One of my favorite cards to have is the Chase Freedom – one of the reasons is that it’s a no-fee card that still earns valuable Ultimate Rewards. Also, if you have a premium Chase card (such as the Sapphire or the Chase Ink card) that you want to cancel, you can transfer it down into a Freedom (and keep your Ultimate Rewards points). Just make sure that you transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards before closing an account
Normally the Ultimate Rewards are just worth 1 cent each, but if you have a premium card, then you can redeem your points for travel through Chase’s Ultimate Rewards mall for 1.25 cents per points or (usually a better option) transfer your points to Chase’s partners (like United, Southwest and others).
(SEE ALSO: Chase Ultimate Rewards: 5 reasons I think they’re the best miles out there)
Chase Freedom 2016 Q3 categories
The other nice part of the Freedom card is that they have quarterly bonuses, where each quarter, you earn 5% back in a select number of categories. The Chase Freedom 2016 categories that you’ll earn a 5% bonus on during Q3 are at restaurants and wholesale clubs. Note that in part due to Costco’s transition from accepting American Express to Visa, the expiration date for wholesale clubs specifically has been extended through the end of the year
Remember that the bonus is good on the first $1500 of spending, so up to 7500 Ultimate Rewards. Any spending you do over and above $1500 will just earn the regular 1%.
Also remember that you DO need to activate your card in order to take advantage of the Chase Freedom 2016 Q3 5% bonuses – the link to activate your Chase Freedom 5% is here!
There’s no downside to activating, so I recommend going ahead and activating regardless of if you think you’ll spend anything on your card. As soon as you activate your card, you’ll start earning 5x points at restaurants and wholesale clubs with your Chase Freedom card until September 30th.