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The Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card offers a solid rewards program and a generous starting interest rate offer, all without an annual fee. Does that make it a smart addition to your wallet? Keep reading and decide for yourself.
Cashback and rewards with unlimited duration
You can get your money back quickly with Chase Freedom Unlimited, depending on your spending habits. First, you will receive 5% cashback on all purchases you make through the Chase Ultimate Rewards online portal. That’s the same amount you’ll get for Lyft rides until March 2025.
In addition, you’ll earn 3 percent cashback for every dollar you charge at restaurants, including takeaway and qualifying delivery services, and on pharmacy purchases. You will earn 1.5 percent back on everything you buy.
As part of the current welcome offer, you will also receive an additional 1.5 percent on all purchases up to $20,000 in the first year after you open your account.
The cash back reward never expires and you don’t have to earn a minimum amount to redeem your money.
You can redeem your cash back as a credit statement or as a direct deposit to your checking or savings account. You can also link your Chase Freedom Unlimited card to your Amazon.com account to instantly use your cash rewards to pay for any purchases made through the online store. You can also turn your money back into gift cards.
And if you have other Chase-branded credit cards, you can convert the points you earn with your Chase Freedom Unlimited card to ones that will help you make the most of those points.
Solid long term value
The cashback program is not the only privilege of the Chase Freedom Unlimited card. it also offers a 0% interest rate on purchases and balance transfers for the first 15 months of opening an account. After the end of this introductory period, a standard variable annual rate of 16.49 to 25.24 percent takes effect.
You’ll also receive zero liability protection, which means you won’t be liable for unauthorized charges to your card, and purchase protection, which covers your new purchases for 120 days against damage or theft up to $500 each. claim.
Other benefits include an extended warranty and trip cancellation/interruption insurance. With this last benefit, you will be reimbursed up to $1,500 per person and $6,000 per trip for prepaid non-refundable passenger fares if your trip is canceled or interrupted due to illness, weather, or other covered situation. And if you have an emergency while traveling, you can call Chase for legal and medical assistance, although you are responsible for covering the costs of these services.
Is Chase Freedom Unlimited right for you?
Chase Freedom Unlimited is a good addition to your wallet, depending on your spending habits and other cards in your wallet. To maximize its value, you will need to use other Chase cards, travel frequently, and spend a lot at restaurants and pharmacies.
If you eat out a lot or order takeout often, you can make some quick cash since you’ll get a 3 percent cashback on those categories. The same applies to shopping at the pharmacy.
And if you travel frequently, you can also get cashback quickly. This is thanks to the 5% cashback you earn on travel purchases when you redeem them through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
But this card is even more valuable if you have more than one Chase credit card because you can transfer the points you earn to any other Chase card that also generates points.
Here’s an example of how this might work: Chase Freedom Flex℠ offers 5% cashback on certain categories that change every quarter. If you used Chase Freedom Flex for purchases in quarterly categories with a 5% bonus, and Chase Freedom Unlimited for every second purchase, you maximize your cash back. You can then pool all your cash back to redeem them all together.
You can also increase the value of your cashback by transferring points earned with this card to other Chase cards with a higher point redemption value. While the Chase Freedom Unlimited card is billed as a cashback card, your purchases do earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points, each worth a penny when you redeem them for cashback.
There are other Chase cards that bring a faster redemption rate for points. If you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, each point you earn is worth 1.25 cents when redeemed for Chase travel. You can then convert the points you earn with Chase Freedom Unlimited to more value if you plan to travel. The same is true if you have Chase Sapphire Reserve: points are worth even more – 1.5 cents each when they are used to travel through Chase.
bottom line
Chase Freedom Unlimited’s value peaks when you have more than one Chase card in your wallet, but it’s still a solid card in its own right for those who spend a lot in their top restaurant, drugstore, and travel Ultimate Rewards reward categories.
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