28

Feb

The Chase Freedom® Visa and Chase Freedom® MasterCard offer 5 points per dollar in a rotating set of categories which change each quarter.

That’s 5% cash back if all you have is a no annual fee Freedom card.

Or if you have a Chase card that earns Ultimate Rewards like Chase Sapphire PreferredSM , Ink Plus® Business Card or Ink Bold® Business Card, you can move your points earned via Freedom over to an account with one of those cards — and then transfer the points that had been earned via Chase Freedom over to United, Korean Air, British Airways, Southwest, Amtrak, Hyatt, Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, or Priority Club.

So for all intents and purposes you earn 5 transferrable miles per dollar, up to $1500 per quarter in spending, in a variety of categories.

Which means you can earn 7500 points each quarter instead of 1500, an incremental 6000 points per quarter means an extra 24,000 points per year.

But the trick is you have to register each quarter for the category bonuses.

The January – March 2013 5x bonus is for gas stations, drugstores, and Starbucks. And registration for the bonus must be done by March 14..

The April – June 2013 bonus was Restaurants, Movie theaters but now Lowes has been added to the second quarter bonus categories as well.

I haven’t been a watcher of this card since the beginning to be sure, but I do not recall them ever changing bonus categories once those categories have been announced for the year. Perhaps someone with better memories on this can add their perspective in the comments.

But I don’t mind changes in terms and conditions when they are to the consumer’s benefit as this one clearly is.

And since many of y’all have this card and register for each quarters bonuses, I wanted to point out the change.

(Note that I receive referral credit from Chase if you choose to use my links above and are approved for a card, which I greatly appreciate.)

22 Comments

  1. New Girl in the Air said,

    I have seen them add specific stores to the categories (similar to Lowe’s this quarter), but never change an entire category or remove anything. In the past, I believe I’ve seen Kohl’s & Amazon as the specific store additions.

  2. BothofUs2 said,

    This is good to know- I am glad they added a category for extra oppty to spend in the quarter. Btw, you wrote ‘Loews’ (theater/hotel chain) but I believe you meant ‘Lowes’ (home improvement stores).

  3. Mike said,

    Loews needs the business they reported a bad quarter ..

  4. The Miles Professor said,

    Excellent! Restaurants and movie theatres are a bit tough to maximize unless you are spending money specifically on restaurants and movie theatres. At least Lowe’s sells gift cards! :) 30,000 UR points this year for sure now!

  5. Gary said,

    @BothofUs2- hah I guess I am more travel-centric than home improvement-centric… fixed. :)

  6. Kadence said,

    Thanks Gary, you made my day! We are buying a new house and will be spending lots of $$ at Lowes!!

  7. Samuel said,

    This was probably a move by Chase to spite Discover, as Discover’s 2Q 5% category is home improvement (and at this point only home improvement).

  8. Leigh said,

    Of course they add Lowe’s after I just spent a bunch of money there this month. Oh well.

  9. Ben L said,

    This is cool. Thanks for the update. As an aside, I recently noticed my local Lowe’s sells variable (20-500) load Southwest gift cards. If you have a paid southwest flight coming up this year, this could be an easy way to get 5X UR points on top of the Southwest points and since it’s variable load only load the exact amount of your flights.

  10. caveman said,

    So I presume we can buy different stores gift cards from Lowes with chase freedom. Is that right?

  11. Steelsnow said,

    For those who will be using this for items other than gift cards, here’s a little 10% helper to make it a bit better…
    http://slickdeals.net/f/5878526-Lowe-s-10-Off-50-00-Project-Starter-Coupon-Printable-expires-5-18-2013

  12. Curtis said,

    I think both Chase Freedom and Discover have made additions to the bonus categories before from my memory.

  13. blue said,

    What is the definition of resturaunts? In new york we have lots of small family resturaunts and services like grubhub.com and delivery.com to order from. Do I get cash back in both use cases or only if I go to a pre-approved list of Olive Garden chains?

  14. Webazoid said,

    Does lowes sell amex or visa gc?

  15. 50,000 Southwest Points, SPG Promo Deadline, Freedom Bonuses, and More! - Mommy Points said,

    [...] View From the Wing points out that there has been an addition to the second quarter Chase Freedom® MasterCard and Chase Freedom® Visa 5x bonus categories of restaurants and movie theaters.  Now Lowe’s Home Improvement stores has joined the second quarter fun.  This is great for two reasons.  #1 Lots of us do home improvement in the spring anyway, so getting 5x will be a welcome bonus.  #2  In addition to standard home improvement items, anyone want to guess what is also sold at Lowes??  Also make sure you have activated your first quarter 5x bonus categories of drug stores, gas stations, and Starbucks by 3/14. [...]

  16. Liz H. said,

    Any idea whether places like Starbucks count for resturaunts? And if so, whether purchases need to be in store, or can be online?

  17. Dae said,

    Liz Starbucks probably counts since it’s counted as a restaurant for Chase Sapphire category.

  18. Samir said,

    For what it’s worth, found out tonight that the Chase Freedom Mastercard is also a World Mastercard and it does provide primary insurance coverage in countries that Visa & Amex don’t – including Ireland, Jamaica, and Israel. Call 1-800-MCASSIST to validate if you need to – but it’s legit.

  19. Savannah said,

    Does this mean we can double dip buying a lowes gift card online via the UR mall?

  20. Claire said,

    It’s because of the competition between Discover and Freedom since now both will have a 5x or 5% cash back home improvement option. I used Discover as my main card many years ago; now Freedom has taken its place and is doing its best to stay there. I just use Discover when they have a 5% category that no one else is running such as 5% restaurants this quarter.

  21. J said,

    Samir- thank you very much for that info!
    Gary – as long as I’m here, a general thank you for all the beneficial info, too! :)

  22. Eric said,

    FYI: Lowes 6% (1pt + 5 extra) has been available through the rewards mall for some time now. Along with many others. Only thing is that you have to purchase online and then go pickup.

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