5 Reasons To Add Chase Freedom Unlimited To Your Wallet

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Adding a card_name card to your wallet means you can earn 50% more Chase Ultimate Rewards points. In this post, I’ll explain how this is possible.

My 3 favorite reward currencies are Chase Ultimate Rewards points, American Express Membership Rewards points, and most recently, Capital One Venture rewards.  I personally prefer to earn points in all programs because I like to diversify my points as much as possible.  Each program has its own transfer partners, so I have lots of redemption options if I collect all of them.  

While carrying several credit cards works for us, it’s totally understandable that a lot of people do not want to bother with juggling different credit cards plus different award currencies.

I understand that not everyone wants to take the time to learn about different bank currencies, plus all of the different transfer partners.  If you want to keep it simple, Chase Ultimate Rewards is a great program with several redemption options. There are 2 cards that I suggest if you want to stick with Chase Ultimate Rewards:

1. A card that earns transferable Chase Ultimate Rewards
2. card_name

Chase Freedom Unlimited is most valuable when you also have a Chase card that earns transferable Ultimate Rewards points

On its own, the Chase Freedom Unlimited is just a cash-back card. We all know how I feel about cash-back cards. BUT… there’s a huge exception. If you also have one of the three Chase cards that earn transferable Ultimate Rewards points, then any points earned from the card_name can be redeemed the exact same way you would redeem your transferable Chase Ultimate Rewards points.

A Chase Sapphire card that earns transferable Ultimate Rewards points is the first card that I suggest for almost anyone who wants to start saving big money on travel. There are 3 Chase Sapphire cards that earn transferable Ultimate Rewards points:

• card_name
• card_name
• card_name

The card_name and card_name are personal cards. The card_name is a business card. Click here for more details about each of these cards.

Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Sapphire Reserve earn bonus points at restaurants and on travel purchases. The Chase Ink Business Preferred card also has bonus categories. Outside of the bonus categories, the earn rate is 1 point per dollar. My suggestion is to use a Chase Freedom Unlimited card for non-category bonus purchases. Why? Because the earn rate is higher.

Last year, some bonus categories were added to the Chase Freedom Unlimited. The CSP and CSR earn rates are the same or better for travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards and for dining. CSP and CSR do not earn extra points at drugstores, so this would be a better card to use for those purchases. But the most compelling reason to carry a CFU is that it earns 1.5 on non-category bonus purchases, while CSP and CSR earn 1.

Here are the earn rates:

• 5% on Travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards
• 3% at restaurants
• 3% on Drugstore purchases
• 1.5 % unlimited cash back on all other purchases

Chase Freedom Unlimited credit card

This card earns 1.5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar on all purchases that do not code in a bonus category. To compare, the earn rate on the 3 Sapphire cards mentioned above is 1 point per dollar on all non-category bonus spending. Another important thing to point out: there is no annual fee on this card.

Welcome offer: Earn an additional 1.5% cash back on everything you buy (on up to $20,000 spent in the first year). That’s up to $300 or 30,000 points. Earn 6.5% on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards, 4.5% on drugstore purchases and dining at restaurants, (this includes takeout and eligible delivery service, and 3% on all other purchases (on up to $20,000 spent in the first year). After your first year or $20,000 spent, the normal earn rates (listed above the card) apply.

5 reasons to open the Chase Freedom Unlimited credit card

1. There is no annual fee on the Chase Freedom Unlimited card

There is no annual fee on the card_name card. This is great because you can keep it open year after year to help with the credit history aspect of your credit score.

2. Earn more points on non-category everyday spending (and now, some bonus categories!) than you do with Chase Sapphire cards

The card_name now has bonus categories:

Here are the earn rates:

• 5% on Travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards
• 3% at restaurants
• 3% on Drugstore purchases

Earn 1.5 points per dollar on all other purchases.  This makes it an ideal everyday spending card, especially if you also have a Chase Sapphire card that earns transferable Ultimate Rewards points.

To compare, the non-category bonus earn rate on the card_name, card_name, and card_name is 1 point per dollar.

3. With the current offer, for the first year, you’ll earn even more

The current welcome bonus for the card_name welcome bonus is in the form of extra points on spending.

Earn an additional 1.5% cash back on everything you buy (on up to $20,000 spent in the first year). That’s up to $300 (or 30,000 points) on top of what you earn from the normal rates.

Earn 6.5% on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards, 4.5% on drugstore purchases and dining at restaurants, (this includes takeout and eligible delivery service, and 3% on all other purchases (on up to $20,000 spent in the first year). After your first year or $20,000 spent, the normal earn rates (listed in the above section) apply.

