Ziggy587 wrote:100 points = $1, big deal. I charged a total of about $800 on my Amazon card, when I was using it, mostly 1 point dollars, but a few 2 and 3 point dollars as well. I have a whopping 1,200 points to show for it. $12? My Chase Leisure Rewards card would get me $25 every few months. So it costs $20/year... but you guys were just talking about Amazon Prime and that $90/year. If it pays in the end, then what's the problem? I'm using my debit card anyway, like I said, since I don't carry cash. I'm not charging everything. I rack up way more points, I end up getting much more Amazon bucks with my Leisure card versus the Amazon card. And I don't have to worry about a balance.
I was living large! But then I got a letter in the mail from Chase saying something that Obama made a new law and now I can't get points on my Leisure card anymore. It was suppose to be effective in August, but I swear I was still getting points some time after that. I haven't checked my points balance recently.
There's a new law that limits the amount of money that banks can charge merchants for a debit transaction. That is what is killing the debit card rewards business.
I think the advantage that the debit card has is that you're allowed to pay for certain transactions that you can't with a credit card which might be why you got more points.
Looking at this article
http://creditshout.com/chase-leisure-rewards-review/, the person got 4 points for every $1 spent. According to the article, at 7500 points you get $15 cash. So you have to spend $1875 to get $15 cash back. With the Amazon, you spend $2500 to get $25 gift card or $1 for every $100 (roughly speaking). With the Chase Rewards, it seems you need to spend $1 for every $125 spent.
In order to get the reward, you have to remember to use the "credit", not "debit" option for your Chase Rewards Card (according to the article that I linked).
In the end, we're all paying for these "rewards" in the form of higher prices, especially cash customers if they don't get any discounts for using cash.