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Chase Freedom is an excellent no annual fee card thanks to its quarterly 5% categories. While they call it 5% cash back, you’ll really 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).
You can register now for 2020 Q1 spending which will be valid 1/1-3/31 at:
- Gas stations: This includes most 7-Eleven stores and gas stations that sell gift cards for other stores as well. You can lookup how a store is categorized here. My local GetGo gas stations earn sweet rewards on gift card purchases, making this quarter even more lucrative. Officially warehouse clubs are excluded, but I have gotten this at Costco and Sam’s Club gas stations in the past.
- Internet, Cable, and Telecom: This includes your internet bills, TV bills, cell phone bills (including cell phones and accessories charged to your monthly bill), and landline bills.
- Select streaming services: This includes Netflix, Hulu, Sling, Vudu, FuboTV, Apple Music, SiriusXM, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube, and ESPN+.
You still can finish Q4 spending through 12/31 at:
- Paypal purchases. This includes online stores that accept Paypal, eBay purchases paid with Paypal, charity donated with Paypal, as well as payments made to friends and family for goods paid with your credit card.
- Purchases made with Chase Pay. You can use Chase Pay at stores like Best Buy, Cinemark, eBags, Parkmobile, Shell, ShopRite, Walmart.com, and more.
- Department stores. These include stores like Bloomingdale’s, Dillard’s, JCPenney, Kohl’s, Lord & Taylor, Macys, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Nordstrom Rack, Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off 5th, Sears.
- You can also buy gift cards at any of these stores above to lock in savings!
While Chase Freedom 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 is excellent for everyday spending thanks to 1.5 points per dollar that can be earned everywhere with no limit, but it does not have any bonus categories.
The no annual fee business version of Freedom Unlimited is the Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card Card, which offers $500 in the form of 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after spending $3,000 within 3 months plus 1.5 points per dollar spent everywhere.
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, or 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 rdeem 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 Q1 purchases?
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27 Comments On "Register Now For Chase Freedom Q1 Bonus Categories!"
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Very disappointing categories. I always use discounted gift cards to buy gas, I have Ink Cash for my Internet and telecom, and I don’t use streaming services. I haven’t found any gas stations that accept credit cards for gift card purchases. Fortunately, Discover and Citi Dividend have useful categories in Q1.
Very useful for me.
Time to find more gas stations. They’re out there.
He means to say it’s not helping him in any way, Gas and Internet, Cable he does on the Ink card so category is a waste and I agree
I buy Visa gift cards at Getgo gas when there’s a fee waived promo, and get free gas rewards, and earn 5x.
No brainer, just need to find the right gas station.
Does this include the actual gas? Or just the convenience stores?
Both.
Is target a department store? (It def has departments:)
Is this supposed to work for Freedom Unlimited too? I have a Freedom Unlimited card and when I put in the info, it says “We can’t enroll you with the information provided.”
No.
Well, that explains it, then. I was a little confused by the paragraph that seemed to imply that the Freedom Unlimited was just like Freedom only better.
Note the fine print for Q1 – only certain gas stations (not Costco), only certain cable companies (not Centurylink), and only certain streaming services (Not Disney). Shame on Chase for being stingy and shame on you all for supporting this sham.
Fine print is sometimes just that.
As I wrote in the post, I have gotten 5x at Costco, despite the fine print.
Try out Disney+ and let us know what happens.
Thanks, Dan. Will do.
Did prior quarters contain same exclusions (for example Q3 2019 for gas)?
Yes
My Disney+ renews on 1/1. I’ll try to remember to check and post update.
Disney+ appears on the Chase list for streaming services. But Verizon Fios doesn’t for internet service… not sure how that happened
In years past 7-11 counted as a gas station
centurylink is the 3rd largest telecom provider in the U.S. and they’re not on the 5% list for internet providers (?? !!!!!)
What is the best or has longest period zero APR intro rate
IB
mobile
Upgradable
Lead
digital
green
gold
Corporate