Maximizing Your Chase Freedom Card

Image courtesy of Chase

It’s been a while since I last posted.  It’s been a really busy two months with my new job and other things going on in my life. I am thankful every day though for having such a supportive network of friends and family! Especially my wife who has been so supportive of everything I do.   

I haven’t had a chance to finish our Hawaii vacation posts yet but I promise it is coming. We had a wonderful dinner in Napa this past weekend with some good friends visiting from Los Angeles.  During dinner my blog became the topic of conversation and the Chase Freedom Credit Card came up. I thought it would make a good post.

I think a lot of people overlook this card and I bet most of us already have this card.  Some of us may not even use it much like my wife unless I tell her when to use it.

Here are the benefits to the Chase Freedom card: 

EARN 5% CASH BACK on up to $1,500 in combined purchases in bonus categories each quarter you activate.  Enjoy new 5% categories each quarter. See the 2017 calendar of bonus categories.

EARN 1% CASH BACK on all other purchases.

CASH BACK REWARDS DO NOT EXPIRE as long as your account is open. And there is no minimum to redeem for cash back.

EARN A $150 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 your first purchase within this same 3-month period.

NO ANNUAL FEE!!

CASH BACK CAN BE CONVERTED TO CHASE ULTIMATE REWARD POINTS!!!

I’ve been talking about various credit cards in my last few posts that have steeper annual fees but with amazing perks.  This card will however costs you nothing!

Imagine if you maxed out each quarters bonus category which will put you at $4500 per year on category spending. This will give you 30,000 Ultimate Reward (UR) points by year’s end and that’s not including the 1% on other spends.  If you add a authorized user, you can earn twice as fast.  And if your partner gets his own card then you can come up with 60,00 UR points at year end.

I think that’s pretty awesome for spending what you normally spend on and not have to pay an annual fee.

Now there is a slight catch.  You have to have either the Chase Reserve credit card or the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card in order to convert your cash back to UR points.

Transferring Ultimate Reward points is easy!

If you log onto your account you’ll see that it’s very easy to move points from one account to the next.  You can even transfer them to your partner if you share the same address and add him as an authorized user.

The key to getting the most out of your quarterly bonus categories is to ensure you activate your bonus on time and to use your card accordingly.  The current quarterly bonus is Restaurants and Movie Theaters and must be activated by September 14, 2017.

If you use the Chase Freedom along with the Chase Reserve and Chase Sapphire Preferred or one of the Chase Ink cards (email me for referral) you’re going to end up with a lot of points by the end of the year.  The key is maximize your spending and try to get more than 1 point per dollar spent!  Then you can transfer those points to any of Chase’s reward partners (courtesy of TPG.com) to maximize your point redemption!

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not endorsed by any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.  Reader acknowledges that the author gets referral point bonuses for readers using the referral links above.