The Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex card 5x categories for the second quarter of 2023 have been revealed: Amazon.com, Whole Foods, and Lowe’s.
- Amazon.com:
- 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).
- Those who value Ultimate Rewards at more than 1 cent-per-point will prefer using the Freedom over the Amazon Prime 5% cashback card.
- Some people like simply reloading their Amazon balance (affiliate links in this post) in one shot for $1,500. Others will make the Freedom card their default payment method and use it organically throughout the quarter.
- Amazon also sells a wide (somewhat dwindling) selection of third-party gift cards, including Visa, which is another option for maxing this out.
- Whole Foods:
- Whole Foods is also included in the 5x category for this quarter, see this post for more information.
- Lowe’s:
- Includes purchases made at Lowe’s physical stores and Lowes.com (including a variety of goods and services provided by merchant).
- This should be popular for spring/summer home improvement. Lowe’s stores also sell a variety of gift cards, including Visa gift cards, which some people might spend on.
Tip: Click this link (login required) to check how far you are along the $1,500.
We still have until the end of the month to activate and finish up the Q1 2023 categories of Grocery, Target, and Fitness.
Update 4/17/23: Readers report messaging Chase and getting them to manually credit the 5x for Whole Foods purchases. (1, 2)
Update 4/5/23: Added note about Whole Foods
Update: note, some readers are saying Whole Foods isn’t actually working to get 5x. My guess is it got included in the fine print unintentionally, and they’ll probably end up honoring it when it’s brought to their attention.
My local Lowe’s no longer accepts credit cards for gift card purchases, at least according to the one cashier I tried. It worked in April, so either they’ve changed policy or the cashier was wrong.
Likely cashier specific
Gerald. Just bought some giftcards at Lowe’s back in May using my Freedom Flex. $500 giftcards require manager override but they still allow them to be purchased with a credit card.
Do you get 5% at another merchant if you use Amazon Pay
Terms and conditions say wholefoods is not included, this article led me astray
If you read it carefully you’ll see in the fine print that they are included https://creditcards.chase.com/freedom-credit-cards/merchants
I’m having a lot of hassle getting the 5% bonus for Whole Foods. They’re still “processing” and playing stupid. I had to submit TWICE now. Annoying…
I don’t want it just for my purchase but also for the rest of the quarter, as per agreed, and documented on their site.
So do you have to call Chase each time you make a Whole Foods purchase so that they would manually process it? That would be rather annoying and should be fixed in the system permanently.
Yeah I had to call the first time and they did it within a day or two, but still a hassle and had to also escalate to a supervisor. She told me that she would flag it and ensure it’s fixed. Next purchase for me a week later, and of course 1x only. Nothing fixed, at least for my account.
For me it’s worse. I should be getting 9% (year bonus of groceries). It’s halfway through April. Still waiting.
No I called. Talked to a supervisor who said it would be resolved after I gave proof of chase merchants and tractions information. Then they wanted me to go through secured messages and upload documents which I passed the same information again. Been a royal time wasting pain in the ass.
That is what I’m hoping for. I do not want to call each time and made that really clear.
Same with me. Called twice and was told the loyalty team hasn’t had a chance to look at it yet. It’s been 10 days.
I’m sure they’re excited to do so. “We would love to pay out more money.”
Yeah, but these companies make the offers – not us. We don’t call them and say, “Hey, how ’bout you give me 5% back on these type of purchases for the next three months?” They come up with the offers, they advertise them and then they don’t want to uphold what they promised to do.
^Woosh.
My purchase of CFF in whole foods only gets 1%.
same here and there’s no excuse as physical purchases at Whole Foods are clearly listed in the terms. C’mon Chase!
Question for the experts: can the variable “Golf” giftcard be used anywhere or is it restricted to certain merchants?
What type of “golf” gift card?
They’re prepaid MasterCard GCs. Was able to find the answer on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/128gfi9/comment/jenk3f2/?context=1
Can be used everywhere Mastercard is accepted from my experience unloading these:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/lowes-purchase-200-visa-giftcard-get-10-lowes-giftcard/#comment-1592898
My Whole Foods store is equipped with Amazon One terminals and the authorizations appear as Amazon transactions so I don’t believe that including Whole Foods as an Amazon was a mistake. There’s even a notice from Chase that the card was added to my Amazon One digital wallet.
Can I purchase make a Lowe’s.com purchase through Rakuten and not mess up 5% Chase reward? It’s a large purchase and I’m trying to stack what I can.
Going thru a cashback site doesn’t interfere with the way transaction is coded so you are good.
My Chase account still only list Lowes and Amazon for the Freedom bonus categories. I won’t be using it at WF.
Same, I do not see Whole Foods.
Not sure why so many people are quick to dismiss this quarter’s categories. Most in-stores will carry $500 Visa/MasterCard prepaid debit cards with a $5.95 activation fee (ranges between $3.95 to $6.95 depending on merchant).
