The Chase Freedom Unlimited card is unique among Ultimate Rewards-earning cards in that it earns at least 1.5x on all spend and 3x-5x on purchases in bonus categories, including dining and drugstores. This can make it a very useful companion to the issuer’s premium cards.
Doctor of Credit has reported on a new welcome offer for the Freedom Unlimited, available only at Chase branches. It offers 20K Ultimate Rewards points after $500 in minimum spend, plus 5% back on gas and grocery purchases for the first year, up to a maximum of $12,000 in combined spend.
The Offers & Key Card Details
For more information about these cards and to apply, click the card below to go to our individual card pages.
| Card Name w Details & Review (no offer) |
|---|
FM Mini Review: Great for 3x categories and 1.5X everywhere else. Excellent companion card to Sapphire Reserve, Sapphire Preferred, or Ink Business Preferred. Click here for our complete card review No Annual Fee Earning rate: 5x travel booked through Chase Travel℠ ✦ 3x dining ✦ 3x drugstores ✦ 2% cash back total on qualifying Lyft products and services purchased through the Lyft mobile application through 09/30/2027 ✦ 1.5X everywhere else Card Info: Visa Signature or Platinum issued by Chase. This card imposes foreign transaction fees. Noteworthy perks: Free DoorDash DashPass for 6 months upon activation ✦ $10 quarterly credit for non-restaurant DoorDash orders See also: Chase Ultimate Rewards Complete Guide |
Quick Thoughts
Note that Chase advertises the Freedom cards as cashback cards. This means it phrases the offer as $200 cash back, but the bonus is awarded as 20,000 Ultimate Rewards points.
The current public version of the Freedom Unlimited offer is the same $200/20,000 points after $500 in spend, without the benefit of 5%/5x back on $12k in combined gas and grocery purchases. If you’re able to maximize that, it effectively adds an additional $600/60,000 points to the total haul in the first year.
Remember that, if you only have the Freedom Unlimited card, then you will be limited to using those points for a statement credit at $0.01 per point (or similar redemptions for gift cards/travel), but if you have a card that allows transfers to partners (like the Chase Sapphire Preferred®, Chase Sapphire Reserve®, Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ or Chase Ink Business Preferred), you can move points to that card and then onward to partners.
Aside from the welcome offer, the Freedom Unlimited can be a moderately appealing card. There are better cashback cards out there, but if it’s paired with a premium card that lets you transfer points to partners, the points it earns become significantly more valuable. In that context, we value Ultimate Rewards at 1.5 cents each, so the Freedom Unlimited effectively brings in between 2.25% (1.5 cents per point X 1.5 points per dollar) and 7.5% in rewards. Pretty good for a card with no annual fee.
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Is there any way to get a referral bonus for referring someone into the bank?
No, not that I’m aware of.
Definitely worth the trip to the bank. The amount of points my P2 and I racked up with this bonus (even on a smaller budget) was absurd. If you’re not an existing Chase customer it could be worth opening a checking account with them in branch as well because they may have you pre-approved for this offer.
Can I get more than one of there cards?
You can. There’s no guarantee of approval, but there’s nothing preventing it.
Importantly, you can receive a welcome bonus on the same card only once every 24 months. You can find Chase application rules here.
Thanks!
I’m over 5/24 until the end of the month, and had been planning to get either a CFU or CFF, depending on (1) the welcome bonuses and (2) whether the CFF has appealing Q3 categories. This’ll definitely push me towards the CFU.