4. You can redeem points through the Chase Ultimate Rewards Redemption portal, but you can also use the cash back for non-travel purchases.

You can redeem your points earned from the card_name through the Chase Ultimate Rewards redemption portal at a fixed value of 1 cent per point.

You do not have to redeem your points for travel, though. You can use your cash back however you want. At a value of 1 cent per point, 10,000 points would be worth $100 cash back. While this is the easiest and most simple way to redeem, you can get much more value out of points earned on this card by also having one of the 3 Chase Sapphire cards that earns transferable Chase Ultimate Rewards points… which brings us to the next point

5. If you also have a Chase Sapphire card, you can transfer points earned from the Chase Freedom Unlimited to airline and hotel partners, plus your points become even more valuable if you use the redemption portal

The option to transfer points to airline and hotel partners is a huge advantage because that’s the best way to get more value out of your points.  If you only have cash back points, your redemption value is always going to be a fixed value. In this post, I listed several valuable ways to redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points using partners. None of those redemptions are possible if you only have the card_name.

Points earned from Chase Freedom Unlimited are only transferable if you also have a Chase Sapphire card that earns transferable Ultimate Rewards points

If you have a card_name, card_name, or a card_name, you can add points earned from the card_name card to your pool of Ultimate Rewards points for whichever Sapphire Card you have.  Those points are then redeemable the same way as your points for whichever Sapphire card you hold.

This provides an avenue for you to transfer points you earn from the Chase Freedom Unlimited to Chase’s airline and hotel transfer partners at a 1:1 ratio.

If you have a Chase Freedom Unlimited plus a Chase Sapphire card, you can earn more transferable Chase Ultimate Rewards

Chase Freedom Unlimited earns more points per dollar on non-category purchases

Note: these calculations are based on the normal earn rates on the Chase Freedom Unlimited. Any intro offer is not factored in.

Since the earn rate on a card_name card is 1.5 points per dollar on non-category bonus purchases, you are earning 50% more points than with any of the 3 Chase Sapphire cards which earn 1 point per dollar.

If you spend $20,000 per year on non-category purchases:

• card_name: 1 point per dollar x 20,000=20,000 Ultimate Rewards points
• card_name: 1 point per dollar x 20,000=20,000 Ultimate Rewards points
• card_name: 1 point per dollar  x 20,000=20,000 Ultimate Rewards points
• card_name: 1.5 points per dollar x 20,000=30,000 Ultimate Rewards points.

Redeeming Chase Unlimited Rewards points earned from Chase Freedom Unlimited

The two options that provide the most value for booking travel with transferable Chase Ultimate Rewards points are:

1. Transfer Ultimate Rewards to airline and/or hotel loyalty programs at a 1:1 ratio.
2. Use the Chase Ultimate Rewards redemption portal. This is basically using your points as cash to book through their portal.  The redemption values are going to depend on which Chase Sapphire card you have.

Again, these examples are only possible if you have a card_name, card_name, or a card_name in addition to a card_name card. The only way to redeem points from Chase Freedom Unlimited card by itself is going to be as cash back.

If you have a Chase Freedom Unlimited plus a Chase Sapphire card, your overall return on non-category bonus spending increases

Using the 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points that you can earn from using a card_name on $20,000 in non-category bonus spending:

Option 1: Transfer to hotel or airline programs

Chase Ultimate Rewards has 11 airline partners and 3 hotel partners. You arent limited to flights on these airlines. You can actually book flights operated by over 50 airlines (including common US carriers) by choosing the right partner.

For example, Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred to World of Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio.  Then you can redeem the World of Hyatt for free Hyatt nights.

Hyatt category 4 properties require 15,000 Hyatt points per night.  The Andaz Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo used to be a category 4 hotel, so I’m going to use rates from our trip when it was still a cat 4 as an example. It is now a category 5 property, but even as a category 5 property, it’s still a good value (would be 20k points per night).

The lowest rate available during our stay was over $600 per night after taxes and fees, but I will use $600 to keep this simple:

• 2 nights at 15,000 each=30,000 Hyatt points needed. I transferred 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt.
• 2 nights at $600 each=$1200
• Remember that total spend to get the 30,000 points would be $20,000 with Chase Freedom Unlimited (note that you’ll earn miles and points a lot quicker by opening new credit cards for new welcome bonuses. But since I often get asked about the best everyday spending cards, I’m writing to explain why this is one of our favorites)
• $1200/$20000=0.06
• 0.06 X 100=6%

Thats a 6% return on spending!!!

