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2018 2nd Quarter Freedom Bonus Categories: Groceries, PayPal , Chase Pay

Old Apr 2, 2018, 6:45 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: SanDiego1K
5% cash back on purchases up to $1500 during the 2nd quarter
Must activate the bonus online

Bonus categories:
  1. Paypal - Includes purchases made using your Freedom card with PayPal for purchases or sending money.
  2. Chase Pay - Includes purchases made using your Freedom card with your Chase Pay mobile wallet during check out.
  3. Grocery Stores (not including Walmart® and Target® purchases).
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2018 2nd Quarter Freedom Bonus Categories: Groceries, PayPal , Chase Pay

Old Apr 6, 2018, 4:29 pm
  #61  
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 2,449
Recently (02 APR) purchased a Southwest.com ticket and used the PayPal option to pay with my Freedom card. Once the purchase posted onto my card it only showed as earning 1 point per $ under the recent transactions. My understanding was any payment via PayPal would earn the 5x points. Anyone else having this issue when using PayPal to checkout with a merchant?
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Old Apr 6, 2018, 6:06 pm
  #62  
 
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Originally Posted by miadukes
Wow thats cool I had no idea. I went to publix today to get groceries and just bought some shell gift cards for my weekend trip. figured might as well max out this way.
Going OT a bit but Exxon has a similar set up with their app. I leave it on the last page of my phone in case I need to buy gas and forgot my wallet which tends to happen more than I care to admit.
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Old Apr 7, 2018, 10:24 am
  #63  
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Posts: 2
Originally Posted by kinglobjaw
Recently (02 APR) purchased a Southwest.com ticket and used the PayPal option to pay with my Freedom card. Once the purchase posted onto my card it only showed as earning 1 point per $ under the recent transactions. My understanding was any payment via PayPal would earn the 5x points. Anyone else having this issue when using PayPal to checkout with a merchant?
Yes, had the exact same thing happen. Not happy as I would have used my Sapphire Preferred to get double points if I knew I wasn't going to get the 5x bonus with Freedom by paying through PayPal.

This is how it shows up:
SOUTHWESTAIR########
This transaction posted on Apr 6, 2018
Additional merchant and transaction information
PAYPAL COM, TX ##### US
Online, Mail, or Telephone transaction
Rewards earned with this transaction
How we calculate rewards
+ 1% (1 Pt)/$1 earned on all purchases
287.86
Total Points
287.86
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Old Apr 8, 2018, 10:21 am
  #64  
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Exclamation don't use PayPal at airlines expecting 5x!

Originally Posted by CMack
This is how it shows up:
SOUTHWESTAIR########
This transaction posted on Apr 6, 2018
Additional merchant and transaction information
PAYPAL COM, TX ##### US
Online, Mail, or Telephone transaction
That's the problem. A PayPal purchase which earns 5x posts with PAYPAL before the merchant name, looks like this:

PAYPAL *KEH INC
This transaction posted on Apr 2, 2018
Additional merchant and transaction information
402-935-7733, GA 300820000 US
Online, Mail, or Telephone transaction
For some reason, the Southwest purchases aren't coming across in the same format, presumably because they're airline purchases and they want sneak in ticket info, etc into the purchase record. And given that every airline likes to use a different purchase record format than other types of merchants, I'd suspect the same problem is likely to occur at other airlines too.

So based on this, I would recommend that you don't use PayPal at any airline expecting to earn 5x (without a "test purchase" first, if practical).
RedSun likes this.

Last edited by sdsearch; Apr 8, 2018 at 10:28 am
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Old Apr 8, 2018, 10:41 am
  #65  
 
Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 39
Originally Posted by sdsearch
That's the problem. A PayPal purchase which earns 5x posts with PAYPAL before the merchant name, looks like this:


For some reason, the Southwest purchases aren't coming across in the same format, presumably because they're airline purchases and they want sneak in ticket info, etc into the purchase record. And given that every airline likes to use a different purchase record format than other types of merchants, I'd suspect the same problem is likely to occur at other airlines too.

