When Chase first announced the Blueprint payment program that they would be introducing across many of their cards, I was fairly skeptical, mainly because the credit card industry has had the same basic programs in place for a long time, they just continue to recycle them with clever marketing. With that in mind I decided to actually look beyond the marketing front and see what the program was actually about.

Chase Cards that Include Blueprint:

• All Chase Business Cards
• Chase Freedom
• Chase Platinum
• Chase Sapphire
• Slate from Chase

The one thing that caught my attention immediately was the simplicity of the program. We created CreditShout because credit cards can be complicated and confusing to the average person who doesn’t have time to keep up with all of the lingo and hidden terms associated with the credit industry. However Blueprint can be broken down into four elements so it’s easy to understand for the average person.

This option allows you to choose exactly what purchases you want to pay in full every month. This can help you avoid interest on your everyday purchases such as groceries, drugstore purchases and gas. With Full Pay these purchases are separated out your statement. The advantage to this is that it makes it easier to use your credit card for purchases you would normally just put on a debit card. At the end of each month you can clearly see how much you’ve spent and pay those items off in full in essence eliminating your debit card.

Split, which is my favorite feature, allows you to create a custom payment plan for larger purchases and then track repayment. You start by selecting how much you want to pay each month and Split will show you exactly how long it’s going to take to pay off your purchase. Your progress is then included on your statements, so that you know how much longer repayment will take.

One of the major problems that consumers have with the card companies is that they have no idea how much longer repayment on their balance is going to take. Split eliminates this problem by doing all of the math automatically, and outlining your progress, lifting that financial fog that keeps many from getting out of debt. This is going to prove to be incredibly useful for a lot of Chase customers out there.

This feature lets you pay down your balance faster by allowing you to create a custom payment plan that works for you. This is basically the same as Split, but for your entire balance. You can either choose a set amount you want to pay each month, or the number of months you want to take to repay the amount.

As you can see above, you can easily see how much progress you’ve made on repayment indicated by a % bar. You can also see how many payments you have remaining, your remaining balance and completion date.

With Track It you set spending goals and can track those goals. This allows you to keep track of exactly how much your spending on certain purchases such as entertainment, dining, groceries etc. You can then keep track of the progress your making online which can help you stay within your budget. Features you would find on Mint or other online budgeting sites can now be found in the online account area for your Chase card. Overall these tracking features aren’t as in depth but still give you a good overview of where your money is going.

Overall I’ve found the Blueprint program to be a refreshing step for Chase and the credit card industry in general. Although the credit card companies make a good amount of their money on the massive amount of interest generated from large balances, they should still take on the responsibility of providing their customers a good overview of their current financial situation. I think that this is a solid first step in the right direction and hopefully the other card companies will soon follow with similar programs.

Chase Blueprint is more than just another marketing gimmick and something to look into if your a current Chase customer.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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