Chase Freedom Credit Card Review

The Chase Freedom(SM) Credit Card is one of the better rewards credit cards available. While most rewards cards offer one or two percent in cash back rewards, the Freedom card offers 5% cash back or 5 points per dollar on gas, entertainment, groceries, airlines, department stores, and other things that make up your seasonal purchases. This is what makes the Chase Freedom card especially good for cardholders: you earn back more on those purchases you make.

5% Cash Back Schedule

The way that this rewards program works is that you receive the 5% cash back rewards in rotating categories that change every three months. Here’s the cash back schedule for the Chase Freedom rewards card for the rest of 2012:

• January – March: Gas stations & Amazon.com
• April – June: Grocery stores & Movie theaters
• July – September: Gas stations & Restaurants
• October-December: Hotels, Airlines, Best Buy, & Kohl’s

One thing to note about this schedule is that Chase Freedom tries to offer you the most cash back on the items that you are especially likely to buy in a particular season. For example, there are gas rewards in the summer when people tend to drive most and shopping rewards as well as travel rewards during the winter holidays.

Some people actually use this card in conjunction with other rewards cards, and only put purchases on the Freedom card that are earning the bonus.  Of course, the downside of this approach is that you have to keep track of the categories and juggle mutiple cards. 

This approach can help to maximize the amount you get back but to me it’s more work than it’s worth.  It really depends on how much you spend on your card and how easy it is for you to keep track of the bonus categories.  You also have to keep in mind that if you open too many cards it can negatively impact your credit score.

Chase Cash Back

You will earn 1% cash back rewards on all purchases you make that don’t fall into one of the seasonal categories, which means you get a 1% rebate for each $1 of purchases.

Also, as part of the Ultimate Rewards program, Chase has a trip planner where you can search for flights, hotels, and rental cars. The functionality is okay, they let you filter by price, schedule, city, etc – like most major travel sites. If you book and pay for travel using the site you earn an extra point for every dollar you spend.

You won’t earn cash back for transactions on your card that aren’t purchases. For example if you do a balance transfer or something like a cash advance don’t expect to be earn any rewards since Chase doesn’t credit them on that type of activity.

Bonus Cash Back for Online Shopping

Chase has an online shopping tool that allows you to search for even better cash back deals when making online purchases with select retailers. It is possible to earn up to an additional 10% cash back on the purchases that are made through this online shopping tool.

Cash Back Bonus Offers

Chase Freedom somtimes offers the opportunity to earn an additional cash back when you first start using the card. You just need to spend a certain amount within the first three months of opening the card and then that money is available for you to redeem. For example, for their $100 bonus offer, if you put $500 on the card during the first 3 billing cycles then they put a credit on your card for $100.

Redeeming Cash Back Rewards

It is possible to start redeeming your rewards for cash as soon as you’ve earned the low amount of just $20 (and you can then continue redeeming in $20 increments). However, there are also other ways that you can redeem these rewards:

• Pay yourself back using the cash back that you’ve earned to pay for a recent purchase on the card
• Get gift cards with your cash back rewards
• Redeem for travel rewards with no blackout dates or restrictions
• Exchange the cash for points and redeem the points for merchandise

Flexible Repayment with Chase Blueprint

Chase Freedom is one of the cards that is part of the Chase Blueprint program, a program designed to allow you many different repayment options for your spending. Those repayment options include:

• Full payment each month in specific spending categories that you select so that you never pay interest on items purchased in those categories
• Set a goal date for when you want to pay off a large purchase and split the payments evenly until that date
• Set a monthly amount that you wish to pay on a large purchase until the item is paid off
• Set a target date and create a plan for paying off an entire balance

The Chase Blueprint program is free and is linked to your online Chase account. You can make changes to your payment plan at any time.

Chase Freedom Fees

There is no annual fee for the card and a relatively low APR compared to other cash back cards. Chase Freedom does occasionally offer introductory 0% APR on balance transfers as well as purchases; see the chart below for more details.  

Related articles:

• American Express Blue Cash vs Chase Freedom Card