How to Combine Chase Freedom, Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold and Ink Plus Ultimate Rewards Points
If you have different Chase Ultimate Rewards cards, you have the option to combine the points into a single account. This will let you transfer your Chase Freedom® points to your Chase Sapphire Preferred® or Chase Ink Bold® Business Charge Card/Chase Ink Plus® Business Card accounts.
Why would you want to combine the points? A few reasons.
First, the Chase Sapphire and Chase Ink cards are the premium cards. They allow you to transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to ten different Chase airline and hotel travel partners such as United Airlines, British Airways, Hyatt. The lower end Chase Freedom card only lets you redeem your points for 1 cent each. So 10,000 points redeem for only $100 cash back.
I like to use as much as I can the Chase Freedom quarterly categories for 7,500 Ultimate Rewards points each quarter. This earns me 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points a year. The Chase Freedom will only let me get cash back at one cent each so my 30,000 points would only be worth $300 if I used them that way. If I move them into my Chase Ink Bold account, I can then transfer them to 30,000 United airlines miles, among other options. That’s almost enough for a one way ticket from LA to New York and a round trip ticket from LA to Grand Cayman. Getting the tickets with United miles saved me $700! By transferring, I essentially doubled the value of my Ultimate Rewards points.
Secondly, you may ultimately decide to close or downgrade a card if you feel it’s not worth the annual fee, but may want to keep the points in the flexible Ultimate Reward currency. Transferring them to an airline or hotel partner would lock them in with that partner and make them less liquid. Keeping them as Ultimate Rewards points means you can decide later how you actually want to use them. When I closed my Chase Sapphire Preferred account, I transferred all my points to the Chase Ink Bold.
In my example, I am going to explain how to transfer Chase Freedom points to one of the other Chase cards.
Warning about transferring points to/from accounts of others: You can transfer points to any Chase Freedom, Chase Sapphire, Chase Ink account you personally own with no problem. However, Chase specifically prohibits transferring points from to the Chase Sapphire accounts of another individual that is not your domestic partner. For Chase Ink Bold, you can only transfer points to the accounts of employees. Chase will close the accounts of those violating these rules without hesitation so this is something you’d definitely want to abide by.
1. Log into your Chase Online account.
Go to Chase Online and log in.
2. Click on Go to Ultimate Rewards in the upper right hand corner.
3. In the upper right hand corner again, you will see a menu item for ‘Earn Faster’. Mousing over it will show a drop-down and there you want to select ‘Combine Ultimate Rewards Points’.
4. On the next screen, you will see a Transfer from and Transfer to option.
In the transfer from, you want to select the card you will be transferring your points from. If you are transferring to a personal card like Chase Sapphire Preferred that is linked to the same log-in account, it will appear as a drop down as one of the Transfer to cards. You can then select it. Cards linked to a different log-in account will not appear. For example, my Chase Ink Bold card does not appear.
To transfer to the Chase Ink Bold, I need to select Other and then type in the credit card number and my last name. Click Submit.
On the final screen, confirm you want to transfer the points. When you then log into your other card account, you should already see the points there. The transfer is instantaneous!
Great! Once you’ve transferred the Chase Ultimate Rewards points from your Chase Freedom to one of your premium account, the next step is to learn how to transfer those points to the ten different airline and hotel partners. You can check out my Chase Ultimate Rewards series for more information on how to best earn and use your Ultimate Rewards points:
- Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall: Earn miles for regular shopping
- Card Review: Chase Freedom Card
- Card Review: Chase Sapphire Preferred
- Card Review: Chase Ink Bold/Ink Plus
- How to Transfer Ultimate Rewards Points to Airline and Hotel Partners
- The Best Chase Ultimate Rewards Airline Transfer Partners
I’m a little confused about the warning given in this post. I need to transfer my UR points from my Freedom account to my Ink account. Will Chase be fine with this or do I need to be concerned?
If they are both your own accounts, that’s no problem. The restriction is on accounts of others. Thanks for pointing out the confusing wording… I’ve fixed the post to be more clear.
My fiance has a chase sapphire preferred card applied to under her name, with an additional card with my name on it. Would I be able to transfer my chase freedom points to her? Or would I need to apply and open my own separate sapphire preferred account? We are just trying to consolidate all our chase freedom points in one place, and then on to hyatt. Would rather not have to open a separate account for myself to do that.
Thank in advance.
According to Chase’s Terms and Conditions:
Transfers may only be used to combine rewards belonging to the same individual or business in the Program; or for the purpose of enabling spouses or domestic partners to combine rewards earned in their respective names.
If you are an authorized user on your fiance’s account, this should be no problem. If you are an authorized user, just enter your own last name and the credit card number on your copy of the card when you do the transfer. Scott at HackMyTrip actually had the exact same issue when he had a transfer from his fiance’s account: http://hackmytrip.com/2012/12/what-i-did-when-chase-tried-to-cancel-my-sapphire-preferred-card/. However, they were not each other’s authorized users. It also may not hurt to call Chase first and let them know what you are doing. If it will raise any flags, they will let you know.
Sorry for the additional message….
But if they are against transferring to other accounts…why is there the “other ultimate rewards card” and “card holders last name” section? Is there verbage from chase specifically prohibiting this? Just confused, thanks again.
Hi,
Just learned that from your great blog about transfering Chase freedom points to Ink plus business card and from there I could covert points to United airline miles. But here is my question, does it have expiration when i transfer from Ink plus card to United mileages plus account?
Thanks.
Thanks for the blog compliment! :) Yes, United miles will all expire after 18 months of inactivity. But you just need a little activity every 18 months to keep them active… such as transferring a few miles into the account, for example.
Thanks and I got two questions and hope you may have an answer…I currently have Chase Freedom and Ink business plus card and I will follow your guideline to transfer my Chase freedom points (Over 100k points) to Ink business card (50k bonus) then convert all to United airline miles. Here is my questions….. when once they become United miles. Are those miles only restrict to United airline flights? Or can I use those miles for anyone of the Star Alliance such as Lufthansa? Because my ultimate goal is to apply United mileage plus explorer card to earn sign up bonus as I learned that those miles earn from United mileage plus explorer card can be used in Star Alliance airlines. So can I combine my United miles (100k & 50k points where I convert from Ink business to United miles) and United mileages plus explorer card miles altogether? If that is the case, I could use ALL those miles for anyone of the Star Alliance airlines members (Lufthansa etc) instead of just limited to nine partners?
Thanks.
There is no difference between miles you earn via the Explorer card, miles you transfer in via Ultimate Rewards, miles you earn via flying or any other way you can find to get United miles! They all go into the same account and can all be used on any Star Alliance partner as long as you can find award availability… and you can search all the award availability right on the United Airlines website, which has an excellent search engine.
Hi Miles Professor,
Normally for Chase Freedom you need to spend 500$ for 10,000 points. I was wondering if you know whether after spending 500$, would I also get 500 points in addition to the 10,000 or is the 500$ spent directly for 10,000 points?
Thanks!
You do get additional points for any funds you spend :)
Does it makes sense for me to transfer my United Miles to my Chase Sapphire Preferred and book my travel through Chase or does that lessen the value of the United Miles?
Hi! Unfortunately, you cannot transfer United miles to Ultimate Rewards points. You can only transfer Ultimate Rewards points to United miles.