Update 3/15/24: Two things have been officially confirmed to us through Chase media channels:
- Amazon and Whole Foods are both included in the 5% category. “The Amazon.com category includes purchases made at Amazon.com (including digital downloads, Amazon.com Gift Cards, Amazon Fresh orders, Amazon Prime subscriptions, and items sold by third-party merchants through Amazon.com’s marketplace) and Whole Foods Market (including physical Whole Foods Market and Whole Foods Market 365 stores, and the website accessible at
www.wholefoodsmarket.com). The Amazon.com category does not include (i) purchases from merchants using Amazon Pay, (ii) purchases made at international Amazon retail sites…(iii) purchases made at international Whole Foods Market sites, (iv) purchases of Whole Foods Market or Whole Foods Market 365 products or services through third-party sites such as Eventbrite, Instacart, Google Express and Shipt, (v) online purchases of Whole Foods Market or Whole Foods Market 365 gift cards (including through buyatab.com), event tickets or classes, (vi) purchases from certain third-party vendors operating at Whole Foods Market sites, (vii) purchases of massage services at any Whole Foods Market site, or (viii) purchases from Spa@Ink, in each case in Amazon’s sole discretion. - Chase also wanted to highlight to their customers that, “This quarter is particularly exciting for Freedom Flex cardmembers, who can stack quarterly cash back offers on top of always-on cash back to earn 9% total cash back on hotel stays booked through Chase Travel and 7% total cash back on restaurants”
Original Post 3/14/24 (now updated)
Chase released the 5% categories on the Freedom and Freedom Flex cards for the second quarter of 2024:
- Restaurants – Restaurants is always a useful category. Those who have the Freedom flex card always earn 3x on Restaurants; this quarter you’ll earn 7x (1x base point + 2x Flex bonus + 4x quarterly category bonus).
- Hotels – Nice for spring/summer travel. Hotels stays booked through Chase Travel always earn 5x on the Freedom Flex card and so it will now earn 9x for hotel stays booked via Chase Travel (1x base point + 4x Chase Travel bonus + 4x quarterly category bonus).
- Amazon – Some people will value 5x Ultimate Rewards even more than 5% back which Prime members get on their Amazon Prime Visa card. You can also reload up your Amazon balance (that’s an affiliate link) with $1,500 and spend it down after the quarter is over.
- Whole Foods – Grocery store deals are always nice. You can usually buy third party gift cards at Whole Foods stores as well.
These are not yet showing publicly, but they already appear in the Chase login. They’ll show at the public link in a few hours, presumably.
Today, 3/14/24, is also the final day to activate the Q1 2024 categories.
Is there a Q3 thread?
Gas stations, EV charging, Live Entertainment, Movie theaters.
https://www.chasebonus.com/
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/q3-2024-5-quarterly-categories-activate-offers-suggestions-freedom-flex-discover-dividend-cash-more/
For anyone interested, an in-store Amazon Fresh counted towards this quarter’s bonus:
Rewards earned with this transaction:
400.00: Bonus for 2Q 5% cat: Amazon
100.00: 1% (1 Pt)/$1 earned on all purchases
500.00: Total points
Had a Chase offer that was expiring soon for 10% off Amazon Fresh purchases (max $10).
Possible dumb question here, but how come the chase “5% category” only gives 4%? Why not just brand it as 4%.
Shouldn’t it be 500 points (5%) + 100 (1% standard) for a total of 600 points if they are claiming a 5% category.
No. The 5% is the 1% normal rate plus the 4% bonus rate. Discover does it the same way.
Then they’d advertise 6%. It’s listed as the total cash back percentage.
Just like how Amex Blue Cash offers 3% grocery, 2% gas, 1% everywhere else, Chase offers 1% and periodic 5% categories.
Anyone know of a workaround I can use to maximize the 9x Chase Travel or 7x restaurants categories if I don’t have any travel spend this quarter, or don’t spend much on restaurants?
Cracker Barrel
Flights booked through Chase Travel are triggering the Q2 5% hotel category. Just got 9% on my $1500 Delta flights on my Freedom Flex, seems I’m already done for the quarter.
Got the email on this today.
How long after you activate does the category kick in? Is there a delay, or is it instant? I may order some stuff Monday or Tuesday, so if I activate now, will it work?
No delay. Effective when the new quarter starts.
Seems they removed Whole Foods, now its just Amazon.com.
They also clarified Amazon.com so that might mean that Amazon Fresh stores aren’t included.
Wait, what is the Freedom Flex bonus? I did a Google search but didn’t see it mention on the Chase product page. I only 3x for restaurant, as an example.
See this link.
https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/freedom/CFDFlex224?CELL=6D4C&jp_cmp=cc/Freedom+Flex_Brand_Exact_Freedom+Flex_SEM_US_NA_Standard_NA/sea/p65638639984/Freedom+Flex&gclid=7de899dbc73e11bacbc6fc2385cd29ed&gclsrc=3p.ds&msclkid=7de899dbc73e11bacbc6fc2385cd29ed
Despite all the detail that Chase provided, they didn’t mention whether it works at Amazon Fresh brick and mortar stores.
Does the 7% math apply to the original Freedom as well, or only the Flex?
Only Flex
Is there any downside to converting to the Flex card? I have three original Freedom cards and never converted to them, but it seems like I should.
The only downside is that the card will change from a Visa to a MC so you won’t be able to use it at Costco or any other places where only Visa is accepted.
Other than that, there is really no advantage that I can think of that the CF has over the CFF.
Thanks. I did not realize that they are only MC’s. Will convert one and leave the others as Visa.
Every once in a while the OG Freedom shines when the 5% category is Wholesale Clubs and you can use it to buy discounted gift cards at Costco.
You can easily get your OG Freedom product changed to Freedom Flex – I just changed mine in anticipation of Q2 bonuses
one way street. you can always get both, including both signup bonus’… but you cant get the OG freedom anymore i believe. usually when doing a conversion you dont earn the signup bonus since youre not signing up. bank of america is an exception to this rule ive experienced.
Any update on the Pay Yourself Back feature on Ink Premier? Currently, 1.25 % on Charitable contributions through 3/31 – haven’t seen anything better in a while.
Chase seems to wait until the very last moment to update PYB.
Yea, I’ll just go to cash back if there isn’t anything juicy. With interest rates at 5%, no point leaving my 100k balance from the SUB sitting there any longer.