Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card [Details and Review] • Money Rook

Some consumers prefer credit cards that offer relatively simple rewards programs. If you’re one of them, you might want to check out this credit card from JPMorgan Chase & Co. In this Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card review, I’ll list all of its features, rewards, and requirements so you can decide if it is the right credit card for you.

The Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card offers its card members a chance to earn 5% cashback on trips, 3% on restaurant and drugstore purchases, and 1.5% on all other products bought and services paid. This credit card has no annual fee and undeniably has compelling rewards.

Read on to learn more about the Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card, its features, rewards, and pros and cons.

About the Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card

Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Cardmembers have a chance to earn 5% cashback on trips, 3% on restaurant and drugstore purchases, and 1.5% on all other products bought and services paid. It has no annual fee and has compelling rewards.

To make sure that your Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card application gets approved, your credit score must be between 670 and 850 points.

This credit card has a regular annual percentage rate (APR) ranging between 14.99% and 23.74%. Its introductory purchase APR is 0% for the first 15 billing cycles. It charges a balance transfer fee of 5% or $5 per transaction, whichever is higher. As for its foreign transaction fee, it charges 3%.

When you use your Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card on grocery store purchases on a maximum amount of $12,000 spent in the first year, you’ll have a chance to earn 5% cashback. This, however, does not include items bought in Walmart and Target.

Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card Target Market

Basically, the Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card is for consumers who want an uncomplicated rewards program. They want it simple, yet they want it to provide solid returns and have exciting bonus earning categories.

This credit card doesn’t require any extra legwork so that you can maximize its use. If this is how you want your credit card to work, then the Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card may be the one that suits you best.

In case you have other credit cards that allow you to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points, then you might really want to consider getting this card. You can actually pool all your points from all those credit cards. That way, you can maximize the value out of them all.

The Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card is also perfect if you want a long introductory 0% APR promotion. You also get to earn a bonus without pressuring yourself since you don’t even have to spend so much to earn it.

Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card Bonus

If you have a Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card, you have a chance to earn $200 worth of cashback. All you have to do is spend at least $500 within the first 3 months from the card activation date. This typically translates to $167 every month.

Spending $167 every month is not at all hard to reach. If you use the Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card every time you buy items or pay for services, then you will undoubtedly earn the reward effortlessly.

Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card Rewards Earning Information

In case you have purchases that are not included in the enhanced bonus category rewards, you still have a chance to earn a flat rate of 1.5% cashback.

The rewards also include a chance to earn 5% cashback on trips booked using the Chase card. It also includes a chance to earn 3% cashback on purchases made in drugstores and restaurants.

Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card Rewards Redemption Information

There are 5 options to choose from in terms of redeeming rewards. These include the following:

Request Cash Back in the Form of Direct Deposit or Statement Credit
Buy Gift Cards
Book Travel
Buy Apple Products
Shop on Amazon.com

1. Request Cash Back in the Form of Direct Deposit or Statement Credit

Requesting cashback in the form of direct deposit or statement credit can be done at any time. You may also do so for any amount.

2. Buy Gift Cards

If you opt to buy gift cards, remember that the minimum redemption amount may vary. Nonetheless, it is a great way to redeem your rewards.

3. Book Travel

You can also book your travel using your rewards. Similar to the process when buying gift cards, the minimum redemption amount may also vary.

4. Buy Apple Products

The fourth option allows Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Cardholders to buy Apple products. This can be done using Chase Ultimate Rewards.

5. Shop on Amazon.com

The points you have earned from using your Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card may also be used for shopping on Amazon.com.

Typically, each point is equivalent to 1 cent. However, if you use your points to shop on Amazon.com, each point is only equivalent to 0.8 cents. Still, it’s not at all bad. You still get to use your points for Amazon purchases.

Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card Transferring Points

You can also transfer your Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card points at a 1:1 ratio to any of the travel partners of Chase. This is possible if you have another credit card issued by Chase and earns Ultimate Rewards.

In essence, you can transfer your rewards to your Ink Business Unlimited, Sapphire Preferred, or Chase Sapphire Reserve cards. That way, you’ll be able to maximize the points you have already earned truly.

Chase’s travel partners include the following:

Aer Lingus AerClub
British Airways Executive Club
Emirates Skywards
Flying Blue Air France KLM
Iberia Plus
IHG Rewards Club
JetBlue TrueBlue
Marriott Bonvoy
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
United MileagePlus
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
World of Hyatt

How to Maximize My Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card Rewards

Here are ways to maximize your Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card:

Use Your Credit Card Often
Get Other Chase Rewards Cards
Encourage Others to Get a Chase Freedom Ultimate Credit Card

Let’s briefly discuss each one of them:

1. Use Your Credit Card Often

The most basic way to maximize your Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card is to use it as often as you can. If possible, use your credit card to pay for all items you buy and all services you get. You may also opt to link your credit card to your other digital wallets or as payment methods to different online stores.

