Advertiser Disclosure: Cash Freely is an independent, advertising-supported web site. So that we can offer our amazing app for free at no cost to you, this site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com and CardRatings.com. This compensation does not impact how or where products appear on this site. Cash Freely has not reviewed all available credit card offers on this site.
Editorial Note: Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
The Chase Freedom® Unlimited card is a great choice for beginners due to it’s no annual fee, easy to earn structure and flexible redemption options.
The Freedom Unlimited card is unique among Chase’s Ultimate Rewards cards in that you’ll earn a minimum of 1.5% cash back on all spend while also earning 3% to 5% cash back within specific bonus categories. Chase advertises the Freedom Unlimited as a cash back card, but it actually earns Ultimate Rewards points — which you’ll then need to redeem for cash.
This card does charge foreign transaction fees, so be sure to use a different card when traveling internationally. Within the US though, the Freedom Unlimited is an excellent choice both for its category bonuses and as an “everywhere else” card which earns a minimum of 1.5% cash back.
Table of Contents
Should you apply?
The Freedom Unlimited is a good choice in many cases. You can use the Freedom Unlimited to earn 5% cash back for travel booked through the Chase Travel℠ Portal, 3% cash back for drugstores and dining, and 1.5% cash back on all other spend.
And, if down the line, you’d prefer to use your rewards earned towards travel, you can do that too when paired with a premium card, such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® and Chase Sapphire Reserve®. The benefit is that your points are worth much more — at least 1.25 cents per point if moved to the Sapphire Preferred and at least 1.5 cents per point if moved to the Sapphire Reserve. You can learn more about redeeming your points towards travel at our sister site, Travel Freely.
Are you eligible?
To apply for the Freedom Unlimited card, you must not currently have the same card (it’s okay to have a different Freedom card), and you must not have received a welcome bonus for the Freedom Unlimited in the past 24 months.
Additionally, to get this card you must be under 5/24.
How to apply
You can find the current best welcome bonus offer and application link at the top of this page: Chase Freedom Unlimited.
Application status
After you apply, call (888) 338-2586 to check your application status.
Reconsideration
If your application is denied, call for reconsideration (1-888-270-2127). It’s surprising how often denials can be changed to approvals just by asking.
Chase Freedom Unlimited Perks
Travel Protection
Auto Rental Coverage: Chase offers secondary auto rental CDW (collision damage waiver) when renting within your country of residence (presumably it is primary for rentals in other countries).
Trip Cancellation / Interruption Insurance: If your trip is canceled or cut short by sickness, severe weather and other covered situations, you can be reimbursed 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 Protection
Extended Warranty: “Extends the time period of U.S. manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year, on eligible warranties of three years or less.”
Damage and Theft Protection: “Covers your new purchases for 120 days against damage or theft up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account.”
Chase Freedom Unlimited Earn Points
Welcome Bonus
The welcome bonus for this card is advertised as cash back, although you’ll earn ‘points’ which you’ll then need to redeem for cash. Here’s the current offer:
Special Offer: Additional 1.5% cash back (first year only, up to $20,000) With this offer, you'll now earn a total of 4.5x on dining (including takeout and eligible delivery services), 4.5x on drugstores, 6.5x on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, and 3x on everything else for the first year, up to $20,000. This special offer is best for those who have a healthy amount of monthly spending on dining and general expenses.
Or, you can also redeem your points through the ‘Pay Yourself Back’ tool. The basic idea is that you can exchange your Chase Ultimate Rewards points for statement credits against certain category purchases. For example, at the time of writing this, with the Chase Freedom Unlimited card, you can redeem your points with a 25% bonus for select charities. You can ultimately think of this as cash back — but at a higher amount — since these are purchases you were going to make anyways.
Or, if you have a premium card, you can transfer your points from the Chase Freedom Unlimited and redeem the points through their ‘Pay Yourself Back’ tool. The reason why you’d want to do it that way is because you’ll receive an even higher value — you can redeem points at 1.25 cents per point with the Sapphire Preferred and 1.5 cents per point with the Reserve. At the time of writing this, with the Reserve card, for example, you can redeem your points with Airbnb, Awaytravel.com, dining purchases, select charities and your annual membership fee. Here’s the link to use this feature.
It looks like Chase will change the eligible categories every few months. Plus, cardholders earn points on the same purchases!
Cash Back
Cardholders can cash out points for 1 cent each. Cash back can be taken as a statement credit, check, or ACH transfer.
Other ways to redeem points
Through the Ultimate Rewards portal you can redeem points for cash back, gift cards, merchandise, or experiences. With this approach you’ll usually get 1 cent per point value. One exception is that Chase occasionally offers gift cards at a discount so you may be able to get better than 1 cent per point value during a gift card sale.
