Update: This offer has expired.
The Chase Freedom Unlimited is a relatively new Ultimate Reward earning card and is definitely one of the more popular ones. With this card you’ll earn 1.5x points on every single purchase. There are no category bonuses, you just earn an increased number of points on all purchases. Earning 1.5x points on all purchases can be pretty lucrative! Since this is a no annual fee card it does not allow you to transfer your points to partner loyalty programs, meaning you are essentially earning 1.5% cash back on all purchases. However, if you have a “premier” Chase Ultimate Reward card your points can go much further! If you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Ink Preferred, Chase Ink Bold, or Chase Ink Plus, you can transfer your points earned from the Chase Freedom Unlimited card to one of those “premier” cards and then transfer your points to a partner program. I personally get a minimum of 2 cents per point when redeeming this way, meaning the 1.5x points earned is like getting a 3% return. This is not how you earn the 3x points on all purchases, read below for the increased sign up offer!
But… it gets even better! Chase just rolled out a new welcome offer for this card which will give you 3x points on all purchases for the first year! So now there are two different welcome offers and the offer that is better for you depends on how much you spend on the card. Of course other cards offer MUCH higher welcome bonuses, but remember this card comes with no annual fee.
- Offer #1 (Existing/Standard Offer): Earn $150 statement credit after you spend $500 on the card.
- Offer #2 (NEW Offer): Earn 3x points on all purchases for the first year, and then back to 1.5x points after your first year is up. This offer is how you can earn 3x points on every purchase.
Even though the new offer doesn’t come with a fixed bonus point offer, I think it is a much better offer and a pretty amazing opportunity! The two offers break even after you put $10,000 on your card. And if you transfer your points to a Chase Ultimate Rewards “premier” card, you can get way more then 3% return for your points. Based on my valuation this is like getting a 6% return on every single purchase you make – no other card will give you that many points on your purchases!
This is a great opportunity for those with heavy monthly spend, high business expenses, or for that that can generate additional spend through various opportunities, i.e., paying taxes, mortgage, rent, etc. For example, I recently wrote about an opportunity to actually make money by using the bill pay service Plastiq. At the time of writing the post, I focused on the Chase Ink Preferred card since that card was coding as 3x points. Now that you can get 3x points with the Chase Freedom Unlimited card, this is another way to make money. Keep in mind you cannot pay your mortgage with this card. Although I’d still personally recommend the Chase Ink Preferred card over this card if you are looking to sign up for a new card since it coms with a 80,000 point bonus on top of earning 3x points when using Plastiq.
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You mention you get 2 cents per point on redemption. How do you accomplish this? Is it only via travel bookings via their Connexions relationship? Because if you’re solely redeeming via 1:1 transfers into Hyatt/Marriott/IHG or into Airlines then wouldn’t that be 1 cent per on redemption?
@QueryingMe – When I transfer to partner programs (i.e., Hyatt, British Airways, etc.) I get at least a 2 cents per point redemption.
Where are you getting 3x points?? You clearly get 1.5 points for every dollar spent. Now – you may value those at 1.5 points at 2 cents a point but that’s very different from earning 3x points. 3% return and 3x Chase Points are not the same. Very misleading headline.
OK – I get you’re just talking about if you’re a new cardholder and taking the offer for a year . . . takes a while to get to the point of the headline and confused by all the initial talk of the 3%.
@David- I updated the post to make it more clear (hopefully!).
Any idea/guess as to when the double points offer may expire?
Thank you!
@SP – As of right now no set date was given. I am not too sure, but I foresee it being around for a decent amount of time