2. Get Other Chase Rewards Cards

If you intend to own more than one credit card, it is best to get other cards issued by Chase. You can pool the points you have earned from those cards to have higher chances of immediately redeeming bigger rewards.

For instance, you can pair your Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card with your Chase Freedom card. With their earning categories that rotate every quarter, you get a chance to earn roughly 5% cashback. Your Chase Freedom card may be used for bonus categories. At the same time, your Chase Freedom Unlimited card may be used for all other purchases.

Another example is a Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card where you can transfer the points you have earned from your Chase Freedom Unlimited card. If you book your travel using the pooled Chase rewards, the points become 25% more useful and valuable.

The rewards become 50% more valuable if you transfer your Chase Freedom Unlimited points to your Chase Sapphire Reserve card.

3. Encourage Others to Get a Chase Freedom Ultimate Credit Card

Chase also offers a referral program. So, if you refer a friend or a family member and their application gets approved, you get a chance to receive a $100 cashback for every approved application. Doing so will give you a chance to earn up to $500 every year.

Again, what does the Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card offer? With the Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card, you get a chance to earn 5% cashback on trips, 3% on restaurant and drugstore purchases, 1.5% on all other products and services you bought, and enjoy other rewards. Also, there is no annual fee.

Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card Standard Benefits

Here are the standard benefits that your Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card has to offer:

Extended warranty protection
Purchase protection
Trip cancellation and interruption insurance
Rental car insurance
Travel and emergency assistance services

Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card Security Features

Lock-and-unlock Feature

If you are worried about credit card fraud, you really have to consider getting a Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card. It has a lock-and-unlock feature that you can control using the mobile app. This is particularly helpful if your card gets misplaced, lost, or stolen.

Such a feature comes as a standard for Chase cards. Other credit card issuers offer it, too, but it doesn’t come as a standard feature.

Contactless Feature

This credit card also has a contactless feature. It allows you to pay for products and services by merely tapping your card to the credit card reader. All credit card issuers do not offer this feature.

Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card Pros and Cons

Let’s now look at the pros and cons of owning a Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card:

Pros	Cons
Flat earnings rate of 1.5% with bonus earning spending categories	Other credit cards offer higher flat rewards rates
Three exciting introductory offers
The flexibility of redemption options

Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card – Pros

The advantages of owning a Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card include the following:

Flat Earnings Rate of 1.5% with Bonus Earning Spending Categories
Three (3) Exciting Introductory Offers
Flexibility of Redemption Options

Let’s briefly talk about these pros:

1. Flat Earnings Rate of 1.5% with Bonus Earning Spending Categories

If you book your travel using your Chase Ultimate Rewards, you get to earn 5% cashback. If you use your credit card to buy in drugstores and restaurants (including takeout), you get to enjoy 3% cashback. As for the rest of the items you buy or services you get using your credit card, you earn 1.5% cashback.

2. Three Exciting Introductory Offers

You might somehow find the cash bonus offer small, but then, it’s definitely easy to earn it. For instance, try spending $500 using your Chase Freedom Unlimited credit card within the first three months from the date of card activation. This will automatically allow you to earn $200 cashback. That’s an impressively 40% return on your spending.

Aside from that, you get to enjoy an introductory 0% APR for the first 15 billing cycles. As a new card member, you also get to enjoy a 5% return on grocery items bought using the card. This applies to your first year as a cardmember. However, as earlier mentioned, this does not apply to items bought from Walmart and Target.

3. Flexibility of Redemption Options

Technically, the Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card is designed as a cash-back credit card. Nonetheless, you can earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points with it.

While this credit card is supposed to provide a simple rewards program, allowing cardmembers to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards makes it slightly complicated. This is because of the varying values of points when used to buy an Apple product or an item from Amazon.com. But still, it’s great that there’s this kind of flexibility for redeeming rewards.

Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card – Cons

There’s one negative thing I see in terms of getting a Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card. It’s probably the fact that other credit cards offer higher flat rewards rates.

However, you might want to check out the other features of those credit cards too. It may be offering higher flat rewards rates, but earning points might be more complicated than how it is with the Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card.

Conclusion – Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card

Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Cardmembers have the opportunity to earn 5% cashback on trips, 3% on restaurant and drugstore purchases, and 1.5% on all other products bought and services paid. It has no annual fee and has fascinating rewards.

If you want to earn rewards effortlessly, this is the credit card for you. Chase designed it so that it offers cardmembers a simple rewards program but with added flexibility.