One of the reasons that Chase Ultimate Rewards points are so popular is the easy ability to combine points amongst your own Ultimate Rewards-earning cards or with one additional member of your household. Unfortunately, the process has become anything but easy for some cardholders — and a growing number of cardholders are reporting difficulty combining their Ultimate Rewards points, needing to call every time they’d like to combine, which adds significant hassle.
Combining Chase Ultimate Rewards points used to be easy
The process of moving Ultimate Rewards points from one card to another had long been relatively simple.
Cards within an individual login are automatically linked for combining points. Simply log in, go to the Ultimate Rewards portal, and under “Manage Points”, click the link to “Combine Points”.
That brings you to a page where you can combine points among your Ultimate Rewards-earning cards within that login.
If you have cards separated under a different login and/or want to combine points with an additional household member, it has only required a single call to initially link up the accounts, and then it has been easy to combine points on your own through the website.
And it continues to be just that simple for many cardholders. However, for a growing contingent of people, things have become much more frustrating.
Some / many cardholders now need to call every time they want to combine points (even among their own cards)
Multiple times a week, I see posts pop up in our Facebook group or other groups from people who are not finding the process of combining Chase Ultimate Rewards points to be as simple as described above.
Unfortunately, my wife counts herself among cardholders unable to combine online. She has a consumer login and two separate business logins, but she has long had her accounts connected so that she can move her Ultimate Rewards points between her cards (ultimately to her Sapphire Reserve card), and she has long been connected with one of my Ultimate Rewards earning cards so that she could combine points with me when necessary.
Over this past year, it has become impossible for her to combine points without a phone call.
The system still shows her accounts linked together (and linked with mine), but when she clicks to submit a transfer, she gets an error message every time saying that Chase is having trouble confirming her identity.
It seems for a second like the page will advance to request text message verification, but it never gets to a verification step and instead advances to the error shown above.
When she called in almost a year ago with this issue, the agent claimed that her phone number was not set up correctly for verification on her business accounts. They went through the steps to add it and said that she should be good to go to transfer from there on out. Unfortunately, the problem has only persisted. She can’t combine points from her cards to mine, from her Ink cards to her Sapphire Reserve, or even from one Ink card to another Ink card within the same login. Oddly, the system doesn’t even prompt her to call, it just says to try again later. We have learned that there is no “later”; she just has to call the number on the back of her card and speak to an agent to move her points.
The good news is that it has been simple enough to combine her points over the phone. She has to complete a text message verification with the agent, and then they have been able to move points among multiple cards on a single call. However, that is incredibly inconvenient. There are times when we might find award availability late at night, and it isn’t very practical to get out of bed and make a phone call, particularly when we’re in a hotel room with the kids.
While this has not affected all cardholders, my wife certainly isn’t alone. We’ve had numerous posts in our Facebook group where a member asks why they are receiving the above error, and there are inevitably numerous people who respond to say that they have been dealing with the same for months. Phone agents have been unable to resolve the problem.
It isn’t clear to me what the root cause of the issue is, though I do think it is linked with a failed attempt at 2-factor authentication. My wife and I would certainly be happy to complete 2-factor authentication, but the inability of the system to handle that has been highly frustrating (doubly so for the many folks like my wife who had been transferring among cards without issue for years before this popped out of nowhere). Hopefully, Chase gets this fixed. In the meantime, the only solution of which I am aware is to continue calling (and complaining about the repeated need to do so in the hopes that it leads to a solution).
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It was working fine for me and P2 until we both got shut down in the summer. I managed to get the accounts reopened, but no UR transfers except by phone since. I thought it was just me!
Same problem here with a new business card (and separate login). Haven’t bothered to call since I don’t need the points yet, but once I call and transfer the Ink points out, I will probably put the card in a sock drawer until there is a lucrative Chase offer.
I mercifully do not have this on either web or app but I do get 2FA prompts on every points combination transaction, even when transferring between cards I own. Which is kinda annoying and goofy but ultimately not the end of the world.
same here with the 2FA prompts
Yes, here as well. 2FA for every single transfer, large or small. Annoying, but I agree that given the benefits, I can live with it.
Once this started happening to us I was able to get them to move points via secure message, which is less of a hassle than calling but a lot slower. That avenue disappeared a few months ago and the secure message pseudonym person just started saying that I was a great customer, and super cool, and my issues are oh-so-important to Chase. But FU, you gotta call. Like the article says, a year ago I had this all dialed in online between P2 and my business and personal accts and all funneling to the CSR. It worked effortlessly. None of the many pseudonym agents I have asked/complained to will give me a straight answer, just platitudes and corporate-speak. I am fine with 2FA also, send me a code. Having to call is a waste of everyone’s time.
I had this problem last week, need to put a cell phone as your number to receive a text otherwise land line will keep creating error.
I have the same problem on the website but the app works consistently for me.
Same – the website seems to have a lot of glitches with this. App has always worked.
I had the same issue as SVEngineer states in that I tried to transfer points yesterday and despite going through the steps for a call and code it error ed out to that message without allowing a point transfer.
My husband is unfortunately also impacted…. why is it the P2 who doesn’t like to call!!! ?? 😉
I have the same problem, not only that, I can no longer transfer my points to a partner without calling. I get the same error message mentioned in the article and I have to call Chase every time I want to transfer.
In my personal experience, I’ve found that combining points through the website doesn’t seem to work any more, though it fails a little further along than described here. Using the app has generally worked for me, though only after doing 2-factor authentication.