Chase Pay Yourself Back Feature: How to Maximize Cash Back Using Your Rewards

If Pay Yourself Back from Chase hasn’t been on your radar in a while, it may be worth brushing up on this redemption option.

Not only has the option expanded to a broader list of Chase cards, but some redemption rates are nothing to sneeze at, especially since some airline mile devaluations have occurred when using the miles for more traditional uses. Chase offers this option on some co-branded credit cards, including Southwest Airlines Cards and the Aeroplan® Credit Card.

To give an idea of ​​how this can be helpful if you have a United credit card, you may be able to use miles to offset the annual fee at a rate of up to 1.75 cents per mile, which is well above the rate at which TPG October 2024 ratings set United miles for travel and be worthy of your consideration. With the $525 per year United Club Infinite Card℠You can offset the annual fee (and get a full year of United Club access in the process) for just 30,000 United miles.

Additionally, many of these redemption options were set to expire at the end of September, but are now valid until the end of 2024.

Here’s everything you need to know about how to use Chase Pay Yourself Back.

What is Chase Pay Yourself Back?

In 2020, when most of the world was not traveling, Chase initially introduced Pay Yourself Back as a seamless redemption option within its Ultimate Rewards products to give cardholders another option to redeem points. The categories have evolved over time, removing options like grocery and home improvement and adding others.

In short, the Pay Yourself Back option allows many Chase cardholders to use points with a redemption value similar to booking travel. Generally, this will not give you the maximum value for your Ultimate Rewards points You can achieve this with the strategic use of transfer partners; However, it could be a good option if you’re looking for a simple return or if you have a stack of points with no immediate use.

And since some airline cards are now eligible for Pay Yourself Back, the rate you can redeem at for some categories is above the average return you’re likely to get from using miles to book travel.

Related: Best Chase Credit Cards

Let’s say you had an eligible donation in the Chase Sapphire Reserve. For most purchases, you’ll earn a $100 statement credit when you redeem 10,000 points. But for those same 10,000 points, you’ll get a $150 credit when you redeem them for your eligible charitable donation. You could probably get even more value by transferring your points to travel partners, but this redemption rate matches the rate offered on Chase Travel℠ exchanges of that card.

Applying for a loan

Applying for credit through Chase’s Pay Yourself Back program is relatively simple. Log in to your eligible Chase account via the mobile or desktop app and select the “Pay Yourself” option in the redemption menu.

Below you will see a list of eligible purchases that you can redeem points for. Points can be redeemed for purchases up to 90 days.

You can offset the full purchase amount, assuming you have enough points to cover it.

From there, you can confirm the redemption value and number of points required and then choose to complete the transaction. Your statement credit should post within three business days.

You will be given the option to enter the amount you want to redeem and where you want your rewards to be deposited. All cashback refunds are set at 1 cent per point, just under half of the October 2024 TPG. valuation for Ultimate Rewards and lower than any of the previous Pay Yourself Back options.

Related: Views: Can I withdraw my points? It’s worth it?

Still, Chase’s traditional cash back option is more generous than you might expect from other issuers. Here’s how some of the most popular programs and cards break down:

Citi Prestige card information has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Related: The best Chase cards