Chase Freedom Card
by Mr Credit CardUpdate : 24th November 2008
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Chase has announced new changes to the Chase FreedomSM Cash Visa® Card for the worse.
The first version of the Chase Freedom allowed card holders to earn 3% cash rebates from three out of fifteen categories which they have spent the most during the month. Gasoline, supermarkets, utilities, restaurants were among the fifteen categories.
Now however, they only allow you to earn 1% cash rebates for every purchase that you make on the card. They do give a teaser where you can still earn the 3% on various categories for only 6 months. Essentially what turned out to be one of the best cash back credit card, has suddenly become an ordinary cash rebate card!
In light of this latest development, we are removing the Chase Freedom from our Editor’s Choice List. They have essentially become a regular 1% rebate card. Below are a couple of much better alternatives.
The best card that we recommend is the True Earnings® Business Card from Costco and American Express, which lets you earn 5% rebates on gasoline, 3% on restaurants and 2% on travel items. You can also earn unlimited rebates with this card.
The Blue Cash from American Express® is still another favourite as it let’s you earn 5% rebates on gasoline, supermarket, and drugstores and 1.5% on other purchases once your annual spending exceeds $6,500. Prior to that, you earn 1.5% and 0.5% respectively. This card will suit high spenders as you can earn unlimited rebates.
It’s a sad state of affairs that Chase has reduced this once very good card to just an ordinary card.
To find a better card, or to see if the Chase Freedom is the right card for you, simply fill in your monthly expenses and calculator will show you if the Chase Freedom is the card for you
March 30th, 2007 at 12:50
[...] Original post by Mr Credit Card [...]
March 30th, 2007 at 14:11
I’ve had the Freedom for about 6 months now and I use it almost exclusively for all purchases (paying down the balance each month, of course) and I can tell you the cash back really adds up fast. There are a few things, however, that are important to note about this card.
1) Be sure when you get the card that you are set up to earn the type of rewards you want, either cash or points. If you are set up to earn the wrong type, you can always switch, but all the rewards you have already earned don’t transfer over to the new type. They don’t disappear either, you just now have 2 separate rewards pools.
2) You can only earn cash rewards in $50 increments. What this means is that you may earn $10 in cash rewards in the first month, you cannot get that cash back until you have earned a total of $50 in cash rewards, at which point you can go to the rewards site or call them up and ask them to send you a $50 check. I haven’t yet asked for a rewards check even though I have built up over the $50 limit (which I’ll talk about in the next point) so I don’t know how long it takes.
3) Once you build up $200 in cash rewards, you can ask for a cash back check of $250, so you get an extra $50 free! Hence the reason I have yet to ask for a $50 check, I’m waiting for the $50 bonus. I actually did the math and figured out that at my current rate of monthly spending, if I received the $50 each time I was eligible and put it into an interest earning account, I would not surpass $250 by the time i was eligible for that bonus. Obviously, you’ll have to do the math for yourself based on your own spending habits, but in general I would think waiting for the bonus would be the better decision.
November 16th, 2007 at 13:50
I would like to know if I am incorrect here, but my understanding is that you can earn a maximum of $12 a month on this card. According to my bill the points expire after a year. 12×12 = $144; so I don’t know when you think you’re getting to $200… good luck!
In my view this card is a big rip off. I “earned” $5.89 this month. That would be fine if they deducted it from my bill. But they don’t. As you say… you have to APPLY for a “Check” when you reach $50… VIVE the go paperless revolution (on the customer’s part not the bank’s part). If the money you supposedly SAVED doesn’t EXPIRE (I mean “expire”) first. NONE OF THIS IS MENTIONED WHEN YOU APPLY FOR THE CARD. They MAIL this information to you (more paperless BS ha ha). I am going with Discover Card.
May 28th, 2008 at 20:34
@AP:
You CAN (and likely will) earn more than $12/month. Basically, the card gives you 1% back on everything, but the three categories you spent the most on get a “bonus” additional 2% (for a total of 3%).
Thus, you can earn $12 from that “bonus” 2%, but you’ll also have earned $6 from the 1% (total of $18 if you spend $600 in those three categories).
However, you still earn 1% on everything else, so you’ll likely get more than $18/month if this is your primary card. Here’s a hypothetical situation:
You pay $1000 on the card in a month.
$800 is for items/services in the three categories, $200 is in other categories that only get 1% back.
From the $200 in non-top-three categories, you’ll only get 1% back, or $2.
+
From the $800 in the three categories, you’ll get 1% back on all $800 ($8). BUT you’ll also get your “bonus” 2% back on $600 worth of that spending (which is $12).
Thus, you’d get $22 back that month:
$12 from your “bonus” three categories (2% of $600) PLUS,
$10 from your total spending of $1000.
