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Update: Today is the final day to complete Q1 spending.
You can also click here to register for Q2 spending, good for 5 points per dollar at grocery stores and wholesale clubs. Effective 6/20 you can even use your Freedom Visa at Costco where you should earn 5 points points per dollar!
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Originally posted on 1/4/16:
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. For $1,500 in 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).
For a limited time only the signup bonus is increased to $150 for spending $500 in 3 months plus $25 for adding an additional user and making a purchase. Those actually come in the form of 17,500 points that can be used for $175 cash back, but would be put to better use if used as airline miles.
You can click here to activate this quarter’s Chase Freedom 5% categories.
2016 bonus categories:
Q1: Gas stations and local commuter transportation
Q2: Grocery stores and wholesale clubs like BJs and Sams Club. Effective 6/20 Costco will also start accepting Visa cards and should qualify as a wholesale club.
Q3: Restaurants and more to be announced.
Q4: Holiday shopping (Likely Amazon.com and more to be announced)
Q1 bonus spending:
You can earn 5 points per dollar on up to $1,500 in spending at gas stations between 01/01-03/31. You can buy gift cards to other stores at gas stations as well.
Visa seems to count all 7-Eleven’s as gas stations, even if they don’t sell gas!
You’ll also get 5 points per dollar on local commuter transportation which includes:
-Local and suburban passenger commuter train, subway, buses, metro, and ferry tickets.
-Taxis
-Uber
-Lyft
Freedom alone can’t transfer points into much more lucrative airline/hotel/train currencies, but if you or your spouse has a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Ink Plus card then you can transfer points from Freedom to one of those cards and from there to your favorite travel currency. You can read at the end of this post which currencies they can transfer to and why those points are much more valuable than just taking cash back. The Freedom card can also keep your points alive for free if you do close one of those 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!
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41 Comments On "Chase Freedom Q1 Bonus Spending: Save On Gas, Uber, Subway Rides, And More!"
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Can someone who already has a freedom card also be an additional user under another person?
@Art:
Yes.
AU’s also get up to $1500 maximum spending in each category?
Any hope of another 10% bonus starting mid quarter?
Need some advice about applying for a Freedom card. Applicant will almost certainly be approved, but authorized user has surpassed the 4 cards in 24 months limit. If adding authorized user as part of original application, any chance of that causing the whole application to be rejected? Or does that 4 cards in 24 months limit not even apply to authorized users? Thanks!
Do most 7-11 have a cash/debit only policy for vanilla, or just my bad mazel today?
@username: try areas not frequented much by those in the game
Overseas you may prefer to use Discover card for gas and transportation since they’re also giving 5% in those categories and they don’t charge foreign transaction fees. (Their exchange rates are not quite as good though. About 1% different.)
are they stopping the 10 points per swipe and the 10% bonus points as of Jan ’16?
its been live since january 1, though.
“It helps to have several Freedom cards as well 😀”
can 1 person have more then 1 primary freedom card?
@Moshe:
YES
anyone know if this month also works on Via in NYC?
Just got denied by the rite aid store manager to reload serve with a vanilla card from 711
@Anonymous: How does that work? You simply sign up for a second card ? Wouldn’t they realize I already have one card?
Is there a way to waive the $95 annual fee for Chase British Airways card ?
@yossi:
Make sure to pick the young cashiers. They don’t know or care.
I tried applying for a second Freedom card a while back and was declined because I had one already. How can I get around that? Would an authorized user increase the allowance for bonus points?
@Points geek:
Downgrade from Sapphire to Freedom.
Is there a Foreign Transaction Fee with the Freedom Card
@Toby. Yes.
Using Discover this quarter instead of Freedom as Discover is also good on AMTRAK and as I first year member, receiving double cash back (10%) for these expenses.
Do the bonus points apply to Amtrak?
@ariella:
From the site:
*Includes taxis, subways, local commuter buses and trains; does not include parking, tolls, and Amtrak® purchases.
I was in 7-11 today there seems to be a fee for purchasing Vanilla visa cards?
@Mendel:
Yes, $4.95 or $5.95 per $500 gift card. But you’re getting 5 UR points per $1 spent, so for a $500 GC + $5 fee, you get 2525 UR. That’s 0.2 cents per point…most of us value them at well over $0.01. Doesn’t get much better than this.
Thanks Yankee, I guess I missed that.
If I don’t have ink plus it’s better to get it firt and then chase freedom?
They didn’t have such high denomination cards
They had $100 cards
Best cc to pay car insurance?
Is the 10% bonus really going away?
Btw I’m surprised someone’s still asking about the 10 points per swipe. Did you really have it till now? Wow!!!
Dan, when will you talk about the NEW Freedom Unlimited?
“That’s perfect as I’ll stock up on Vanilla gift cards that I’ll load onto my Serve card and earn a boatload of miles while doing so”
Very new to the CC game.. Have a freedom as well as wife. Where can I find the best info on Vanilla cards and serve cards..
Anyone know if I can buy several months of unlimited MTA cards. I know the MTA allows you to buy up to 6 months of unlimited. (each month – your card auto renews)
Would using the card for that be beneficial?
Is there a way how to credit my uber account it should have credit in my account for next trips ?
Would a purchase today even count? A lot of times these purchases are pending for a few days, and aren’t posted until after the quarter is over.
@Dan G:
Depends on the merchant, but if you save the receipt Chase will honor it even if it doesn’t post until tomorrow.
Will you get the 5% next quarter if you shop at costco.com? If so, you don’t need to wait until 6/20; you could start buying cash cards tomorrow to spend at the warehouse.
Is there anyway to get the fee of the sapphire card off
@David R:
Should work.
@Robert:
Downgrade it to Freedom or Freedom Unlimited.
@Dan
I’m pre-approved to any Chase card.
As my first card which do you suggest I use to build my history line & credit line.
Are there any sign up bonuses coming up I should wait for?
Are there any current sign up bonuses I should take advantage of?
Thanks in advance