If you earn 5% back on $505.95, you’ll earn $25.30 netting a profit of $19.35 making your gift card effectively a 3.8% cash back card which is great imo when you can use it anywhere that accepts Visa/MasterCard (I haven’t used a flat-rate cash back card in over a year because of this.) Some users may be afraid of losing their prepaid debit cards so consider prepaying utilities, insurance, taxes, etc. as soon as you complete the purchase. I’d advise users to take a picture of their receipt, front and back of the prepaid debit card, and saving those images to your phone just in case anything were to happen.
Personally, I value 5x UR points as greater than 7.5% (greater than 1.5 cpp) and as my local stores sell $500 prepaid debit cards with a $3.95 activation fee, this makes my prepaid debit cards effectively at least a 6.7% cash back card anywhere. No Citi Custom Cash, Amazon, Amex BCP, etc. is going to get me a cash back value like that.
Do most in-stores carry $500 gcs, though? My local Lowe’s doesn’t. I agree with your general point, and like you I haven’t used a cc for non-category spend in a long while because of it, but I’m finding this category harder to max out on than I anticipated.
I would check a little harder, they sell on MCGC variant with a gold theme on the front
Most of the time I’m able to utilize the quarterly categories somewhere that has $500 prepaid debit cards available. We just finished groceries last quarter which was easy to find. I have two Lowe’s nearby me but only one of them carried $500 prepaid “Golf” MasterCard debit cards at the bottom of the shelf (it’s not limited to Golf, might be a special edition). Try checking other locations!
Ink cards would get the same value if not more when OD/OM or Staples run fee-free promos.
I would pursue this if it weren’t for the fact that those promos are not valid in Hawaii!
Kyle808, my local stores sell $500 prepaid debit cards with a $3.95 activation fee,
Really, which store is that? Thanks buddy!
For last quarter’s grocery category, my local Foodland carries $500 prepaid (Vanilla gift) debit cards with a $3.95 activation fee.
For this quarter’s Lowe’s category, my local Lowe’s carries $500 prepaid (Golf MasterCard) debit cards with a $4.95 activation fee.
Nice. My Lowe’s only carries various $200 Visa cards.
Which Lowe’s? Town?
This was at the Lowe’s in Iwilei. Note that they have two gift card spots in-store so if you don’t see it on one, go to the other!
Both were near the cashiers; one near the mid-area and the other closer to the exit side by the tools.
I’ll have a look next time I go there. Mahalo!
All the GCs I see at Foodland are usually $4.95 but the Foodland Mkt. in Kahala opened up with $3.95 versions about two years ago. They’re located on the bottom row and it seems like I’ve been the only individual buying them since the quantity remains the same as my last visit every time (I’ve bought so many of them that some of the staff recognize me and don’t even ID me lol). Unsure if they plan to replenish the $3.95 version but hoping they do as there were only 3 remaining when I went last quarter, otherwise, it was a great run the past two years! $4.95 is still worth it imo though.
Good for you! Yeah 4.95 is still good. No complaints
Seems like a lot of work for small savings, not worth it, I will use on amazon if I need anything but otherwise its a wasted 3 months for me.
Kyle, I agree. This is an overlooked tip for those running a tight budget. I went back through my monthly payments to determine on which expenditures I am not receiving 5% cashback. There’s enough spend that this will be worthwhile for me to do. Thanks for the layout and the push.
Kyle808
The one thing you’re not considering is opportunity cost. Since you could easily earn 1.5% with normal spending, that 3.8% suddenly turns into 2.3% without all the hassle. Not to mention the chance of any breakage from loss or theft. There is also money and time spent driving to and from stores to get these cards. Then on top of that, your money is tied up all for making about $15. I mean I’m all for getting a big sign up bonuses for opening a new account, but this just seems like chump change.
@Kyle808 I want to echo what @Frank Rizzo said. A year ago, I’d be all over this. But now with rising interest rates and the increased fraud with VGCs this isn’t worth it. Take that $1,000 you are spending and put it in a 5% CD and you are better off in the long run, even with the travel goodies you can get with URs. Of course, to each their own, but just my two cents.
The market I purchase from is located in a relatively affluent area so there’s low risk of fraudulent VGCs being sold there (not to mention if you stand in front of the gift card section, it’s immediately in front of all 4 very-attentive cashiers waiting for you to check out.) I’m also sure I may be the only purchaser of these VGCs as the quantity available is easy to track as it seems to be whatever I saw last visit less what I purchased so I have not had any issues over the last two years. On that note, the turnaround time I use for these cards is pretty quick (usually within 24 hours) as I usually stop by and purchase them when I need it as the store is located within a minute walking distance. I have had a VGC go missing once and the customer service was superb as they actually froze the VGC for me and reissued a new one on the spot. That being said, thank you for your concern as I’m sure other locations may not be as friendly!
My checking account earns 5% APY (for those of you in Hawaii, check out HawaiiUSA FCU’s eLife checking account and DoC’s Amazon 50-cent reload hack). I utilize my CC to earn 5%+ from purchasing the GCs then pay it off with the 5% APY checking account so this method has proven to be worth doing vice placing it into a 5% CD.