Chase Now Lets You Invest Your Ultimate Rewards Points

Chase has added a new way to use Ultimate Rewards, called Invest Your Points. Announced on September 16, it lets eligible cardmembers redeem points for cash that goes straight into investing, all managed inside the Chase Mobile app and on Chase.com.

The cash lands in an eligible J.P. Morgan investing account, either one you run yourself or one handled through a J.P. Morgan advisor. It is open to three card families: Chase Freedom, Chase Ink, and Chase Sapphire. If you carry one of those, the option should start showing up in your account.

Now the part worth slowing down for. Chase never set a special rate for this feature: it is a cash redemption at the standard 1 cent per point (100 points equals $1), the same value you get cashing points out any other way. At that level, moving points to invest usually gets you less than transferring them to a travel partner, where a strong redemption stretches them much further. That does not make it a bad feature. If travel value is not your thing, or you just want a simple way to move points into something that can grow, this is a clean option.

Keep two things in mind before you tap invest. Investments are not FDIC insured and can lose value, so it is not the same as parking cash in a savings account. And the feature is not available in all states, so it may not show up for everyone.