So based on this, I would recommend that you don't use PayPal at any airline expecting to earn 5x (without a "test purchase" first, if practical).
Yep, ran into the same thing with British Airways
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Old Apr 8, 2018, 6:03 pm
  #66  
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 2,449
I will be sending a private message to Chase and will see if they can manually credit the 5x. If anyone else is willing to contact Chase about this, please report back with your findings.
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Old Apr 8, 2018, 9:22 pm
  #67  
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 673
Originally Posted by kinglobjaw
I will be sending a private message to Chase and will see if they can manually credit the 5x. If anyone else is willing to contact Chase about this, please report back with your findings.
I think you should point out that this is a bug in their system that needs to be corrected. People shouldn't have to contact them for each charge like this.
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Old Apr 10, 2018, 12:42 pm
  #68  
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Originally Posted by MisterBill
I think you should point out that this is a bug in their system that needs to be corrected. People shouldn't have to contact them for each charge like this.
It could also be viewed as a bug in PayPal's system, in that it reports airline purchases in a way that makes it less clear that it was a PayPal purchase.

If PayPal never did such a category bonus with any other bank before, they may not have realized that the way it codes airlines would cause problems for a bank trying to do a category bonus, just as if Chase never did a category bonus for PayPal before, they may not realized that PayPal codes very differently for airline purchases (compared to most other PayPal purchases).

Would any of you have used PayPal for an airline if it wasn't for this promo? I ask that just to point out that Chase may not have much experience with people using PayPal for airlines before this, and in any case, the reporting format wouldn't matter if Chase hadn't given a bonus for using PayPal ever before.
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Old Apr 10, 2018, 12:49 pm
  #69  
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In my past experience, Chase customer service will push very hard against any sort of manual adjustment to Freedom categories, but if pushed hard enough (asking once, and then a second time, both via the online secure message center has done it for me) they may be willing to give the missing 4x points as a goodwill gesture.

That could actually work in your favor here, because those goodwill points are credited separately from the transaction itself and thus don't count toward your $1500 of spending cap per quarter, so you could end up getting the 5x points per dollar on more than $1500 of spend per card for the quarter, if you have other planned spending within this quarter's bonus categories.

That said, I also wouldn't go making any big airfare purchases counting on being able to get the goodwill points credited in the first place, and I especially wouldn't count on getting the goodwill points for a second round of airfare purchases after getting them on a first round.
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Old Apr 10, 2018, 12:53 pm
  #70  
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In addition to FlyerTalk, people have also been reporting this problem with other airlines on Reddit.

As a result, DoC has put up a special page about this issue (with links to those Reddit reports):

PSA: Don’t Use Chase Freedom + Paypal on Airline Purchases for 5x
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Old Apr 10, 2018, 1:30 pm
  #71  
 
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I wonder if having a Paypal account matters or not.
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Old Apr 10, 2018, 8:59 pm
  #72  
 
Join Date: Mar 2018
Posts: 26
Been booking hotels via expedia with my Chase Sapphir Reserve, however I downloaded priceline and they have a paypal option.

If I use paypal through Priceline, will I get the 5x points?
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Old Apr 11, 2018, 7:36 am
  #73  
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Originally Posted by Jm192
Been booking hotels via expedia with my Chase Sapphir Reserve, however I downloaded priceline and they have a paypal option.

If I use paypal through Priceline, will I get the 5x points?
Most likely yes, though note the people having trouble getting the 5x points for airfare via PayPal in the posts above yours. There's a chance you could have a similar issue. You would also definitely need the booking to be prepaid since any payment you make directly to the hotel wouldn't come through Paypal, though I think most if not all Priceline hotel bookings are prepaid. Ideal might be to book a refundable hotel rate (if available) to see what happens, and you could cancel it and rebook on another card that earns more if it doesn't show up as 5x points.
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Old Apr 11, 2018, 11:30 pm
  #74  
 
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Originally Posted by RedSun
I know you are still on top. But you do pay 2.9% Paypal fees. If you buy VGCs etc, the fee is about 1%. You save $90 with your three cards....
Yeah, for those with the patience to liquidate VGCs it is definitely cheaper. I calculated the difference closer to $78 but that’s the right ballpark. I just am not really in to MOs and manufactured spending but you’re right that it can be done more cheaply. I am paying about .584 ents per point, which works for me but could be more efficient for sure.
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Old Apr 12, 2018, 5:50 am
  #75  
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Originally Posted by lkar
Yeah, for those with the patience to liquidate VGCs it is definitely cheaper. I calculated the difference closer to $78 but that’s the right ballpark. I just am not really in to MOs and manufactured spending but you’re right that it can be done more cheaply. I am paying about .584 ents per point, which works for me but could be more efficient for sure.
If we can get 1% fee, then the cost will be $0.002/UR point. I plan to load up some Amazon GC, Maybe other GCs that I use. VGC will be another story. I've yet to find any local grocery stores that sell $500 VGC.
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