Registration is now open to activate the 5x category bonus earning with your Chase Freedom Flex℠ and Chase Freedom® cards. For the second quarter of 2021, the bonus categories are purchases at gas stations and home improvement stores.

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 June 14, 2021
• The promotion runs from April 1, 2021 to June 30, 2021
• The promotion is valid on purchases at gas stations and home improvement stores

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.

I’m not overly impressed with this quarter’s categories. Over the past year, Chase has made it a point to choose categories that align with pandemic spending habits. While some will undoubtedly get value from the gas stations category, many people are still working from home. I hardly drive more than once or twice a week these days, so earning bonus points on fuel is not very helpful. On the flip side, having home improvement as a category is nice as people tend to buy products for the home each spring. I’m sure I’ll be buying things for my lawn, backyard patio and other general home improvement projects this quarter.

If you find yourself struggling to reach the $1,500 maximum this quarter, remember that you can buy gift cards at most home improvement stores to use during the rest of the year. That includes gift cards to the home improvement stores themselves, but many also sell gift cards to other businesses and restaurants. As long as you know you’ll end up using those gift cards, you might as well try to maximize the bonus this quarter. Happy spending!