Americans Say No to Stay-cations; Chase Targets Summer Travel with Card Program

Last year, due to financial worries, many Americans stayed home for their summer vacation. This year, they're ready to spend again, and Chase is capitalizing on the trend with a new cash-back credit card offer.

Chase Card Services and U.S. News have surveyed 1,000 Americans about their summer plans and found good news — fewer plan to skip vacations and other fun activities to save money.

"Last year, a lot of customers wanted to stay home and have a staycation," says Stephanie Jacobson, vice president, Chase Card Services, who spoke to us in a brief interview this morning. "We wanted to see if people were feeling a little more optimistic this year. And we did find people want to do a little more this summer, they plan to use their car as much if not more to take weekend trips with their families."

According to the survey, last year, 29% of Americans were planning to take a staycation; this year 16% were. This year, 86 percent of Americans plan to use their car for travel and recreation as much or more than they did last summer. More than a third (36 percent) believe their personal finances have already bottomed out and are getting better.

Asked how likely they would be to use their credit card for summer travel purchases given a 5 percent cash back reward, 20 percent said they would be more likely to use their card (7 percent said less likely, for some reason; 59% said the cash-back reward would make no difference). The survey also found that consumers are more interested in cash back than any other type of card reward program — by more than a three-to-one margin, consumers found cash back more appealing than airline miles, rapid accumulation of points, online discounts and flexibility and ease of redemption. This synchronizes with Chase's new reward program: its Freedom credit card customers will get 5 percent cash back on up to $1,500 in gas, airline, hotel and car rental purchases made between now and the end of September.

What does Chase hope to get out of this? "We want to be consumers' card of choice," Jacobson says. "We hope that as consumers make their spending decisions this summer, they will use their Chase card and take advantage of the cash back reward."

In other words, the bank will take a small hit in profit during the summer months to win market share for the entire year.