At that rate and considering the $50 sign-on bonus cash, you’d earn your extra $50 for cashing in with a total of $200 after about 7 months:
$50 + (7 X $22) =
$50 + ($154) = $204
Thereafter, you’d have to wait 12 months before reaching $250 (actually would be $264 after $12 months at $22/month).
Basically, a $50 annual bonus on top of your 1%/3% back, but it comes 5 months sooner the first year.
However, it’s clear than if you end up carrying a balance on the card you come out a “loser” that month every time — clearly this happens to enough people for it to be worth Chase’s efforts to reward the few who are not losing out on the card.
July 16th, 2008 at 03:35
Chase Freedom is bs. They say now that you get 2% back extra on your top 5 categories. What they don’t say is that just about everything is not in a category. $3000.00 on airline tickets… sorry, travel is not a category we recognize, we’ll give you 1%. $600.00 on textbooks? Sorry, Amazon is not a company we recognize, we’ll give the extra 2% on that $10.00 you spent at Starbucks this month instead.
It is essentially a standard 1% back card, baited and switched to say you can get 3%. Of course, you can get 3% on some things like gas and groceries, but lots of other cards already give 5% back on those, so why would you ever use Freedom?
I still think Chase has the best deals on just about everything IF you read the fine print, but I just feel slimy every time I deal with them.
December 2nd, 2008 at 22:08
A word of caution regarding Chase cards.
I’ve had my Chase card since 1998. I’ve never missed a payment or paid late on this or any other card for that matter. About two months ago I got a letter stating (to this effect), “We’ve increased your limit, please transfer a balance.” The terms were good, so I transferred a balance.
Recently I was shocked to learn that my minimum payment has increased from 2% to 5% and they have instituted a $120.00 annual fee. I DON’T have the right to opt out of these changes. I called and spoke to a supervisor who said that he understands it might be tough to make the minimum payments, but there’s nothing he can do about it.
This is no way to treat customers. How can they possibly write a letter asking for more business then pull the old “bait and switch”.
Sincerely, Paul.
June 5th, 2009 at 18:24
Recently received a Mailing indicating a change from “Chase Freedom” to the “Chase Freedom with Ultimate Rewards”.
The change resulted in a 30 dollar annual fee.
The option of the $250 Check for $200 rewards has been removed.
The 3% cash back for for the Top Everyday spending categories has been replaced by 3% cash back on eligible gas, groceries and fast food purchases.
Effective 7/31/2009.
July 17th, 2009 at 17:40
This is the WORST card I have ever owned. The customer service is very arrogant and rude. Talk to the card holder like trash like you are begging for their mercy to get their money. Though I always pay on time and cover beyond the total amount I have to pay at that moment. They are not flexible and try to squeeze the blood from the crab. Please do not use this card. Use Citibank, American Express or Discover card, they have better service and kindly understand customers. I owned this card more than a year but just delay my due date payment one day due to my financial institution discrepancy, they even not waive your late fee. They have made tons of fee from my purchase but they willlose more than they think because we will never ever use CHASE CARD including my friends, relatives…etc.
August 22nd, 2009 at 16:41
I was too annoyed by the switch to ‘ultimate rewards’ thing. The company even tried to portrait the reduction in benefit and imposition of annual fee as an improvement to card holders.
Funny thing is they are still advertising the old version of the card with all the previous benefits, so I called to ask if I could remain with the old program. The answer is no. I commented that I had never paid any annual fee for any cards (except my costco one), and the guy basically said ‘too bad. Sorry to see you go’.
So I will be gone as soon as the first annual fee waiver ends.
I have to say Chase is the worst bank I have ever dealt with. I already stopped using the ToyRus card when they forced me to switch to Mastercard from Visa and I had to fix all the links I had.
September 2nd, 2009 at 17:56
i consolidated with a chase cc .For the past 4 years i have made my payments on time and never late. They decided being a good paying coustomer to raise the 2 % on my balance to 5 %. Really feel like just defaulting on this loan.My payments had jump from $365.00 to $915.00
November 6th, 2009 at 13:50
As of today’s date, I’m still grandfathered in under the original program. I average $1,000 per month in charges, and pay in full each month. I don’t know what criteria Chase might be using to reduce people’s benefits, but I obviously haven’t hit them yet.
I did receive a survey recently – the survey was huge, but I remember responding to what I liked the best (cash back!) and if I would be willing to pay an annual fee (no!).
I’m crossing my fingers no changes are made. I recently received notification from Discover that my 5% gasoline cash back would become 2% as of January 1. Also, minimum Discover cash redemption has increased from $20 to $50. No surprise here; I was using the card ONLY for gas purchases, so I was milking it to the max. A lot of my Chase purchases fall into the 1% category, not bonus categories, which may be why I’m still getting the good deal.
As of today’s date, Chase Freedom is still my #1 card.