Both the Chase Freedom and Chase Freedom Unlimited are great cash back cards when paired with one of the three Ultimate Reward credit cards.
The Ultimate Reward cards are:
- Chase Sapphire Preferred
- Chase Sapphire Reserve
- Ink Business Preferred.
Both Freedom cards have no annual fee.
Both can be transferred to Chase Ultimate cards for higher redemptions than the 1:1 transfer.
Ideally, I would recommend both after you have at least one of three Ultimate Reward cards listed above.
I have had both for years.
What if you don’t have enough Chase 5/24 slots for both, and you have to pick one though?
Given Chase’s 5/24 rule, which one should you get first?
There are numbers that will guide your choice, although the decision will be different for each person.
Chase Freedom Overview
- Sign up bonus: $200 for spending $500 in 3 months
- 5% cash back in rotating categories at $1500 max per quarter
- 1% on all other purchases
- $0 annual fee
- 0% percent interest the first 15 months on purchases, then 14.99%-23.74% APR
- 3% foreign transaction fee
Where the Freedom shines is in the rotating categories.
If you can maximize the 5% categories, you will get more rewards.
Here is this year’s reward quarters:
- Q1: January-March 31- Gas, Cable, Internet, cell, streaming
- Q2: April 1-June 30- Grocery, gym, streaming
- Q3: July 1-September 30-Amazon, Whole Foods
- Q4: October 1-Dec 31-Department stores
Pros
- No annual fee
- 5% rotating categories
- $200 sign up bonus
- Transfer to other Chase cards
Cons
- Can require extra work
- Only 1% cash back outside of rotating categories
Best for:
- People who like to maximize rewards.
- People who already have a Chase Ultimate card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred/Reserve or Ink Preferred.
Chase Freedom Unlimited?
The Chase Freedom Unlimited has the following features:
- Sign up bonus: Get $200 for spending $500 in 3 months
- 1.5 % on all purchases
- $0 annual fee
- 0% percent APR first fifteen months, then 14.99%-23.74%
- 3% foreign transactions fee
The Chase Freedom Unlimited card is a simpler card.
Every purchase earns 1.5%.
Pros
- No annual fee
- Simplicity
- $200 Sign up bonus
- Use with other Chase Ultimate card
Cons
- You can get more rewards than 1.5% on cards with bonus categories like Freedom
- 3% Foreign transaction fees
- Other cards better if you just want cash back
Best for:
- People who can’t max out the regular Freedom rotating categories.
- People who want simplicity.
- People who have an Ultimate Rewards card like Chase Sapphire Preferred/Reserve or Ink Preferred
Why not get both cards?
The ideal scenario is to have both cards.
This would entail maximizing the Chase Freedom’s 5% bonuses.
However, not everyone can spend $500 each month in these categories.
One hack to get around this is to buy gift cards when the categories cover stores like drug stores or grocery stores that sell gift cards.
This is what I did for years.
You can buy merchant store gift cards like Shell, Chipotle, etc.
You can also buy Visa gift cards and subtract the $5-6 fee from your points.
Maximizing the Freedom each quarter’s $1500 spend (which I just translate into $500 per month), you would get 2500 Chase points instead of 750 with the same spend on the Freedom Unlimited credit card.
Taking into account a $6 fee, you would subtract 600 points, which is still 1900 points instead of 750 points for the same $500 spend on the Chase Freedom Unlimited.
After you have maximized the Freedom categories, every other purchase would go on the Freedom Unlimited which will give 1.5% instead of 1% on the Chase Freedom.
In the real world, not everyone can maximize the Freedom categories.
Again, that card is good for people who will take the time to maximize points.
What if you don’t have time for the extra effort of paying attention to category calendars or taking the trouble to buy a gift card?
Next, many people only have one more slot before you reach 5./24, you want to choose the next card wisely.
Maybe something will happen, and you can get over 5/24 (not likely).
Chase sticks to the 5/24 rule pretty consistently.
So, you may have to choose between the two cards.
Where does the math point?
Which card does the math point to?
Let’s use a basic scenario where you spend $500 on the Chase Freedom.
That would give you 2500 points per month again.
If you had chosen the Freedom Unlimited, you would only get 750 points.
That is over three times the points.
So, you see with the rotating categories, the Freedom comes out ahead.
That is only part of your spending though ($500 per month).
What about the rest of your monthly spending?
Let’s say your spending is $1650 per month other than expenses that can’t be put on a credit card like rent:
- $500 groceries
- $300 eating out
- $200 gas
- $150 car insurance
- $200 cable/internet
- $100 cell phone
- $100 clothing
- $100 entertainment
- Total: $1650 per month
Your spending, like everyone else, is unique to you.
As you can see, you can maximize category 1 in gas and internet in the first quarter, spending $400 per month.
