Credit Cards

Tutorial: How to check how much you’ve spent on a Chase Freedom or Freedom Flex 5x Category

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In case you’re unfamiliar with Chase Freedom Flex 5x Category bonus:

Every quarter the Chase Freedom or Freedom Flex Card gives a quarterly bonus on specific categories. The bonus applies to the first $1500 that you spend on those categories, each quarter, earning you $75 cash back or 7500 Ultimate reward points. It’s an absolutely fantastic way to earn bonus points on money that you would ordinarily spend. If you were to max out the categories each quarter you’d earn a total of 30,000 points on $6000 spend. A great way to earn more points and get you closer to some aspirational travel!

Technically the Chase Freedom Flex card is a cash back card, so if getting a statement credit is your top priority you can use the credit you earn to get cash back on your statement. But, if you hold a premium, Ultimate Rewards earning credit card ( Sapphire Preferred, Ink Business Preferred, Sapphire Reserve ) and you’re more interested in using the points on travel, then you can transfer your accrued ‘cash back’ to one of those other cards and redeem Chase Ultimate Reward points.

$100 of cash back = 10,000 Ultimate Rewards

You can then use those Ultimate Rewards to transfer 1:1 to their Air and Hotel partners

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Here’s the current 2020 Calendar

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How much have you spent on a Freedom 5x category so far this quarter?

It’s getting towards the end of August and you’re probably wondering: how much do you have left to spend in a specific category and still get the 5x bonus? I haven’t shopped at Wholesale Clubs this quarter so I’ll show you how I checked my Grocery Spend

Chase Freedom Category Bonsu

Step 1: Log in to your Chase account

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Step 2: Find your Freedom Account:

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Step 3: Click on details…and you’ll see

I’ve been horrible on maxing out this quarter’s bonuses

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Step 4: Track your spending by category

Click on the Pie Chart

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Step 5: Select the Category

Voila…you can see detailed information for each category.

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Don’t forget that a great way to pick up extra Chase points is via referral

Feel free to leave your referrals below.

Chase Sapphire Preferred100k after $4k spend
5x Chase Travel
3x dining + select streaming
3x groceries
Chase Ink Business Preferred100k after $15k spend
3x Travel/Internet/Cable
Free Cell phone insurance
$95 Annual Fee
Chase Freedom Flex$200 after $500 spend
5x rotating categories
No Annual Fee
Chase Ink Business UnlimitedEarn $750 after $7500 spend in 3 months.
Earn 1.5x on every purchase
Chase Freedom UnlimitedEarn $200 after $500 spend in 3 months

Referrals help us a lot. In fact, it’s how we can keep flying and reviewing.

Leave your links, questions, comments. We love to hear from you!

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card


4.8
4.8/5
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 including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott.

Welcome Offer

$300 Chase Travel℠ Credit + 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

  • $300 Chase Travel℠ Credit + Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. 
    • That’s worth $750 when redeemed through Chase Travel℠. Plus, get up to $300 in statement credits on Chase Travel℠ purchases within your first year
  • 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.

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

5 Comments

  • Wendy Umble January 28, 2021

    According to Chase total monthly spending chart,
    There’s $1299.93 unaccounted for?
    And now they closed my account!!!

  • Les Doncaster December 11, 2020

    Thanks for the information, very helpful.

    Earn 60,000 bonus points with Chase Sapphire Preferred. I can be rewarded, learn more.
    https://www.referyourchasecard.com/6a/N8CDGD5QNR

  • patrick December 10, 2020

    This works to a point. It is only updated every statement. So you could finish your 1500 spend midway thru the 2nd month and not know it until the statement closes.

  • Susan Lew September 8, 2019

    Love the opportunity to leave my referral link here ~ Thank you if you choose to use it. I signed up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa Card using Miles’ referral link last year! If you spend $4,000 in the 1st three months of having the card, you’ll receive 60,000 bonus points. This is ideal if you have a large purchase coming up or want to start your holiday shopping early! I use this as my primary card and there are extra point promotions for purchasing food, gas, using Apple Pay, etc. so there is usually an opportunity to earn more than 1 point per mile.
    https://www.referyourchasecard.com/6a/I7GBGQXXVE

  • […] If you’d like to see a more in depth view of your Freedom quarterly spend…use this trick. […]

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