I never redeem points for purchases. I always apply them to a billing credit. If you redeem points for a purchase you don't accrue points on that purchase.
Chase of course goes out of their way to make this as painful as possible. Currently their app is broken and points can't be redeemed for cash. There is also no way to automatically apply all points to a statement credit. My perception that this is the best use of points is reinforced by how much effort they put into trying to convince me to do something else.
> I never redeem points for purchases. I always apply them to a billing credit.
This may not be a good redemption. For Chase UR points specifically, you really ought to transfer them to Chase Sapphire Reward card and redeem them for travel ($100 in points becomes $150 in travel) or transfer them to airline/hotel partners for redemptions. For example, you can often find Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt points redemptions that are substantially better (sometimes more than 50% off) than the cash value of the points.
My last Hyatt hotel stay, I redeemed 8,000 points per night for a hotel room that was listed at $267/night. In cases like this, you can more than triple the value of your points.
Hmm, thanks for the suggestion. I’ll take a look at those benefits. Typically I skip over those kinds of offers because they seem too good to be true.
It's definitely more effort to manage and there is a point of diminishing returns. But even if you just transfer to Chase Sapphire Reserve and redeem for travel (ignoring individual airline/hotel rewards programs), you should get a 50% bonus vs redeeming the points for cash.
Chase of course goes out of their way to make this as painful as possible. Currently their app is broken and points can't be redeemed for cash. There is also no way to automatically apply all points to a statement credit. My perception that this is the best use of points is reinforced by how much effort they put into trying to convince me to do something else.