolences to those whose accounts are being closed.

aviator8

Nice of Chase to treat this in such a fair and even handed way! If they allowed this to happen, and even facilitated it for so long they should have waded into this a bit more delicately. It is chases right to enforce this even if none of us knew this policy. However knowing that it was being used widely, AND, having assisted in it's execution, and the fact that they probably know that very few people understood this. I think they should have identified the violators of the policy, then sent them a letter educating them of the policy, and explaining the consequences of violating that policy in the future. That would have been a heck of a lot more customer friendly.

fetchercity

I've both transferred and received UR points to/from others' UR accounts. I've also transferred/received UR points to and from others' loyalty accounts. My CSP is still open and active. I've even done these things recently (within the past month).

Anyone else out there done the same and still ok? I'm kinda scared and definitely do not want my CSP shut down for behavior I had NO IDEA would cause a problem.

tufasttt

It does seem like a crackdown is going on for all the accounts who might be in the violation. I have just talked to two friends who had their CSP accounts closed within the last week. I'm goin to be making a call tomorrow to talk to the supervisor to address the issue of chase representatives not enforcing the T&C when I called to transfer miles. Also I don't agree with chase that I will not earn miles for the remaining balance on my CSP. If I'm still paying for the balance, it only seems logical that points should be granted! Will post an update tomorrow.

dw

A few months ago, I remember reading a thread, on another site (perhaps Fatwallet? Do not remember) where people were basically selling their UR points for cash and transferring the points to the buyers' accounts.

I firmly believe that it is this type of activity that Chase is targeting... unfortunately, those people who transferred points to/from friends and family members are being caught up in their sweep.

cerealmarketer

Hmmm...and according to this the terms and conditions for transfers are slightly different than for combining within Ultimate Rewards...

http://milecards.com/4942/warning-ch...int-transfers/

"You can only transfer points to a frequent travel account belonging to you, your household member or an authorized user or employee."

vs for combining:

"Transfers may only be used to combine points belonging to the same individual or business in the program; or for the purpose of enabling spouses or domestic partners to combine points."

aarato

I would be interested in the amounts transferred from accounts to accounts.
I seriously doubt that topping off accounts would be a problem.

jatink129

As cerealmarketer just mentioned...the rules,it seems, are different for transferring points from a UR account to UR account and for transferring from UR account to frequent flier accounts.

As an authorized user on my mother's CSP, the first is NOT allowed, but the second is. And I can confirm this, I transferred about 80,000 points from my Chase Freedom account to her CSP account, and got a call from Chase who wanted to know why I did that.
They told me that it wasn't allowed and even though we shared the same billing address and last name and I was an authorized user, I could NOT transfer points into her UR account and she couldn't transfer points to my UR account.
They said, that since I didn't know and because I was a AU and her son, they were going to let it go but that a repeat offence would result in her account being shut down.
They also confirmed that transferring points from her account to my United account wouldn't be a problem.

I transferred all her points over to my Dad's Freedom account anyway. Just to be safe.
The agent told me that he got the security team to notate the account and if and when the account came under review, they'd see the notes and remember not to shut down the account.
Let's see. I'll wait a few months before transferring the points back to her account.

onefatsurfer

this sucks. luckily, i have only transferred points between me and my spouse. however, we had several transfers when we were dating and/or engaged. hopefully they don't go back and close our accounts.. though i'd hope that explaining to them that she's now my wife would clear up everything.

lkar

Jeez -- it sounds from some of the comments that perhaps they are going back through transactions from the past and reviewing accounts. While I've done a few transactions with miles and stuff that I knew were risky -- like buying SWUs on ebay years ago -- at least I knew the risks. Wouldn't it be ironic to get an account closed for a couple of transfers that I genuinely thought were permitted? My own fault for not reading the T&C more carefully, to be sure, but jeez -- the combine points feature on the web makes no mention of the issue and even lets you put in an "other" account with a different last name.

Part of me wonders what this is all about. The cynic in me thinks it can't possibly be just vigorous enforcement of T&C -- why all of the sudden and why is this so nefarious that they would actually close accounts? One sort of wonders whether they are targeting unprofitable accounts or whether they overshot on these cards or UR points are costing too much in general.

I mean, even if they only close a small percentage of accounts, I assume that will create a fairly massive cost savings in terms of the 7 percent points that are due on those accounts. Many opened their accounts since December with 40k and 50k bonuses, and presumably millions of points have been earned this year. Even valuing the cost of a point at $.01, closing accounts that have earned 50k or 100k in points this year is a decent savings if there are enough that you can avoid giving the 7 percent bonus. Would it exceed the cost of losing those customers? Who knows, but this really does seem like an extraordinary tactic.

cnlklink

IMO, Chase needs to display this policy on the "Combine Points" form. At the moment you need to click "View Terms and Conditions" on the "Verify" screen in order to display it.

redtop43

What I find confusing is that in order to transfer UR points, you have to call Chase. You can't do it automatically. How can you actually help someone do something, then punish them for it?

I can see a possible reason for the change, which is converting Freedom points, which are not transferrable to travel partners, to CSP points, which are.

But I'm still baffled at how they can say "We did this for you yesterday, now we're telling you it broke the rules and we're closing your account for it today."

josephstern

This is being repeated a lot in this thread, and it's just not accurate. You can transfer points account to account online. You go to the UR page, and then:

Earn Faster -> Combine Ultimate Rewards Points

jatink129

I once "gave" some points to a "friend"...once...and have never done that again. This was about a year ago on my Chase freedom...
A part of me wants to call the security team and get them to notate the account that it was a one time thing and won't happen again, so that they'll remember not to shut down my account if and when it comes under review.

But I know better than to do that. Why call their attention to this? And then have them decide to check other people's Freedom cards too.
That's a lot of bad karma.

I think chase should let points be transferred between immediate family, ESPECIALLY if they have the same billing address.