Maximize Chase Freedom Bonus Categories Q4 2013: Amazon, Dept. Stores

It’s a new quarter and that means new category bonuses for the Chase Freedom® card!  This quarter, the bonus categories are Amazon and select department stores. The Chase Freedom® card has quar­terly rotat­ing cat­e­gories that offer a bonus of 5 Chase Ulti­mate Rewards points per dol­lar up to $1500. That’s 7500 points if you max­i­mize the pro­mo­tion quar­terly, or 30,000 points a year. To par­tic­i­pate, you must first visit the Chase Free­dom bonus acti­va­tion page and reg­is­ter for the pro­mo­tion; this must be done every quar­ter. Reg­is­tra­tion is free every quar­ter and ensures you get your bonus points.

Department Stores

If you are shopping at department stores, do go through a shopping portal like the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall. You can also check if there is a better bonus through evrewards.

Which department stores are eligible? As Chase explain on the bonus merchant page, stores that are eligible for the bonus are ones with the ‘Department Store’ merchant code as it is coded on the credit card. This will include a large array of department stores, but will exclude:

• Target
• Walmart
• Membership Warehouses (e.g. Costco)

Examples of stores that are included are:

• JCPenney
• Kohl’s
• Macy’s
• Nordstrom
• Sears.

You can check Chase’s bonus merchant page for more information.

Amazon

The Amazon category is quite nice as few credit cards actually give Amazon bonuses. You can also buy gift cards to other merchants via Amazon (such as Starbucks, Sephora, etc).

For more infor­ma­tion on Chase Ulti­mate Rewards, check out my Chase Ulti­mate Rewards series:

• 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