Update 8/6/22: It’s also possible to get $250 in branch, but there is no 5% back on gas purchases.
The Offer
Chase is offering an additional bonus on the Chase Freedom Flex and Chase Freedom Unlimited cards:
- Get the standard $200 sign up bonus after $500 in spend; in addition, the card will earn 5% cashback on Gas purchases in the first year, up to $6,000 in spend.
Card Details
Freedom Flex
- No annual fee
- Card earns the following points rates:
- 5% on rotating Quarterly Categories on up to $1,500 in total purchases (e.g. Q4 2020 will be PayPal and Walmart)
- 5% on Travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 3% on DiningÂ
- 3% on DrugstoreÂ
- 5% on Lyft through March 2022
- 1% unlimited cash backÂ
Freedom Unlimited
- No annual fee
- Card earns 1.5% cash back on all purchases
Our Verdict
Keep in mind while these cards talk about cash back you actually earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points. This means if you have an annual fee card such as Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Ink Plus or Chase Ink Preferred then you can transfer these points to travel partners. You could also use these points for the Chase Pay Yourself back feature to make them worth 1.5¢ each.
As noted, the standard bonus on these cards is $200, and the 5% back on Gas is an additional bonus. Until recently there was a similar offer for 5x back on Grocery Stores (up to $12,000), but that has now been discontinued. We mentioned this Gas offer version floating around in the past, and it now looks to be the standard new offer on Chase and on referral links so I thought it worth a dedicated post. There’s also an alternate offer for the Freedom Unlimited card, specifically, to get an extra 1.5x per dollar spent anywhere during the first year, up to $20,000 in spend. Which offer you choose will depend on your spend patterns and on what other cards you have.
Unfortunately a lot of readers won’t be eligible for these cards/bonus due to the Chase 5/24 rule. We will still be adding this to our list of the best credit card bonuses.
Anyone still finding the $250 offer in branch? Looks like people in the comments below confirmed getting it in August. It would have been helpful in response to my question in the other post here:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/in-branchchase-freedom-freedom-unlimited-250-bonus-5-back-on-groceries-up-to-12k-first-year/#comment-1411769
Last month someone replied saying the $250 was no longer available. Any contrasting data points?
If you do the preapproval via the app, do you still get the 5% groceries the first year?
Applied in branch. Offer was $250 bonus after spending $500. No 5% gas.
Is the purchase in the gas station convenience store (like groceries, or even giftcards) counted as gas purchase and qualified for the bonus?
I’ve got the Chase Freedom Unlmited card and it always counts gas station convenience store purchases under the Gas category for me.
I just signed up for the Freedom Flex, I would have waited and gone in branch if I’d known about the extra $50.
I buy my fuel at the commercial card lock station so I won’t use the 5% bennie. I know in the past at least the card lock gas has been cheaper for me than Costco with the 4%.
I had just downgraded my CSP and decided to apply for the FF, even though I was 5/24, and I was approved. The 5 was the Chase Amazon card with the instant $200 credit posted here during Prime Day last month.
Is anyone getting the stacked 9% with the Freedom flex? I have the Freedom flex, opened in march with 5% for one year on gas. this quarter have activated the quarterly bonus but my account activity only shows receiving 5% for gas.
I opened mine in June and I’m getting the stacked 9% on gas. Was it a promo back in March? I think it was only for new applicants and not existing card holders.
Yes , it had the gas promo when opened in March for 5% for a year. Guess I will call Chase to see if can get the 9%.
Are these two still considered two different products for getting the bonus?
I just got the Freedom Flex this year and I was wondering if I could get the CFU card and get the bonus.
Yes, Freedom Flex and CFU are two separate products and you’ll get the bonus with CFU
Thanks
They have ALWAYS been different products. Nothing STILL about them
I currently have a CFU active, can I PC that to a CF in order to get the CFU sign up bonus on a new card?
Chase’s SUB criteria is based on when you last received a bonus, not based on when you last held, closed, or PCed a card. All cards in the Freedom family are 24 months from last bonus.
Is there a place in the Chase app or on the website to see how much you have spent towards this gas benefit or the previous grocery benefit? I can find the quarterly tracker, but not one for this. I know I can just run through all of the transactions since sign up, but that will be tedious.
So math shows that unless you plan on spending $1000 on gas over the next 12 months (so $83+ a month) it’s better to get the in-branch offer then. Probably going to go for this, always nice to find out about these “secret” in-branch offers.
I think your math is off because the 5% stacks with the quarter that they offer gas as a category (9% I think combined) as well as the 1% or 1.5% for other purchases.
No, his math is good….any offer you can stack would be available either way. However, unless you don’t drive regularly or your gas stations don’t sell gift cards, I can’t imagine it would be hard for anyone to meet the 1k break even point.
$1000*5% is indeed $50, but that assumes you would get 0% on gas station purchases otherwise. Most people here get probably 1-3% and would give up that on some other card to get this 5%. Thus the additional benefit would be only 2-4%. At 4% additional benefit, the $50 equivalent would be $1250. At 2% additional benefit, the $50 equivalent would be $2500. Both of those are possible, depending on peoples driving or ability to find gift cards.
way to complicate things lol
i get 5.25% at costco gas (which is already 5-10% off non-costco) because BoA CCR + platinum honors
whats my best play?
CCR gas will work at any gas station, not just Costco, and the Freedom Unlimited will work at Costco (though not the Flex since it is MC), so I’ll ignore that caveat.
CCR has a quarterly limit of $2500 across all of the categories you choose for both the 3% (5.25%) and 2% (3.5%) categories and only lets you choose 1 out of the 6 options for each quarter. If you added a Freedom card with the 5% gas benefit, you could give up the extra 0.25% from your CCR and switch that to a different category (or a different category each quarter based on your needs) and move all your gas spending to the new Freedom card. This might be better if you have a home improvement project or a big online purchase and could switch to that category for one or more quarters. Or you could use all of the $2500 on the 2% (3.5%) option for grocery and wholesale clubs (which might be valuable since you already shop Costco). Entirely depends on your spending habits and if you have known upcoming expenses that you can plan around.