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No Annual Fee and fantastic earn rates, yes please where do I sign. While we will certainly get a full review done on this, I wanted to hit you with the key points. The Freedom will be gone, replaced by the new Chase Freedom Flex ( which you can product change on September 15th ) and the Freedom Unlimited will have some new bennies. Let’s quickly see what Chase has in stow.
Don’t forget…
New Freedom Flex and Unlimited cardmembers will receive $200 cash back after spending $500 on purchases in the first three months, plus 5% cash back on grocery store purchases for the first year (on up to $12,000).
Chase Freedom Flex
Personally I think the Chase Freedom Flex and Unlimited are best used in tandem with a Chase Sapphire Preferred so you can transfer Ultimate Rewards to partners.
- 5% on purchases in Chase Travel Portal
- 3% Drugstores
- 3% Dining, including delivery services
- 5% up to $1500 per quarter on rotating categories ( this is similar to the existing Freedom )
The Freedom Flex is also getting:
There are perks with Fandango and Boxed, but these are of most interest to me.
- Mobile Phone Insurance – up to $800 per claim and $1k per year against damage and theft. That is massive and means I’ll put my mobile phone bill on the Freedom Flex.
- Lyft – For every 5 rides you’ll get $10 credit applied to your account once per month.
- ShopRunner – get 2 day shipping at participating retailers with a free shoprunner membership
World Elite Mastercard
No longer a Visa the Freedom will be. It’s now flexing World Elite Mastercard status. That comes with a bevy of benefits – you can read about some of them here.
Apply or call in to change
You can apply for this card, or if you already have a Chase Freedom, you can call in to request your current Freedom by converted into a Freedom Flex on September 15th.
Chase Freedom Unlimited
In addition to the 1.5x on all purchase, the Chase Freedom Unlimited is now going to also have the following earn rates
- 5% on Travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 3% on Dining
- 3% on Drugstore purchases
Honestly, this is still a card everyone should have in their wallet. It’s almost a sin that I don’t, but I do carry the business version of the card, and plan to add it to my wallet ASAP.
Both Cards will get 5x at Grocery ( not Walmart or Target for 12 months )
Earn 5% cash back on grocery store purchases (not including Target® or Walmart® purchases ) for the first year on up to $12k of spend – after that it’ll revert to the cards normal earn rate.
Both Cards will have the same welcome bonus – $200 or 20k Ultimate Rewards after spending $500 in the first 3 months
Verdict
These are massive wins for cards that already had great perks and carry no annual fee. If you don’t have them in your wallet, I’d recommend picking them up with the added grocery bonus.
I would suspect that since this is a completely new card with Mastercard as the payment processor vs Visa that you would be able to get this card even if it hasn’t been 24 months since you picked up the Freedom. I’m not 100% sure about this, but I want to say that I think this would be the case. Regardless, Chase has made it explicitly clear you can hold both cards concurrently
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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