Chase Freedom Flex

Chase offers two no annual fee credit cards that earn Ultimate Rewards points: the largely straight-forward Freedom Unlimited and the more complicated, but potentially more rewarding, Freedom Flex. Like the Freedom Unlimited, the Freedom Flex is marketed as a cashback card, but actually earns UR points that can be redeemed for 1 ¢/point by themselves.

The disclaimer for this post is that I personally am not a big fan of cards that have rotating categories. Although I do carry several cards with me and split my spending between them based on bonus categories, I generally do not like to change my cards each quarter because of a card’s feature, rather than an addition to my strategy that I implemented myself.

I provide the information here just to give readers a vague idea if the rewards offered by the card might make sense for them to consider the card.  All information should be confirmed with the card company before applying.

Welcome Offer

The Chase Freedom Flex currently has a welcome offer of $200 (20 000 Chase points) after spending $500 in the first 3 months.  In addition, at the time of posting, it also offers 5% cashback (5x points) on groceries purchases for the first year (on up to $12 000 of spend). If the groceries purchases offer is maximized, that’s worth an extra $600 (60 000 Chase points), but maximizing that offer might prove difficult. 

Earnings

The gimmick of the Freedom Flex is that it earns 1% cashback (1x points) on all spending and 5% back in categories that rotate each quarter.  In 2022, Q1’s 5% category was groceries; Q2 was Amazon and streaming services; Q3 was gas stations, car rentals, movie theaters, and ‘select’ live entertainment; Q4 is Walmart and PayPal.

Interestingly, at the end of 2021, Chase added a few bonus categories to the card.  The card earns 5% cashback (5x points) on travel booked through the Chase Portal.  It also earns 3% cashback (3x points) on drug store purchases and on dining, which is awesome for a no annual fee card.  These bonus categories largely match and overlap with the Freedom Unlimited, Sapphire Preferred, and Sapphire Reserve cards.

So, what the key difference? The CSP and CSR let points be redeemed for 1.25 ¢/point and 1.5 ¢/point, respectively, towards travel and/or lets the points be transferred to transfer partners, such as United, British Airways, or Hyatt. 

The major drawback of the Freedom Flex is that it has a 3% foreign transaction fee, which is not uncommon for no annual fee cards. 

Benefits

The main benefit for this card is the cashback/points it offers.  As is standard for a no annual fee, non-co-branded card, the benefits are a bit light by itself.  However, when combined with a Sapphire (Preferred or Reserve) card, the benefits of the Freedom Flex grow substantially.  Specifically, the points earned through the Freedom Flex card can be moved to your Sapphire card and then redeemed as if they were earned on the Sapphire card.  The ability to move the points around is why the nuance of the Freedom Flex earning points instead of straight cashback is key to its value proposition. 

How to use the points

The simplest way to use Ultimate Rewards Points is to redeem them for a statement credit at a rate of 1 pt = 1¢ for any purchase.  However, the major benefit of this card is that these points can be redeemed at a rate of 1 pt = 1.25¢ or 1.5¢ towards travel through the Chase Portal.  Realistically, this is the minimum value points from this card should be redeemed for.  Redeeming the points this way has the big plus of the tickets counting as revenue tickets for the purpose of earning redeemable and tier qualifying points on the airline.

A more advanced technique is to transfer the Chase points to one of the transfer partners (e.g. British Airways, United, or Hyatt), which can unlock more value out of the points.  Based on how I’ve redeemed transferrable points in the past, I peg the value of Chase points at around 1.5¢/pt on average when used to book award travel (which doesn’t earn tier qualifying points).

Examples of using the card

Usually, I include a chart here to compare a budget in a given month (e.g. for the Freedom Unlimited). However, and this may speak to my general lack of interest in rotating category cards, my traditional way of presenting budget examples doesn’t work for a rotating categories card.

Is this credit card right for you?

If you combine this card with a Sapphire card, it unlocks the possibility of earning 5x points on different categories throughout the year. However, I’m not fully convinced on its utility because sometimes the categories are hard to maximize. I’m also not big on keeping track of rotating categories, even if it only changes 4x/year. That being said, if you’re willing to put in a little more work, this card can offer some of the best cashback/points earning opportunities within the Chase network.

Given that the Freedom Flex has no annual fee, the card is, however, a good one to hold onto for the long-term to maintain a long credit history and help maximize your credit score.