Note: As of September 13, 2020, Chase no longer offers the Chase Freedom to new cardmembers. If you’re still in the market for a rotating category card, the Chase Freedom Flex℠ card offers the same benefits as well as some great new features.

The Chase Freedom® Card doesn’t get the same press of popular Chase cards like the Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve, but it can bring big rewards to savvy cardholders. It’s is a rotating category card, which means that each quarter, spending in certain categories earns 5x rewards.

You can really supercharge your earnings by pairing the Freedom card with another card in Chase’s Ultimate Rewards program and then transferring those points to the better card.

One thing to note is this card does require some monitoring. A cardholder will need to keep track of the categories each quarter and proactively sign-up to earn the bonus rewards.

Who is this card for?

The Chase Freedom® Card is a terrific card for many different types of credit card users. 

Are you just starting out with credit cards? For the credit card beginner, this no fee card is a great way to dip your toes in the points/miles game without any risk.

Are you an experienced points accumulator with several other Chase cards? For a power-user, this can be a great addition to your Chase credit card portfolio and fill in some point-earning gaps. 

Card Features

Bonus Offer

As of September 13, 2020, Chase no longer offers the Chase Freedom to new cardmembers.

Annual Fee

This card has no annual fee.

Earning Rates

The Chase Freedom® Card earns 1% cash back on all purchases. That’s not a very good earnings rate, but that’s not why you get this card. The appeal of this card is that you earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in combined purchases at merchants in the card’s quarterly bonus categories.

The 2019 bonus categories for the Freedom card:

To qualify for the 5x rewards, you need to sign-up each quarter to activate the bonus categories. This seems like a pain but Chase gives you plenty of options to activate. They’ll also send reminder emails each quarter.

Redeeming Points

Points earned from the Chase Freedom Card are worth 1 cent apiece when redeemed for cash back, gift cards or travel. If you plan to redeem primarily for cash back, you’ll only be able to earn a maximum of $75 per quarter in the bonus categories ($1,500 in purchases at 5% cash back).

If you pair the Freedom with another card in Chase’s Ultimate Rewards® program, and transfer the points to that card, you can really supercharge the card’s value. $1,500 in purchases at 5x points equals 7,500 Ultimate Rewards points per quarter. If you meet the $1,500 maximum each quarter, you’d earn 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points a year, just in category bonuses.

For more information on Chase’s flexible points program, check out The Complete Guide to Chase Ultimate Rewards®.

Chase Sapphire Reserve

For Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders, points are worth 1.5 cents per point when redeemed in the Chase Travel Portal. Maximizing the bonus spending for the year equates to 30,000 points ($6,000 x 5 points per dollar). Each point is worth a minimum of 1.5 cents in the travel portal. That means those same points are worth $450 (30,000 points x $0.015). That’s an effective return rate of 7.5% (5 points per dollar x 1.5 cents per point = 7.5 cents per dollar).

Chase Sapphire Preferred / Ink Business Preferred

Cardholders of the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred, also improve their effective return rate, just not quite as much. With these two cards, points are worth 1.25 cents per point when redeemed for travel through the Chase Travel Portal. With these cards, each point is worth a minimum of 1.25 cents in the travel portal. That means those points are worth $375 (30,000 points x $0.0125). That’s an effective return rate of 3.75% (5 points per dollar x 1.25 cents per point = 6.25 cents per dollar).

Moving your Chase Freedom points to any of these cards gets you way more value than the 1 cent each you’d get by redeeming them for cash back. But the Chase Travel Portal isn’t your only option. You can often get even greater value by transferring points to any of Chase’s 13 travel partners!

For example, you could transfer 70,000 Ultimate Rewards points to United Airlines to fly first class from New York to Los Angeles. Tickets often sell for around $1,750, so the value of those 70,000 points is around 2.5 cents per point ($1,750 / 70,000 points). That’s full cent per point above the travel portal value!

For more information on Chase’s flexible points program, check out The Complete Guide to Chase Ultimate Rewards®.

Card Benefits

Purchase Protection

This benefit covers your new purchases for 120 days against damage or theft up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account. As always, make sure you read the fine print for benefit terms and conditions. 

Extended Warranty Protection

With this benefit, you can extend the time period of the U.S. manufacturer’s warranty by one additional year. This applies to eligible warranties of three years or less.

What other cards compete with Chase Freedom?

The most direct competitor card is the Discover it® Cash Back card. Like Chase Freedom, it earns 1% on all purchases and 5% in rotating quarterly categories.

The other cards that compete with Chase Freedom are those that streamline earning and redeeming rewards. This is great for those without the time or want to track category spending. In general you earn rewards at one set rate and so there’s nothing to think about or remember.

Remember that most of these cards don’t get the benefit of boosting earnings and redemptions by pairing with another eligible Chase Ultimate Rewards card.

• Discover it® Cash Back  – The Discover it card earns 1% on all purchases and 5% on purchases made in rotating quarterly categories. It has no annual fee and is the closest match to Chase Freedom card.
• Chase Freedom Unlimited® – This card can be paired with another eligible Chase Ultimate Rewards card to boost its value. There’s no annual fee and the sign-up bonus is identical to the Chase Freedom card. The main difference is that this card earns a flat 1.5% on all purchases.
• Citi® Double Cash Back – This unique card earns 2% cash back on all purchases, 1% when you make a purchase and 1% when you pay your bill. There is no annual fee.
• Wells Fargo Case Wise Visa® – This no annual fee card earns a flat 1.5% on all purchases. It also comes with a $200 sign-up bonus after spending $1,000 in purchases during the first three months of account opening.
• Capital One® Quicksilver® – The Quicksilver card earns a flat 1.5% on all purchases. It also comes with a $150 sign-up bonus after spending $500 in purchases during the first three months and has no annual fee.

Bottom Line

The appeal of the Chase Freedom® Card lies in the quarterly 5x bonus and the ability to supercharge earnings. I think everyone should get at least one rotating categories card because you’re not going to find many other cards that get you 5x rewards. And if you’re already part of the Chase Ultimate Reward eco-system, then adding this specific rotating categories card to your portfolio is a no-brainer.

Note that this is definitely more of a complementary card and shouldn’t be used as your main credit card. I only use this card when spending in the rotating categories, since I can do better than 1x rewards on many of my other cards.

Apply here for the Chase Freedom Flex℠ Card.