Chase Freedom Flex and Freedom are excellent no annual fee cards thanks to their quarterly 5% categories. While the rewards are marketed as 5% cash back, you’ll actually get 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent which can be worth much more than 5% cash.
If you max out the $1,500 in bonus spending per quarter you will earn at least 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points over the course of a year (7,500 points per quarter at 5 points per dollar spent). My wife and I now have 8 Freedom cards, which makes it all the more lucrative!
Today is the final day to activate Chase Freedom Q2 5% categories. If you activate today you will retroactively receive 5 points per dollar for all bonus spending since the beginning of this quarter!
Q2 spending is valid on $1,500 of spending from 4/1-6/30 for:
- Amazon.com, including Amazon account reloads and gift cards sold by Amazon for hundreds of other stores
- Lowe’s.com in store or online, including gift cards sold for hundreds of other stores.
Tomorrow you will be able to register for 5 points per dollar on $1,500 of spending during Q3 from 7/1-9/30 for:
- EV Charging
- Gas stations
- This includes most 7-Eleven stores and gas stations that sell gift cards for other stores as well. My local GetGo gas stations earn sweet rewards on gift card purchases, making this quarter even more lucrative.
- Select Live Entertainment
- Includes in-person entertainment such as major sporting events, zoos and aquariums, concerts, theatrical productions, museums, tourist attractions and exhibits, amusement parks, circuses, carnivals, bands, and entertainers. Ticket agencies selling on behalf of the entertainment venue are included.
The Freedom spending tracker has also been updated:
And as DansDeals reader Eluzer K points out in his screenshot below, it now shows pending bonus points as well as earned bonus points. I wish it also stated what you spent and have left to spend, but you can just multiply the rewards earned and remaining rewards by 20 to figure that out. In other words if you earned $50 out of $75, that would be $1,000 out of $1,500 in quarterly spending.
You can currently earn a $200 signup bonus in the form of 20,000 Ultimate Rewards points for spending $500 on the Freedom Flex Mastercard. Plus you’ll earn 3 points per dollar on drugstore and dining purchases and 5 points per dollar on all Travel purchased through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal.
While Chase Freedom Flex is a great card for the bonus categories, it’s not a great card for everyday spending. However the Chase Freedom Unlimited® card also has no annual fee and earns 3 points per dollar on up to $20,000 of spending during your first 12 months. Plus it’s excellent for everyday spending thanks to 1.5 points per dollar that can be earned everywhere with no limit, though it doesn’t have rotating 5x categories. Read more about the Freedom Unlimited card here.
The no annual fee business version of Freedom Unlimited is the Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card Card, which offers $750 in the form of 75,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after spending $6,000 within 3 months plus 1.5 points per dollar spent. Read more about the Ink Unlimited card here.
Freedom, Freedom Unlimited, and Ink Unlimited alone can’t transfer points into much more lucrative airline or hotel miles, but if you or your spouse has an Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, Sapphire Reserve, or Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, then you can transfer points from Freedom to one of those cards and from there to your favorite travel currency. Those cards also allow you to redeem your points for paid travel at a value of 1.25 or 1.5 cents per point. The Freedom, Freedom Unlimited, or Ink Unlimited card can also keep your points alive for free if you do close one of those premium cards.
The value of the points will be based on where you use them, but if you use those points for a trip worth where they are worth 2 cents each then you’ll have effectively earned 10% back on those “5 point categories.” The sky is the limit of the value of airline miles as they aren’t tied to the cost of a ticket. That’s good for people in the know and bad for those who are not. 1 mile can be worth 0.25 cents or it can be worth 25 cents, it all just depends on how you use them!
Where will you make your Q2 and Q3 purchases?
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4 Comments On "Final Day To Register For Chase Freedom Q2 Spending, Q3 Bonus Categories Announced; Updated Freedom Spend Tracker!"
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I just refill my amazon balance with the freedom every year when the amazon quarter comes up, and use that throughout the year, (refiling balance can be flagged, rather buy a gift card and apply to your account).
And btw if you make a purchase in one quarter and return it int the next quarter, chase will only claw back the base point, and not the bonus points, that’s 5625 free points. (Not so ethical though)
Even if you return in the same quarter you get to keep the bonus.
How do I see the screenshot above? When I sign in to my Freedom it is a different interface and doesn’t have that bar. I can select spending report but it doesn’t show the spent bar. Could you update above with info how to see it?
Rewards Activity, scroll down