Registration is now open to activate your 5x category bonus earning with your Chase Freedom Flex℠ and Chase Freedom® cards. For the first quarter of 2022, the bonus categories are purchases made at grocery stores (excluding Walmart and Target) and eBay.

As usual, the 5x earning rate only applies to the first $1,500 in spending in those categories. If you max out your bonus category spending for the quarter, you’ll get 7,500 Chase Ultimate Rewards® points.

7,500 Chase Ultimate Rewards® points are worth $75 in cash. But you can get much more value by transferring to any of the following credit cards:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred – #1 travel card for beginners
• Chase Sapphire Reserve – great for frequent travelers
• Ink Business Preferred – highest Chase sign-up bonus for business customers

Once your points have been transferred to one of the above cards, you can amplify the value even further! If you transfer the points to Chase’s travel partners like United Airlines, Southwest or Hyatt, you can get way more value than the original $75.

7,500 points could be enough for a one-way flight to lots of great destinations!

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

Key Things to Remember

• You need to activate the 5x earning rate by March 14, 2022
• The promotion runs from January 1, 2022 to March 31, 2022
• The promotion is valid at grocery stores (excluding Walmart and Target) and eBay

How to Activate

Unfortunately Chase doesn’t automatically enroll you into the bonus category earning promotion each quarter. To activate, you can go to the Chase Activation website and enter your last name, zip code and the last four digits of your credit card.

Alternatively you can log into your Chase Freedom or Freedom Flex account and activate from there.

You can also sign-up one time to have Chase send you a reminder email each quarter. That email contains a button for easy 1-click activation.

Bottom Line

All of the above applies to both the old Freedom and brand new Freedom Flex card. Remember that the Freedom Flex also offers 5% cash back on travel booked through the Chase travel portal, 3% on dining and drugstore purchases and 1% on everything else.

This year’s first quarter categories are a departure from the prior two years. Gone are wholesale clubs, internet providers, cable providers and streaming services. In their place is my personal favorite category — grocery stores. Everybody shops for groceries, which means this category is very easy to earn points on. Most people will have no trouble maxing out for the quarter. Even if you find it difficult to hit the $1,500 max, remember that you can buy gift cards at grocery stores to hundreds of different places to use in the future. Before you start spending, it’s a good idea to check the list of participating merchants because some like Walmart and Target are not included.