Okay, I feel like I have to blog about this since it has been taking up a bit of my time the last 1.5 months. The banks are trying to get people to switch over to this new digital payment platform called Paze. They have been in business for 2 years already, and Chase has also been promoting them by offering 10x-13x on purchases with their Sapphire and Freedom, but not enough adoption from the public. So, they started this new promo: spend $10, get $10, TEN times on EVERY credit card from the big CC companies from 6/15 thru 9/10. I have been taking advantage and even got Anson to sign up. It sounds too good to be true, yet it totally is happening, but the rollout has been a little bumpy at times…
On the first day, lots of people took advantage of this promo and bought a bunch of 3rd party gift cards from Newegg. I was a little too late in hearing about this, but truth be told, it isn’t exactly how the promo was supposed to be used. I am able to get $10 Dunkin gift cards every 24 hrs, but I think that’s a little different since it is with Dunkin and for their own products. I have 9 cards that qualify. I just got Anson to sign up, and he has 5. I’ve been logging our transactions in a spreadsheet to make sure I am able to take full advantage of our $1400 worth of credits. 85 more transactions to go!
There aren’t a lot of companies that take Paze, only about 30. The most prevalent are Dunkin, Sephora, Newegg, Domino’s, and Wendy’s. We just got Domino’s yesterday to eat with parents, I’ve gotten $130 in GCs and Dunkin’, and I’ve lost count how many Wendy’s salads. There is also this online ordering platform called Clover that takes Paze, but some restaurants might not be as tech savvy and won’t even know about the orders. I have used it at 3 restaurants that definitely take it: Antojitos Lucero, Kraft Vermicelli, and Bay Poke. I do separate orders for the various entrees so that it triggers the $10 credit for each. Hope to use it at 2 Die For Sushi in SFV in August!
A frustrating thing was that sometimes, when I go to checkout with Paze, it would have trouble signing in and lock me out! I’ve had to jimmy it by signing on to Paze on another device or just wait 24 hrs to be able to use it again. That is definitely not how a payment platform should perform. I’ve been ok for the last week or 2, but Anson was locked out when trying to order from Wendy’s a few days ago. This is not a good look for the big banks that want us to use this, and if they want more adoption, they probably also need many more companies to first be on board. I love getting things for free (our salads are $10.07-$10.93), but we also have 4 cards what give 10x-13x, so some salads, we’re being paid to buy them. I’ll be able to get treats from Dunkin even after the promo ends on 9/10, and I just like eating out in general, but in terms of using Paze for the long term…not a chance. Unless it becomes a reliable way to pay and has more companies using it, Apple and Google Pay are much easier to use.