Earn 500 easy Ultimate Rewards points w/ tap-to-pay [YMMV / Targeted?]

Chase is out with an offer that may be targeted to earn 500 Ultimate Rewards points when you use tap to pay 3 times for purchases of $1.75 or more between June 27, 2019 and July 31, 2019. It’s not clear whether or not this is targeted; we had a reader report this morning from a Freedom Unlimited cardholder and then Stephen received it on his Freedom card. The email indicates that no registration is necessary. My bet would therefore be that this will likely be available to all Freedom and Freedom Unlimited cardmembers and I wouldn’t be surprised if it also works for the various flavors of Sapphire card, but YMMV as we don’t know for sure. The good news is that the spend threshold is low as is the effort level to accomplish this one, so not much lost if you don’t get the bonus.

The Deal

• Chase Freedom and Freedom Unlimited cardholders are reporting an offer to earn a bonus 500 Ultimate Rewards points when using contactless / tap-to-pay with their card three times for purchases of $1.75 or more from June 27 to July 31, 2019 [possibly targeted]
• Link to more information on contactless payment from Chase

Key Terms

• No enrollment necessary; unclear if it is open to all cardholders

Quick Thoughts

Tap to pay is super easy. I was recently in Europe for a couple of weeks and didn’t even know that my Capital One Venture card worked with tap to pay until a cashier somewhere took the card out of my hand and tapped it to the terminal. Then I began using it at other locations that had the functionality (of course mixing in some purchases on my Samsung Gear S3 watch as well). Frankly, I’m surprised it has taken so long to get marketed much in the US.

Just look for a payment terminal that has the universal sign for being NFC-compatible:

Then you should just be able to tap your card to that icon wherever it appears on the payment terminal. Most grocery stores have this capability. You do need to hold the card there for a second — it’s not quite a tap per say as much as a hold it there for a second. It’s faster than chip or swipe though and thus it’s worth buying three small things with a Freedom or Sapphire card in the hopes that this isn’t targeted.

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