With the Chase Freedom, that is:
- 2000 points for rotating categories ($400 x 5=2000)
- 1250 points at 1 % (1650-400=1250, 1250 x 1= 1250)
- Total: 3250 points per month
If you had just used the Freedom Unlimited, your points would be:
- Total: 2475 points per month
So, in this quarter the Freedom came out ahead.
Quarter 2
The Chase Freedom categories for quarter two is groceries which you maximized.
With the Freedom, your points were as follows:
- 2500 points for rotating categories at 5% ($500 x 5=2500)
- 1150 points for regular earning at 1% (1650-500=1150, 1150 x 1=1150)
- Total: 3650 points
While you would earn the following with the Freedom Unlimited in this quarter:
- 2475 points
Quarter 3 on Amazon.
Quarter 3 is Amazon and Whole Foods.
I know this is a category because of the pandemic.
The average person spends less than $50 at Amazon.
Let’s say the person spent the average of $50 per month at Amazon.
In this quarter, you would earn the following on the Freedom:
- 250 points in rotating categories
- 1600 points in 1%
- Total: 1850
On the other hand, the Freedom Unlimited would earn you:
- 2400 points
Quarter 4
The last quarter is department stores.
You spend $100 a month on clothing, but since this is the holiday season, lets’s give you an extra $100 to budget.
So, we added an extra $100 to your spending in this quarter each month.
That bumps spending in this quarter to $1750 instead of $1650 for all three months.
With the Freedom, this person would earn:
- 1000 points per month ($200 x 5=1000 points)
- 1550 points on everything else (1750-200=1550, 15550 x 1 =1550)
- Total: 2550
They would earn the following with the Freedom Unlimited:
- 2625 points
Summing It All Up At The End Of The Year
Each month was changed into quarters.
At the end of the year, without including the sign up bonus, you earned the following with the Freedom:
- Q 1: 9,750 points (3250 x 3=9,750)
- Q 2: 10,950 points (3650 x 3=10,950)
- Q 3 3: 5,550 points (1850 x 3=5550)
- Q 4: 7,650 points (2550 x 3=7,650)
- Total: 33,900 points
For the Freedom Unlimited, they earned:
- Q1: 2475
- Q2: 2475
- Q3: 2475
- Q4: 2625 (extra $100 in spending) 7875
- Total: 30,150 ($301.50)
So, the Freedom credit card still beat the Freedom Unlimited by 3740 points.
The cash equivalent is $37.50.
Of course, this may not be for much but that is considering we did not maximize all Freedom quarters.
So, if you will maximize all quarters, the Chase Freedom will be the better choice.
You can do the math with all quarters maximized.
If you do not have time for the extra effort of the Chase Freedom, the Freedom Unlimited with it’s simple structure may still be the better card though.
As you see, we did not have to do any addition to figure the Freedom Unlimited points out )except the $100 in additional spending).
If you will not maximize bonus quarters at all on the Freedom, the Freedom Unlimited will be the winner.
So, this depends on your spending and the amount of effort you put into your rewards.
Why you should first have an Ultimate Rewards card?
Although these are both great cash back cards, the real beauty of the Chase program in general is having an Ultimate Reward’s credit card.
Otherwise, these are both just cash back cards, and there may be even better cards for cash back like the Citi Double Cash card.
The following three cards are Ultimate Reward cards again:
- Chase Sapphire Preferred
- Chase Sapphire Reserve
- Ink Business Preferred
Chase will only allow one Sapphire card, so you must choose between the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Chase Sapphire Reserve.
You could have one Sapphire card and also the Ink Business Preferred.
If you have a business and can only choose one, I would suggest first the Ink Business Preferred card.
Then, instead of the Freedom Unlimited, I would get the Ink Cash Unlimited as my second or third card.
Business cards don’t count toward Chase’s 5/24 limit, so you would still have 5 cards left.
I would probably get the regular Freedom as my second or third choice.
That is if you have a business.
Also, since Chase changed the Ink Preferred sign up, and you need to spend $15,000 (which is quite a bit), you may still refer the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve.
Chase only approves two cards in 30 days.
Chase Ultimate cards will either give you more than one cents for your money (either 1.25 or 1.5 % back).
Even without 5/24, Chase can be funny about getting too many cards.
If you do not have a business, then you should get the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Reserve.
A lot of people have a business without knowing it.
If you have a side hustle, then you have a business.
Again, since they have changed the spending requirement on the Ink Preferred to $15,000 in three months, you may just want the Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve still.
That may be too high of a spend for some people on the Ink Preferred.
So which card to get?
It all depends on your spending.
You must do the math.
In most cases, according to all the above data, the Chase Freedom appears to be better if you can max out the rotating categories.
If you cannot max out the rotating categories, then the Freedom Unlimited is best.
Some people want simplicity.
Again, the Freedom Unlimited is the better choice then too.
Ideally, if you don’t have a business, I would get both after you get either the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Do you have either the Chase Freedom or Chase Freedom Unlimited credit cards?
