The Chase Freedom Flex is an excellent fee-free card that can rack up rewards quickly with its 3X and 5X spending categories. Even though it is advertised as a cash back card it actually earns valuable Chase Ultimate Rewards points, making it very powerful when paired with the right cards.
Chase Freedom Flex Current Welcome Offer
| Card Offer |
|---|
20K points ⓘ Non-Affiliate Earn 20,000 points (worth $200 cash back) after spending $500 in the first 3 monthNo Annual Fee Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. |
Chase Freedom Flex Review
While there’s better cashback cards out there, when the Freedom Flex is paired with a premium Chase card that unlocks the ability to transfer to partners (either the Ink Business Preferred, Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve) the points that it earns become significantly more valuable. In that context, getting 3x Ultimate Rewards on dining and drugstores alongside 5x quarterly rotating categories creates a terrific no annual fee card that nearly everyone in the Chase ecosystem should probably have.
The Freedom Flex card does charge foreign transaction fees, so leave it at home when traveling internationally.
- Annual Fee: None
- Authorized User Annual Fee: Free
- Foreign Transaction Fee: 3%
- What points are worth: The Freedom Flex is advertised as a cashback card, but it actually earns Chase Ultimate Rewards. Our current Reasonable Redemption Values pegs their value at 1.5 cents each. Note that this assumes the cardholder also has a premium card that unlocks the ability to transfer to partners (either the Ink Business Preferred, Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve). Without one of those cards, points are only worth 1 cent each towards cashback, which can be taken as a statement credit, via check or ACH transfer.
- Best Use for Points: When combined with a premium card, Chase Ultimate Rewards can be transferred to travel partners at a 1:1 ratio and this will usually yield the most value. Our favorite hotel transfer partner is undoubtedly Hyatt, where redemptions can often exceed 2-3 cents per point. Airline partners are good, if not great, and include Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France/KLM Flying Blue and British Airways Avios, as well as domestic programs like United Mileage Plus, Southwest Rapid Rewards and JetBlue. Freedom Unlimited cardholders can redeem Ultimate Rewards for travel through the Chase Portal at a value of 1 cent each. Those who also have an Ink Business Preferred or Sapphire Preferred in the family can combine points with those cards and redeem them for travel through the Chase Portal at 1.25 cents each. Sapphire Reserve cardholders can do the same thing and redeem points at 1.5 cents each through the portal.
- Earning Categories:
- 5X on travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal
- 5x on Lyft rides (through March 2025)
- 5X in rotating categories on up to $1,500 spend per quarter
- 3x at restaurants and drugstores
- 1x everywhere else
- Credits:
- $10 Instacart Credit (quarterly): $10 in statement credits each quarter through July 31, 2024
- DoorDash DashPass: Complimentary DashPass subscription for 3 months. After that, 50% off for the next 9 months. Must activate by 12/31/2024.
- Travel Protections:
- Auto Rental Coverage: Secondary auto rental CDW (collision damage waiver). Provides reimbursement for theft and collision damage for rental cars in the U.S. and abroad. Within the US, the card’s coverage is secondary to your personal insurance (assuming you have it). Outside of the US, it’s primary.
- Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance: Up to $1,500 per person and $6,000 per trip for your pre-paid, non-refundable travel expenses, including passenger fares, tours, and hotels.
- Purchase Protections:
- Extended Warranty: One additional year, on eligible warranties of three years or less (US warranties only).
- Damage and Theft Protection: Covers new purchases for 120 days against damage or theft up to $500 per claim/$50,000 per account.
- Cell Phone Protection: Up to $800 per claim and $1K per year against theft or damage with a $50 deductible when you pay your monthly bill with the card (max of 2 claims per year)
- Who’s this card for? Those who also carry a premium Ultimate Rewards card such as the Sapphire Reserve, Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred and want to take advantage of the 3x and 5x categories.
- Is the Freedom Flex a keeper? Yes, especially when paired with a premium Ultimate Rewards card.
