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Time to do that quarterly mental switch!
If you’re like me, you’ll probably start to pull out your Freedom to pay at a restaurant and then it’ll dawn you that the 5x bonus is over. Yep, the bonus has changed. Starting today, Chase Freedom earns 5x points with Walmart and Department Stores. Personally, I think this one of the better quarterly categories that Chase has offered. You can literally buy anything and everything at WalMart. Tires? Check. Juice? Check. Gift Cards? Check. My point is…You can max out this category bonus with very little effort.
Remember you have to activate. If you haven’t…go here
Don’t have a Freedom? Click here.
At the time of publishing we have no affiliate with Chase. I just earn the same referral bonus as anyone else. It’s greatly appreciated.
- Freedom is technically a cash back card EXCEPT
- When paired with a Ultimate Rewards earning card like the Sapphire Preferred, Reserve, Ink Plus, Bold, or Biz Preferred.
Having a Chase Freedom is an Integral part of the Chase Trifecta of earning ( A Sapphire Preferred or Reserve + Ink Plus/Cash/Preferred, and then a Freedom card. When you pair a Freedom with one of the other Ultimate Reward earning cards you can transfer those cash back points 1:1 into your Ultimate Rewards account and then into transfer partners like Singapore Airlines.
If you were to maximize the category bonuses throughout the year you’d earn 30k points. Pair that with the 50k point sign up bonus of the Sapphire Preferred or Reserve and you’ve got yourself a one way flight in Lufthansa First Class. Easily worth $10k. This is the power of points.
Check out our review of Lufthansa First Class
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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