You can also use points to pay some merchants directly (Amazon.com, for example or via Chase Pay). Don’t do this. These options offer very poor value. Additionally, they may compromise the security of your account (i.e. if someone hacks into your Amazon account, they might spend your Ultimate Rewards points – causing you a headache in getting your points reinstated).
Chase Freedom Unlimited Manage Points
Combine Points Across Cards
If you are the primary account holder with multiple cards, you can freely combine Ultimate Rewards back and forth between your accounts. Your points can then be redeemed according to the card to which you move them.
If you intend to cancel a Chase Ultimate Rewards card, you should first combine your points with a card you intend to keep active. Once you cancel, you will forfeit any unused points in that account. A product change should not affect your balance, but some people prefer moving points before a product change as well just to be safe.
Share Points Across Cardholders
Chase allows customers to transfer Ultimate Rewards points to any other account in that customer’s name or to one additional household member or joint business owner (for free).
This is value if another family member has a higher redemption card when it comes to paying yourself back with the redemption tool. Or, if one day you want to redeem your points for travel instead of cash back.
Transfer difficulties? Create a loop
If you have trouble transferring between accounts, some users have been able to combine points between their own accounts — like from Bob’s Ink Business Cash to Bob’s Sapphire Reserve — via secure message.
However, you may run into an issue if you try to connect more than one of your cards to a single card that belongs to someone else. Chase allows you to combine/transfer to someone else who lives in your household (or a co-owner of your business for business cards), but I’ve had complications with this from time to time.
For example, let’s say that Joe and Suzy live in the same household and are joint owners of a business and have the following accounts:
First, Joe combines points from his Freedom Unlimited to Suzy’s Sapphire Reserve. Later, he logs into his Ink Business Cash account and tries to combine points with Suzy’s Sapphire Reserve. Joe may run into an error adding Suzy’s Sapphire Reserve card to combine points. This has happened in our household several times. In that case, Joe should log into his Freedom Unlimited account and remove Suzy as a household member (click “remove saved card). About 24 hours later, he should be able to add Suzy to his Ink Business Cash in order to combine his points to her account.
The easy solution is to create a loop. In the example scenario they should transfer like this:
Creating a loop chain can solve this problem. As noted, it took 24 hours after removing accounts to re-add them to other cards, so be aware of that limitation.
How to Keep Points Alive
Thankfully, it is very easy to keep Chase Ultimate Rewards points alive: simply keep the points in an open Ultimate Rewards account and they will not expire. Note that if you close an Ultimate Rewards card, you will lose any points associated with that card. You should first combine points to move points away from the card you intend to close and to another card that will remain open as per the sharing section above before canceling.
Chase Freedom Unlimited Lifecycle
How to meet minimum spend requirements
Once you are approved for a Chase card, you will have to meet the required spend in order to get the signup bonus. If your usual spend isn’t enough, consider using the Plastiq bill pay service to use your card to pay bills that can’t usually be paid by credit card (rent, mortgage, contractors, etc.).
Keep, cancel, or product change?
Is this card worth keeping in the long run? Yep. With no annual fee and strong earning power, why not? If you decide to cancel anyway, make sure to first redeem any remaining points or move them to another Ultimate Rewards card.
$200 after you spend $500 in the first 3 months. A very strong cash back card from Chase. Lots of good spending categories and the ability to move points to a Sapphire card make this a great card to have.
Special Offer: Additional 1.5% cash back (first year only, up to $20,000) With this offer, you'll now earn a total of 4.5x on dining (including takeout and eligible delivery services), 4.5x on drugstores, 6.5x on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, and 3x on everything else for the first year, up to $20,000. This special offer is best for those who have a healthy amount of monthly spending on dining and general expenses.
60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points after you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months. A secret cash back card with a huge signup bonus worth $600 in cash back. Our #1 personal card that we recommend most often. Hands down the single best "starter card" for beginners and MVP card for overall value and flexibility.
60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points after you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months. Great choice for a frequent traveler, but note the huge annual fee. Sapphire Preferred is best option if you're starting out or not going to travel frequently in the coming year.
Earn up to $750: $350 after you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months + an additional $400 after you spend $6,000 in 6 months Great signup bonus for a business card with no annual fee, now with an extended timeline for hitting the spend requirement. Great for carrying a balance. Earn 5% cash back in certain earning categories. Earn 2% cash back on gas and restaurants.
100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points after you spend $8,000 in the first 3 months. 🔥 Update 6/29/23: Lower spending required! A highly recommended business card for signup bonus and 3x (3% cash back) categories on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases. Make sure you can hit the higher than normal spending requirement for the bonus. All Ink cards can earn Ultimate Rewards with the option of converting to cash back.
$750 after you spend $6,000 in the first 3 months. Great offer for a no annual fee card. A no-brainer, great business card with a great bonus, and great for carrying a balance. Earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on all purchases.
