Chase Bank has some potentially helpful offers for users of public transportation and taxi cabs in New York City and the California San Francisco Bay Area – a potential savings of 7-10% cash back, up to $50 total. You must enroll your Chase debit or credit card beforehand, and only signed “credit” transactions apply. See the applicable link and details below:
Chase Commuter Cash – New York City Metro Area
Qualifying purchases made with your enrolled Chase debit or credit card (personal or business) include transactions made without using your PIN from 9/1 – 10/31/10 at MetroCard® Vending Machines, for EasyPayXpress™ MetroCard refills, LIRR, Metro-North, PATH and NJ TRANSIT fare purchases, and payments made at New York City yellow cabs. You must enroll your Chase card between 9/1/10 and 10/31/10 in this promotion. Chase reserves the sole right to make determinations of qualifying purchases for the fulfillment of the cash award for this promotion.
Chase Commuter Cash – California San Francisco Bay Area
Qualifying purchases made with your enrolled Chase Debit or Credit Card (personal or business) include transactions made without using your PIN from 9/13 – 11/30/10 through transit agency ticket vending machines, transit agency ticket offices, Clipper Add Value Machines, and the Clipper Customer Service Center for passes, fares and value used on Muni, BART, AC Transit, Caltrain, and Golden Gate Transit and Ferry. Also includes payments made at San Francisco Bay Area taxi cabs. Chase reserves the sole right to make determinations of qualifying purchases for the fulfillment of the cash award for this promotion.
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As a pair of commuters consistently spending $180/month on subway cards, my wife and I love this promotion. It usually adds up to an easy, free $10/month or more.
HOWEVER — we are often frustrated by the NYC MetroCard vending machines, which seem to frequently reject the very Chase cards that apply to this promotion. When using a Chase card, the machine will say “SORRY, UNABLE TO PROCESS YOUR REQUEST AT THIS TIME”, and we are forced to use another card. Does anyone else have this problem?
I reported it to Chase a couple of years ago, and they said they had never heard of this. I also tried contacting the MTA, but they did not care, as their customer service is non-existent.
If you receive this after you just charged a large fare on your card, it’s probably an anti-fraud technique that limits use of the same card in quick succession. Wait 24-48 hrs and the machine will accept your card again.
I have had no luck with this program, the ticket vending machines don’t allow you to ‘sign’, so the purchase is not valid. And even when I purchased from a ticket vendor and did sign, it still showed up as a debit card transcation, so not valid again. Chase has not been helpful at all.
How does one buy tickets at a machine and ‘sign’ for the transaction?
You just need to avoid using a PIN. If you have a debit card, request it processed like a credit card (e.g. through VISA’s system) or select “credit” on a machine. If you have a credit card, it can only go through as a credit transaction. Note also that you need to first enroll and make the purchases from the right source – see the terms.
Cody: Thanks for the suggestion — unfortunately, the inability of the machine to process the card occurs even AFTER 48 hours. So if its fraud prevention, it is excessive.
The promotion says you can earn up to $50 over 3 months — during which time you would have to spend $750 on the subway, or$250 a month. If the machines won’t even let you spend $160 a month, it just doesn’t add up.
bklyndave, you can’t buy more than two MTA cards using the same credit card in a five day period. So you have to wait 120 hours, which, I agree, is excessive, but the MTA is trying to prevent fraud…