Chase Freedom Flex Pros and Cons
Pros
- Rotating 5x categories are usually useful and easy to maximize
- Great 3x categories, especially for a card with no annual fee
- Good transfer partners, especially for folks looking for domestic airline and hotel programs
- Miles can be shared across cards and cardholders
- Unusually for a fee-free card, provides travel and purchase protections
Cons
- 3% foreign transaction fee
- Must be paired with a “premium” card in order to transfer to partners
- Not the most exciting group of airline partners
Chase Transfer Partners
| Rewards Program | Chase Transfer Ratio | Best Uses |
|---|---|---|
| Aer Lingus Avios | 1 to 1 | Fuel surcharges are sometimes lower when booking with Aer Lingus rather than British Airways, Qatar, or Iberia. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | 1 to 1 | Redeem for Star Alliance flights and/or flights with Air Canada partners (such as Etihad). No fuel surcharges; $39 CAD award booking fee; 5,000 points to add stopover on one-way award. See: Air Canada Aeroplan: Everything you need to know. |
| Air France KLM Flying Blue | 1 to 1 | Monthly Air France Promo Awards often represent very good value. Air France miles can be used to book Sky Team awards, including Delta awards. Air France often offers very good business class award pricing between the US and Europe & Israel. |
| British Airways Avios | 1 to 1 | While flights on British Airways itself often incur outrageously high fuel surcharges, many BA partners charge low or no fuel surcharges. Excellent value can be had in redeeming BA points for short distance flights. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. |
| Emirates Skywards | 1 to 1 | The best use of Emirates miles has been to fly Emirates itself. Unfortunately fuel surcharges can be steep. See: Emirates Sweet Spot Awards - First class from 30K miles round trip. |
| Hyatt | 1 to 1 | Use for Hyatt free nights, free suite nights, lounge upgrades, or suite upgrades. Hyatt points are often worth at least 2 cents each, but they’re sometimes worth far more. Bonus: award nights are not subject to resort fees. |
| Iberia Avios | 1 to 1 | On their own flights, Iberia offers low award prices and a very reasonable 25 Euro cancellation fee. Partner awards can offer good value under some circumstances as well, but these are usually nonrefundable. Fuel surcharges are sometimes lower when booking with Iberia rather than British Airways, Aer Lingus, or Qatar. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. |
| IHG | 1 to 1 | IHG dynamically prices their awards and sometimes offer very good value. IHG Premier and IHG Premier Business cards offer the fourth night free on award stays. |
| JetBlue | 1 to 1 | JetBlue points offer the most value when cheap ticket prices are available and when award taxes are high relative to the overall cost of the ticket (more details can be found here). The JetBlue Plus Card and the JetBlue Business Card offer a 10% rebate on awards, so you can get more value by holding one of these cards. |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 1 to 1 | 5th Night Free awards. Opportunities to get outsized value exist but can be hard to find. |
| Qatar Privilege Club Avios | 1 to 1 via BA | Qatar has reasonable award prices for flying Qatar itself. Points are now transferable 1 to 1 to British Airways (and from there to Aer Lingus or Iberia). It is now also possible to book JetBlue flights with Qatar Avios. |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 1 to 1 | Use to book Singapore Airlines First Class awards (generally reserved for their own members), Alaska Airlines economy awards, or for Star Alliance awards (including United Airlines). |
| Southwest Rapid Rewards | 1 to 1 | Award flights are fully refundable. Point values vary due to certain taxes not being charged on awards, but tend to average around 1.5 cents per point. |
| United MileagePlus | 1 to 1 | United offers free award changes and free cancelations. Like Avianca and Aeroplan, United never charges fuel surcharges for awards. Unfortunately, United charges many more miles for international first class awards. Good uses of miles include United's Excursionist Perk awards and (sometimes) dynamically priced United economy awards. |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 1 to 1 | Virgin Atlantic offers a few great sweet spot awards including US to Europe on Delta One business class for 50K points one-way. See: Best uses for Virgin Atlantic points (Sweet Spot Spotlight). |
Related Cards
Chase Ultimate Rewards Consumer Cards
| Card Offer and Details |
Chase Ultimate Rewards Business Cards
| Card Offer and Details |
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Can someone send me a link for the 10x grocery
Flex is earning 7x for dining this qtr so I am freely using it while dining abroad. Assuming 1.5cpp, even with a 3% fee I’m still getting 7.5%
If you do some searching, you can find a welcome offer on this card for 10X points on groceries for the first $12,000 during the first 12 months you have the card. That would give you 120,000 Ultimate Rewards points! The search might require trying different browsers in incognito mode and possible even using VPN. Was able to get my P2 signed up with this offer.
Wanted to also mention, which I think adds to the value of both the first year offer and onging value of the card, that Groceries have been a category the last couple of years and Amazon/Whole Foods at least the last year?, which, paired with this offer, would earn you 14x during those quarters to buy the types of gift cards at supermarkets (and places that code as them…) like say Amazon that don’t normally sell discounted all the time (looking at you Uber and Instacart).
Also wanted to share that Chase recently made the 5x categories stack for the first time with the 3x dining and 5x travel through portal, effectively making them 7x Dining/9x Hotel- and 5x Amazon, but that’s not nearly as exciting as 7x Dining, IMO, especially as someone who holds the Prime card as well and usually gets 6% CB flat when I’m not using the AMZ GC stash. 5x PayPal stacked well when it was a category with say instacart (which codes as groceries) to make it 9x (or in this case 14x). TBD if Chase will extend this stacking of categories in future quarters, 7x drugstore could be appealing to many, and if they brought restaurants back annually, that would just supercharge this card. Yes, it’s capped, and you have to keep a closer eye, but there are seemingly greater opportunities here for the more casual shopper in the Chase ecosystem beyond just the 5x. Hopefully that will continue and expand.
And even more, depending on when you apply and how the rotating categories timing worked out, I was able to “double dip” into a 5th quarter on the previous 5x Grocery/up to $12k/20k pts after $500 spend offer that I signed up for 12/20/23 and got the 9x through 1/4/24 when my statement closed after asking Chase to change my payment date, which caused it to extend the First Year timing on my offer. Just bought a bunch of gift cards over a couple days at the beginning of that January 2024 and capped out the $1,500/quarter limit. Have also seen similar effects from seeing 0% APR offers on card sign ups extending another month or two after changing the payment date.
Also, Tim mentioned the cell phone insurance, which is a World Elite Mastercard benefit, but it also comes with a $5 credit for every 3 rides (I try to use the FF at 3x a month for short rides (tho I try to remember to change payment to use GC’s for longer rides/when prices are higher). If you’re able to make use it, an up to $60 credit on a no annual fee card is icing on the cake. Plus 10x Lyft schedule airport rides, shoprunner, and peacock benefits/credits. Again, useful if you use those things. A solid “5x+” tool in the Chase toolbox for those with lower spend but want to maximize what htey do, who can/don’t want to open business cards for the Ink Cash, or who don’t want to play that Visa/Mastercard Gift card game.
One other benefit of being a Mastercard – you can link the Chase FF to SimplyMiles for earning AA miles at specific merchants, which can make for a nice stack when a SimplyMiles and a Chase card offer line up for a merchant.