Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Nice Sign-Up Bonus on a Credit Card Worth Considering - Chase Freedom

Full disclosure, as you will read below, this one has the potential to benefit me.  But I'd only want you to do it if you think it's a good deal for YOU.  Read more ...

I haven't directly spent too much time talking about credit cards on this blog YET, but they can be a great source of deals (especially for travel), and are a KEY component to making sure you're always getting the best deal (look back at the series of blog postings I most recently posted between October 2nd through 6th of this year).

One card that is arguable worth everyone having is the Chase Freedom.  I'll give you a few highlights.  NO annual fee.  Pays you back 1% on most purchases (NOT a great deal - you should be doing better!!), but pays you AT LEAST 5% back on rotating quarterly categories (for example, this quarter it is 5% off at Amazon, Zappos, and select department stores - great for Christmas shopping).

CURRENT DEAL:  If you sign up for a Chase Freedom right now, you get 20,000 Ultimate Reward points (after spending at least $500 in the first 3 months), and an extra 2500 points for signing up a secondary card holder (such as your spouse).  These 20,000 (or 22,500) points are worth at least $200 (or $225) in a statement credit.  The usual publicly-available offer for this deal is to get only 10,000 points (or $100).

Why might you not want to get the card?  Besides the standard disclaimers (like HERE), Chase arguably offers a lot of other better cards - and a person is limited to the total number of Chase cards he/she can have (but it's a pretty big number).  Most (or all?) of those other cards have an annual fee, so this is a good/free one to get and keep forever.  And take advantage of the rotating 5% quarterly bonus.

Final note, I mentioned that the 5% bonus is an "AT LEAST" proposition.  That is because you earn Ultimate Reward (UR) points with Chase that are worth at least 5% back in the form of a statement credit.  That is the only option you have (statement credit) if you only have a Chase Freedom card.  But an ADVANCED MOVE is available if you have a Chase Ink or Sapphire Preferred card (ask me about it or I'll discuss another day).  If you have those cards, you can transfer the UR points generated on your Freedom card to your Ink or Sapphire card, where you can use those UR points for other travel-related uses that are worth well in-excess of one penny per point (and thus makes the 5% earned on the Freedom worth more than 5%).

HERE is one place you can read more (my favorite travel/deals blogger).

IF YOU DECIDE TO SIGN UP FOR THE CARD, I'd certainly appreciate it if you'd sign up using THIS LINK.  If you do, I get 5000 UR points ($50 - corrected, previously incorrectly said 10000/$100).  While that would be swell, I certainly would only want you to sign up for this (or any other card) if it makes sense FOR YOU!


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