Chase has a plethora of personal and business credit cards, and by strategically using the various cards in their ecosystem, you can really accelerate earning points. One staple in Chase's portfolio is the Chase Freedom Unlimited, and with its new welcome offer, it becomes a card that any and everyone should consider adding to their wallet, even beginners in the points game.
New Offer
The Chase Freedom Unlimited shines because it offers 1.5% cash back on all purchases (outside of the elevated categories I'll note below). This is great for every day spend not in bonus categories, such as school fees, taxes, utilities, car repairs, etc. The new welcome offer is intriguing because it doubles all your earnings in the first year. So now, you earn the following for the first 12 months of card ownership.
10% on travel booked through Ultimate rewards
10% on Lyft through March 2025
6% on dining including take out and delivery services
6% at drug stores
3% on everything else
These are really good earning rates. Note the 2X bonus will post at the end of your first 12 months. So say you spend:
$4000 on dining X 3%= $120
$3000 at drug stores X 3% = $90
$10000 on everything else X 1.5%= $150
You would have $360 cash back after the first year, which would then be doubled to $720. Not bad.
The real value
If you want to take your $720 cash back after the first year and run, I can't stop you. But the beauty of Chase's Freedom cards is, although they are marketed as cash back, they really earn Ultimate Rewards points that you can then choose to cash out at 1 cent/point.
However, if you complement a Freedom with a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve or Ink Business Preferred card, you can combine the points earned on your Freedom Unlimited with one of those cards and then transfer your points to travel partners for outsized value.
The above earned $720 would translate to 72000 Ultimate Reward points (think of 1 percent as 1 point). So instead, you could take 70K of those points, transfer them to Hyatt, and book 2 nights at the Park Hyatt New York.
That same room with cash would set you back $2244
By taking your "cash back" as points and transferring them, you have "turned" your $720 cash back into $2244 worth of value at the Park Hyatt.
Or say you want to fly business class to Europe. Here is a ticket Chicage to Rome next summer on KLM for 61K points (not even all your hypothetical 72K earned in the first year) when transferred from Chase to Flying Blue.
That same flight would cost $3357 (I'm ignoring the argument that could be made that you would never pay $3357 for this flight so "is that really the value" for the sake of making a point).
$3357>$720. You get the idea. I outlined this in more detail in my post on redeeming points. Even if you don't have a Sapphire or Ink card, you can always earn and bank points on this Freedom Unlimited until you apply for one of those in the future and then focus on transferring them to travel partners.
Restrictions
- Anyone is eligible for this welcome bonus unless you already have the Freedom Unlimited OR earned a welcome bonus on the card in the last 24 months. This is targeted toward new cardholders.
- However, even if you are ineligible but your spouse can apply for the Freedom Unlimited, that is a great way to earn points in "2 player mode". You can even transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards between household members so if you have a Sapphire card and your spouse gets this Freedom Card, your spouse could transfer the newly earned double points to you, and then you could send them to travel partners.
- Freedom Unlimited is a personal card, so it adds to your 5/24 count. 5/24 says Chase will not approve you for any card if you've been approved for 5 cards from ANY bank in the last 24 months.
Conclusion
Whether you are new to points, new to Chase cards, or familiar with earning points but don't have the Freedom Unlimited yet, this is a welcome offer worth considering. It is especially fruitful if you anticipate large spend in the next 12 months for things like taxes, home renovations, large purchases, etc. Even for regular spend at drug stores and restaurants this has tremendous earning potential.
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