While the Andaz Papagayo is now a category 5 property which requires 20,000 points per night, even at 20,000 points per night, the overall return on spending would be about 4.5%. To get 20,000 points for one night, you would need to spend $13,333 on the Chase Freedom Unlimited to get one night. If we value one night at $600:

$600/13,333=4.5%… so 4.5% is your overall return on spending. This is better than any cash-back card I can think of.

Option 2: Use the 30,000 points earned from the Chase Freedom Unlimited in the Ultimate Rewards redemption portal

Here are the redemption values if you use those 30,000 points earned from spending on the card_name in the Ultimate Rewards redemption portal.  Remember, this is only possible if you also have a Chase Sapphire card. If you only have the Chase Freedom Unlimited, your return is always 1.5% on non category bonus spend.

card_name plus card_name

• If you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, you can redeem at a rate of 1.25 cents per point in the redemption portal.
• With Chase Freedom Unlimited, remember you have 30,000 points from $20k spend.
• If you redeem 30,000 points in the portal, they’re worth $375 (1.25 cents per point x 30,000=$375.00)

Return on $20k spend is ~1.88%

card_name plus card_name

• If you have the Chase Ink business Preferred card, you can redeem at a rate of  1.25 cents per point in the redemption portal.
• With Chase Freedom Unlimited, remember you have 30,000 points from $20k spend.
• If you redeem 30,000 points in the portal, they’re worth $375 (1.25 cents per point x 30,000=$375.00)

Return on $20k spend is ~1.88%

card_name plus card_name

• If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, you can redeem at a rate of  1.50 cents per point in the redemption portal.
• With Chase Freedom Unlimited, remember you have 30,000 points from $20k spend.
• If you redeem 30,000 points in the portal, they’re worth $450 (1.50 cents per point x 30,000=$450.00)

Return on $20k spend is 2.25%

Summary

You will earn 1.88% or 2.25% back on your spending when you redeem Ultimate Rewards earned from the card_name through the redemption portal.  This is better than the return rates of the Chase Sapphire cards alone.

• card_name: 1.25%
• card_name: 1.25%
• card_name: 1.50%

In many situations, you can get even more value out of Chase Ultimate Rewards points by transferring them to airline and hotel loyalty programs.  In our Hyatt example from Costa Rica, the return rate was 6%.  Learning how to use airline transfer partners is a great way to make your Chase Ultimate Rewards stretch further, but even if you only want to redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points for travel through the redemption portal, the Chase Freedom Unlimited helps you earn more points, which ultimately increases your overall return on spending!

Chase 5/24 considerations

If you do not know what I am talking about, read this post about Chase’s 5/24 policy. 

Are Chase Sapphire and Chase Freedom Unlimited credit cards subject to Chase 5/24?

Yes.  All of these cards are subject to the 5/24 policy.  That is one of the main reasons I encourage these cards over Amex Membership Rewards cards for beginners.  You can open Amex cards after you reach 5/24, but you cannot open the Chase cards that earn Ultimate Rewards once you’re over 5/24.  It is important to plan your applications wisely. Click here for a list that I made specifically for beginners to explain which cards you should prioritize.

If you’re in 2 player mode (you have a partner or spouse who is also opening cards), this post explains how you can get this card without having to use a Chase 5/24 spot.

I am under 5/24.  Can I open a Chase Sapphire and a Chase Freedom Unlimited credit card at the same time?

While you can have these cards at the same time, I do not recommend trying to open them at the same time.

Chase will approve 2 cards in a 30 day period, but my advice is to space out your Chase applications if you plan to open multiple cards.  This applies to any Chase card, not just the cards discussed in this post. Chase has been known to flag or even shut down people who open too many accounts too quickly.  This is a marathon, not a sprint!

Final Thoughts

The best credit cards for you depend on your travel goals and spending habits.  I personally love finding sweet spots in airline and hotel programs and using transfer partners.  But I understand that not everyone has the time to learn about multiple reward currencies and transfer partners.  If you want to simplify things while still having the option to transfer your points, Chase Ultimate Rewards is a great program. 

If you do not have an Ultimate Rewards earning card such as a card_name, I suggest starting with that.  Then if you want to boost your earnings, consider adding a card_name.

The current welcome bonus on the card_name is worth at least $750 in travel!! But the points can also be used for redemptions that are worth twice that if you learn how to utilize transfer partners. Click here for several ways to redeem the bonus.

Current offer: bonus_miles_full 

The annual fee is $95, but the welcome offer alone is worth a lot more than that. 

Earn 5 points per dollar on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards, 2 points per dollar on all other travel, 3 points per dollar on dining (including eligible delivery services and takeout), 3 points per dollar on select streaming services, 3 points per dollar on online grocery purchases (this excludes Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs), and 1 point per dollar on all other purchases.

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