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 Q3 5% categories. If you activate today you will retroactively receive 5 points per dollar for all bonus spending since the beginning of this quarter!
Q3 spending is valid on $1,500 of spending 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.
You can track your Freedom bonus spending here.
Tomorrow you will be able to register for 5 points per dollar on $1,500 of spending during Q4 from 10/1-12/31 for:
- Paypal, including purchases from anyone and charity donations made via Paypal.
- Wholesale Clubs, including Costco, BJs, and Sam’s Club. You can buy a Costco Shop Card online with a Mastercard that can be used in Costco stores or gas stations with no expiration.
- Select Charities
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 Q3 and Q4 purchases?
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14 Comments On "Final Day To Register For Chase Freedom Q3 Spending, Excellent Freedom Q4 Bonus Categories Announced!"
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Bingo in Lakewood now codes as groceries
Lol, I can’t keep track of how often they switch back and forth.
What about the other locations?
So Freedom Flex holders can buy a Costco shopcard on Costco.com to get 5x in store?
Is that how it works with a mastercard?
Yes
how can costco be part of Q4? they only accept Visa and freedom flex is MC?
Buy a shop card online.
Does chase realize that you can’t use their Mastercard at Costco? Kind of defeats the purpose of making that the bonus category.
Presumably they do. This is not the first time they offered this category. Costco has a website that accepts MasterCard. Although you may not be able to apply for it anymore, the previous Freedom card offering that many still use is a Visa that can be used in person in Costco warehouses.
you can product change to it.
There are other wholesale clubs.
Bingo in boro park now also coding as grocery till recently it still came up as a wholesale store.
Is it actually possible to make 1 point worth .25 cents?
This is why I kept my original chase freedom card- since it’s a visa and can work at Costco!
If I purchase a gift card on the exxonmobil.com, anyone know if that counts as a gas station?