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The no annual fee Chase Freedom Unlimited® card has a limited time offer to earn a $250 Bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening.
You may wonder why I’m writing about a cash back card, not a points offer. But this really is a points offer, in fact it’s a linchpin of a lot of folks strategies for earning transferable points with Chase.
Chase Freedom Unlimited® earns 5% on travel purchased through Chase Travel; 3% cash back on drugstore purchases and dining at restaurants, including takeout and eligible delivery service, and 1.5% on all other purchases. But these are really points that can be redeemed for cash. There is a better way to do it.
What I love most and the reason I’ve use this card myself is to earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on all other purchases. While these points do not transfer directly to airline or hotel programs,
- You can combine these points into other Chase card accounts that are eligible to move their points to airline and hotel loyalty programs.
- Use this card for everything that doesn’t earn a bonus with your other cards. Say you earn 3x on travel and dining with Sapphire Reserve, you put non-travel and dining spend on this card. Then you earn 1.5x on that spending instead of just 1 point. You’re earning 50% faster on your non-bonused spend.
This strategy works if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, a Chase Sapphire Reserve® or an Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card.
You use that card and the Chase Freedom Unlimited® card in tandem, and by combining points into the annual fee card’s account you’re able to transfer the points you earn to:
- Airlines: United MileagePlus, British Airways Executive Club, Air France KLM Flying Blue, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Iberia Plus, Aer Lingus AerClub, Emirates Skywards, Air Canada Aeroplan
- Hotels: World of Hyatt, Marriott Bonvoy, IHG One Rewards
And to really step things up, you add a third card into the mix. I have these cards, and I also like and have the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card as well.
It has no annual fee, has an offer to earn $350 when you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first three months and an additional $400 when you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first six months after account opening (so 75,000 points total), and earns 5x on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services each account anniversary year plus 2x on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants each account anniversary year.
Between 5x, 3x, and 1.5x categories these cards provide you really accelerate your earn – and you’re doing it without even adding annual fees to the mix since the Chase Freedom Unlimited® and Ink Business Cash® Credit Card are both $0 annual fee cards.
Chase Freedom unlimited is the same 3x as CSR! And 3x for drugstores too!
I only carry my CSP when I’m out of the country or booking trains etc.
Gary, I’m a huge fan of the Chase personal card ‘trifecta’–Unlimited, Flex, Reserve. I definitely prefer the transfer partners with Chase (and BILT) these days, namely because they include Hyatt (and United), which had provided outsized value in the past (often 2-3x value for redemptions). Of course, with the CSR, 1.5x value redeeming with Chase UR portal is better than the Preferred (1.25x). All that said, I had seen an offer promoted at DoC for a little while (it comes and goes) about ‘double’ points on all spending for 12 months with the Unlimited, effectively 3x UR points per dollar on all domestic purchases, which is indeed epic (the only thing better was that 4% Smartly card at US Bank, but I think they’ve discontinued, and the 2.62x Platinum Honors bonus via BofA/Merrill on their Unlimited and Premium Rewards cards.) Any ideas when that ‘double’ points offer may return at Chase? I’d like to set up P2 on that when it happens again.
@Beachfan — You mean the 3x for dining? Yeah, sure, same as the CSP and CSR.
For ‘travel’ (like, trains, booked directly with the operator, say Amtrak or Trenitalia), CSP is 2x and CSR is 3x. Of course, if you used the Chase Travel portal, then CSP earns 5x and CSR earns 10x.
However, for flights, both CSP and CSR earns 5x, but it must be booked on the Chase Travel portal; if it is booked directly with an airline, it’s CSP 2x and CSR 3x.
By contrast, Amex Platinum earns 5x MR on airfare, whether booked via Amex Travel or directly with an airline–this is why many consider it the best option for flights, unless there is a proprietary card, like jetBlue Plus, that earns 6x jetBlue points (but, you cannot transfer those as easily).
Citi Prestige (not currently available for applications) is similar to Amex Platinum in that it earns 5x ThankYou points for airfare, either through their portal or directly with the airline.
Amex and Citi have decent transfer partners, but Chase (and BILT) happen to have better ones, in my opinion. Some may (and probably will) disagree. Also, times change, and who knows what these companies will do to us all in the future. Expect devaluations. Don’t hoard points. Earn ’em and burn ’em.
@1990, thanks for the clarification, yes dining. Also great overview post!
As I don’t redeem Chase points for charges against travel , I don’t find CSR appealing vs CSP. 1.5 cents is too low, and not enough other travel worth the fee differential.
I also use Amex platinum for 5x on airfare.
@Beachfan — Nice. For dining, with all the various credits and coupons (ugh, Amex), it’s like $25/mo ‘dining’ with Amex Marriott Brilliant, $20/mo Resy with Amex Delta Reserve, $50/semi-annual Resy with Amex Gold, then all the $10/Grubhub, etc. on Amex Gold, Citi AA Exec, etc., $5/mo stackable up to 3-mo with CSR, the freaking $7/mo Dunkin reload via Amex Gold, and so on… it’s a chore! Have a literal checklist, spreadsheet, and calendar reminders so I never let these go to waste. I don’t see how anyone with multiple cards, much less a P2 or P3, keeps track of all this without it. And then, only after all that, do you get to general dining, and it’s like, well, is it ‘Rent Day,’ if so, 1st of the month, 3x becomes 6x with BILT credit card, but only up to $333 spend now. Sheesh. So, if it’s not the 1st, then it’s like, well, 4x Amex Gold is better than 3x CSR/CSP, right? Ugh. It’s a bit stressful sometimes, isn’t it. Thanks for letting me vent.