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.

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.

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.

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.