Although I noticed an occasional reference to this in various posts, I didn't see a post dedicated to this.

I recieved the following letter in the mail:

Dear _______
Effective July 15, 2007 your cash plus rewards program is changing to the new Chase Freedom reward program. the changes that take place are as follows:

Earn 3% Cash Back on eligible purchases in the top 3 categories where you spend the most each month.....your categories can change each month...you earn 1% Cash Back on all other purchases...unlimited rewards...

I do not know if everyone is getting this letter immediately, but I'm sure sooner or later they're going to do this to everyone. I know in my post about the advanta card discontinuing their current program, there were a lot of non believers and I'm sure there will be a few here, as well, not wanting to believe this...
As we all know CSR's aren't always accurate (being polite) but the 2 CSR's I spoke with said they are doing this to everyone and said they are completely doing away with the cash plus rewards. For anyone that's curious, I had this card for a number of years with this program and have used it aggressivly, although you never know, maybe I'm just unlucky and everyone else will be spared

I don't have access to a scanner, otherwise I would put a scan of it. If anyone else got the letter and can scan it for others to see, that would be great.

A few others on FW have posted this on one of the Chase Cash Plus threads, saying that they received the same letter that you did...This was within the last few weeks, so i don't think they will be too surprised or not believe you....It does seem like the 5% deal at Chase is coming to an end, and they are sending out letters (and converting) all the Cash Plus customers over to Freedom...

I have Rewards Plus (the other Chase 5% card) and haven't received, or seen any posts yet on FW about Rewards Plus customers receiving such a letter, yet...but no doubt, we will follow....I think we all knew it would happen eventually...at least they did let us keep it for quite a long time after they stopped issueing the cards...

Freedom is not bad though, because it covers many more catatgories (of which 3 each month) you get the bonus on...and also, if you wait until you have $200 accumulated, you get an extra $50 bonus! So, while not as good as 5%, obviously, better then Citi's 2% deal that they have now....

that's why they offer the $50 bonus if you wait until $200...to encourage you to use the card for your 1% purchases, as well, which will shorten the time it takes to reach it...

I use my Freedom for my 1% purchases as well as my 3% ones...

Well that sucks.

Man, it used to be easy to figure out which card to use, but now with most of the programs being changed and limiting you to certain amounts each month (Advanta/Chase), you might as well pick your favorite card and use the bejeebus out of it.

CRAP!!!!!!

centrifuge41 said:Oh bummer, another poor FW'er getting the end of 5% letter We haven't gotten ours yet (crosses fingers), but then again we just signed up for Cash Plus about 8 months ago.

No letter for me yet either, I though maybe it's timed to your statement but mine closed last week. Would be good if we could put together some data points. Like how long have you had, Did you carry balance, did you use only for EDP, Would be nice if we could figure out a pattern. I would have thought I would have been one of the first to get letter, I PIF and only use for 5% purchases and got the card when it was first offered

I haven't received the letter yet but I am sure we all will. With this I don't think there is a popular card left that gives 5% on groceries and drug store purchases. I will swtich to my discover gas card for my gas purchases as it gives 5% back. For all other stuff I will switch to Citi Platinum which gives 3 thankyou points for every $1 spent. Lets see how it goes...

WalStMonky said:I guess that AMEX Blue with it's tier doesn't interest most people. But I get 5% on ED for most of the year. AMEX also doesn't have some silly requirement that the card be swiped at the pump to get the gas station discount. Still, I'm at 2.2% rebate overall the first 6 months of my 'year' without worrying about which card to use at what merchant. AMEX being accepted just isn't much of a problem anymore either. My backup MC for piker merchants who don't accept AMEX sees less than $100 month in purchases nowadays. Maybe this program will go away too, but has a lot more chance of sticking around since AMEX charges ~4% to the merchant vs 1.5% for Visa/MC. V/MC have practically nothing left over on a non-ED purchase after coughing up a 1% rebate.
I am not that worried about losing my Chase 5% because of the AMEX, Had not been using mine because it seemed to many did not take it, So when I saw here that it looks like Chase would be ending 5% I figured I better start with AMEX. Got lucky when I bought my new car a few weeks ago and dealer let me put $5k on the Blue Cash so was able hit the $6500 easily. Still wish AMEX was more widely accepted, I know I can't pay college bill with it and I did have a couple other large purchases who would not accept. Not sure what merchant fees are on cards but I read this in a recent story:

That's because American Express charges merchants nearly 2.6 percent in fees for every dollar of transactions done with its cards, compared with less than 2 percent on average for Visa and MasterCard, Bezard said.

"No letter for me yet either, I though maybe it's timed to your statement but mine closed last week. Would be good if we could put together some data points. Like how long have you had, Did you carry balance, did you use only for EDP, Would be nice if we could figure out a pattern. I would have thought I would have been one of the first to get letter, I PIF and only use for 5% purchases and got the card when it was first offered"
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Ok: here are my specs: Had the card for at least 3 years or more. never carried a balance or utilized the 0% offer on my card. Location= East Coast/ New England. Didn't just use the card for edp, used it for most of my purchases (except for utilities and Office supply purchases which I used advanta card to get %5) roughly a couple grand in purchases each month. Hope this helps to identify.

I don't have the letter yet. If it comes to it, I'll probably go with Chase Freedom. At least Chase give you the best redemption rate for cash and cash is the ultimate gift card!!

AMEX has a dilution rate of .50 for Cash Back. Citi's TYN is about .625 for Cash Back.