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Chase Freedom Unlimited®
Chase Freedom Unlimited has been a pillar of the Chase credit card portfolio, and there are two offers for you to consider. Both of them are attractive in their own individual ways depending on the categories you spend the most money on. One is an affiliate link and the other is a reader referral. As is our practice, we always want to provide you with the best deals, and in this case, they both have merit and come down to individual preference, so we offer links to both offers.
First: An additional 1.5x on top of already incredible bonus categories:
Ordinarily, the earning structure of the Freedom Unlimited guarantees 1.5x on all purchases, Chase travel (5%) , dining (3%), and pharmacies (3%). The new offer adds an additional 1.5x on top of these. This creates an opportunity to earn 30k bonus points if you were to max out – let’s take a look!
Breaking Down the Chase Freedom Unlimited Bonus 1.5x Offer up to $20k
- No Annual Fee
Earn 5xEarn 6.5x on travel purchased through Chase Travel- Drops back to 5x after a cumulative $20k in purchases are made or 12 months
Earn 3xEarn 4.5x on dining- Drops back to 3x after a cumulative $20k in purchases are made or 12 months
Earn 3xEarn 4.5x on drugstores- Drops back to 3x after a cumulative $20k in purchases are made or 12 months
Earn 1.5xEarn 3x on All other purchases on the card- Drops back to 1.5x after a cumulative $20k in purchases are made or 12 months
These bonus categories are what make Chase Freedom Unlimited an absolutely stellar card. We are talking about new ways to earn heaps of points on your everyday purchases, and there isn’t even an annual fee. AND…when you’re in doubt – you’re guaranteed 1.5x on every single purchase without limit.
While the Chase Freedom Unlimited is technically a cash back card you can convert your Freedom Unlimited Cash Back into premium Ultimate Rewards by moving the rewards between accounts. I’ll go Into more detail below, but if you hold a card that earns premium Ultimate Rewards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, or Chase Ink Business Preferred, you can combine your points so you can access Chase’s rich group of transfer partners. This Is where you can make your aspirational travel dreams come true.
The Chase Freedom Unlimited presents a great way to get massive earn a lot of points on where you spend money the most + guarantee 1.5x on all purchases. This helps you get closer to those amazing first class seats and 5 star hotel rooms we so often blog about.
Second, The Chase Freedom Unlimited® Reader Referral Offer – found here with a 5x bonus category
There is also a reader referral offer floating around that doesn’t offer the extra 1.5x across the board ( capped at $20k total spend ), but instead offers a $200 bonus after $500 spend in 3 months and then a 5x bonus category. Over the past year, this category has varied between gas and groceries. You’d still earn an unlimited 1.5x everywhere
You can read more on that here
Pairing Chase Freedom Flex(SM) with Chase Sapphire Preferred® ( or Sapphire Reserve, Ink Business Preferred) makes your points transferrable
The Chase Freedom Unlimited credit card is a cash back card when held on its own. This means you’ll earn your points or rewards in the form of Ultimate Rewards which can be used as cashback/statement credit or within Chase Travel at a penny a point.
However, since it’s in the family of Ultimate Reward cards, if you hold any of these Ultimate Reward cards in concurrently
you can transfer your points from the Chase Freedom Unlimited to one of the premium cards 1:1. You can go here to learn more about combining Chase points. It’s super simple and looks like this:
This would give you access to Chase’s great list of transfer partners so you could potentially get even more value.
Below is a picture of the Lufthansa First Class – You can book for 100k Aeroplan miles which Is transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards (available when this card is paired a premium Chase credit card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred )
Is there a welcome offer or bonus for signing up for the Chase Freedom Unlimited?
There are two offers that are both competitive and listed above. You can also find our spreadsheet on the best current offers as well as the best ever offers here.
0% Interest for the first 15 months.
That’s right. Currently, Chase is offering 0% interest on purchases for the first 15 months.
How does this card help me reach my travel goals?
It guarantees a great 1.5x base rate on your standard purchases allllll without an annual fee. Let’s say you already have a Chase Freedom or Freedom Flex which earns 5x points on rotating categories throughout the year, and an Ink Business Preferred which gives you access to transfer partners. But what about those expenses you’re missing out on? This card would help fill in the gaps so that you’re maximizing your rate of return on purchases everywhere. Achieving your travel goals is about continually increasing your point balance, and then taking advantage of award availability to get more lux for less bucks 😉
Overall
The Chase Freedom Unlimited is a no-brainer credit card that fits into everyone’s wallet. It not only comes with some great category bonuses, but it also guarantees that you’ll never earn less than 1.5x on every purchase you make.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
80k offer in branch currently – I think this should be online soon
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Super solid welcome offer.
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.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 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 Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
There is currently an 80k offer after $4k spend in 3 months available in branch, and up to 90k after $6k spend in 6 months. I suspect some version of this will be online soon if you don’t want the hassle of going into a branch.
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 60k is a very, very good offer. 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.
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