Chase Freedom Updates: New Category Bonuses and Potential Bonus Change
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
(The Chase Freedom is no longer open to new applicants)
Just a friendly reminder that the Chase Freedom card's 5x point categories for Q2 (April 1-June 30) are grocery stores and movie theaters. If you already have the card, you can activate your bonuses here. The max you can get the 5x is $1,500 and remember- if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Ink Bold card those points can be transferred to United, British Airways, Southwest, Korean, Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club and Amtrak. I personally find United miles to be the most valuable transfer partner since their award thresholds are pretty low, they have generous routing rules and fees are dirt cheap. Earning 5 United miles for every dollar spent is a pretty amazing deal for a card that has no annual fee.
You can also maximize Freedom if you have a Chase checking account because they give a 10% annual bonus at the end of the year on all purchases. So unless I'm spending on travel and dining, I'll be putting most of my spend on my Freedom card to maximize these side bonuses. For more info on the Chase Exclusives/Checking program, check out this post.
These past couple weeks have been a roller coaster ride for Chase credit card deals and we saw the Freedom card go up to 35,000 points, then 30,000 and now it's settled at 20,000. I got an email from my marketing company that the bonus may change on Monday, so it's anyone's guess whether it'll go up or down. The good thing is that Chase will generally honor any higher public sign-up bonuses if you apply for a card within 90 days of the new bonus going up. Just send a secure message asking to be get the better deal.