The Chase Freedom Card: 5 Point Category Bonuses and No Annual Fee
I have the Chase Freedom® card and never, ever plan to cancel it (well, never say never!). It has no annual fee, lets me earn valuable Chase Ultimate Rewards points on my spending and gives me access to rotating quarterly bonuses that help me maximize bonuses on my everyday spending.
In this post, I will discussing the Chase Freedom card and how to maximize rewards for the card with quarterly bonuses, the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall and transfer to airline partners. This is the second post in my Chase Ultimate Rewards Series. It will be covering a card review for the Chase Freedom Card.
- Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall: Earn miles for regular shopping
- Card Review: Chase Freedom Card
- Card Review: Chase Sapphire Preferred
- Card Review: Chase Ink Bold/Ink Plus
- How to Transfer Ultimate Rewards Points to Airline and Hotel Partners
- The Best Chase Ultimate Rewards Airline Transfer Partners
Chase Freedom Card basics:
- Earn a $100 Bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening
- Earn a $25 Bonus after you add your first authorized user and make a purchase within this same 3-month period
- 0% Intro APR for 15 months on purchases and balance transfers. After the intro period, a variable APR of 13.99%-22.99%
- 5% Cash Back on up to $1,500 in combined purchases between July 1 and September 30, 2014 at gas stations and Kohl’s®
- You’ll enjoy new 5% categories every 3 months like gas stations, restaurants and Amazon.com. It’s free and easy to activate your bonus each quarter!
- Unlimited 1% Cash Back on all other purchases
- No annual fee and rewards never expire
Quarterly Bonuses:
The bonus categories for the Chase Freedom Card change every quarter. You will earn 5 points per dollar for all spending in a particular category during the three months for a maximum spending of $1500 total (7,500 points per quarter). You need to actually register your card for the bonuses every quarter here, but they will send you a reminder (and a text if you want!) so it’s hard to forget.
The 2013 Bonuses:
If you look at the bonus chart, it gives bonuses to a lot of spending you already do. This is especially true if you have a car.
Maximizing value by transferring points to partners
Up to 30,000 points a year just on category bonuses is great. Not to mention all the points you earn at the Chase Ultimate Rewards mall. Pairing this card with the Chase Sapphire Preferred®, Chase Ink Bold® Business Charge Card or Chase Ink Plus® Business Card lets you transfer the points you earn to airline partners such as United Airlines, British Airways and Hyatt, among others.
Summary
- The Chase Freedom Card is a good long term card as it has no annual fee and quarterly rotating bonuses with 5 points per dollar earning
- The card gives access to the Ultimate Rewards Mall for bonuses on online shopping
- Pairing this card with the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Ink Bold/Plus cards allows you to transfer to United Mileage Plus, British Airways Avios, Hyatt Gold Passport at a 1:1 ratio as well as other transfer partners.
- It’s a good starter card to build up a good Ultimate Rewards bonus to convert later on by pairing with one of the higher end Chase Ultimate Rewards cards.
Previous series post: Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall: Earn miles and points for regular shopping
Next series post: Chase Sapphire Preferred: 40,000 Ultimate Rewards Points
Kohls also sells gift cards for many different merchants. This will be useful in Q3 promotions.
Thank you very much for pointing that out! I updated the post to reflect this. I am going to get together more information before Q3 so everyone has an idea of which gift card options to expect at gas stations and Kohl’s.