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Yep, it’s true. And I just did it.
Chase Freedom offers rotating 5x bonus categories every quarter, up to $1500 in total purchases. This quarter it’s Walmart and Department Stores. With the Christmas and holiday season approaching, a lot of cardmembers will easily hit the $1500 maximum and wish that they could spend more at an elevated 5x bonus. An option that isn’t widely written about, is the possibility of carrying more than 1 Chase Freedom. Yes, this is a thing, and you can do it.
I carried a Chase Sapphire Preferred, Reserve, and a Freedom.
I don’t really need a Sapphire Preferred and Reserve. The Reserve is a far better card to keep, yet I don’t want to completely close my Sapphire Preferred as it would hurt my credit. The solution?
Downgrade the Sapphire Preferred into a Freedom.
My annual fee was due in September. I debated keeping the card open with the new restrictions ( unless you concurrently hold a Reserve and Preferred you’ll not be able to get both at the same time), but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth the annual fee. I called up Chase and asked for downgrade options. I was given 2 options: The Freedom Unlimited or the normal Freedom. I love the quarterly bonuses and opted to double up on Freedom.
If you currently carry a Chase Freedom you can not sign up for another one. You can only get a 2nd one with a downgrade from a premium card.
This way I can actually have 5x bonus categories on TWO cards. Each having a maximum bonus of $1500, totaling $3000 per quarter, or $12,000 for the year. That’s 60k points a year with just $1000 a month in spend.
65k points will fly you from the U.S. to Europe in Singapore Airlines Fantastic Business Class. Nearly what I’ll earn in bonus points from these two cards.
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