Chase Freedom Q4 2023 Quarterly Categories – PayPal, Wholesale Clubs, Select Charities

The Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex card 5x categories for the fourth quarter of 2023 have been revealed within the Chase login. The categories will show officially and will be live for activation beginning tomorrow, September 15th, at this link:

  • Paypal – Should work for any purchase via Paypal. This is always a easy and useful category given that many/most online retailers accept Paypal, e.g. Walmart, Target, Best Buy, etc.
    • I sometimes pay my taxes with a credit card via Paypal to trigger this category, read more about paying taxes with a credit card in this post.
    • Some people might find it worthwhile to swallow the 2.9% Paypal fee and max out this category by paying family or friends with their Freedom card.
    • You can also do your year-end charitable giving with Paypal payments on many charities, or to almost any charity with Paypal Giving Fund.
    • Readers note that if you use the Freedom Flex via Paypal at Dining or Drugstores you’ll end up getting 7x due to the extra 2x bonus the card has on those categories.
  • Wholesale Clubs – Should work for Costco, Sam’s Club, etc.
    • Bear in mind, Costco in-club only accepts Visa cards; online you can use Mastercard as well, and you can even order Costco Cash cards for use in-club. Also note, gas at Costco will not work to earn the 5x; the workaround is to buy Costco Cash cards in-club and use those to purchase gas.
    • You can buy Sam’s Club gift cards at the club or online which can then be used at Walmart or Walmart.com or Walmart gas. (Or you can buy Walmart e-gift cards from Paypal Digital Gifts which also earns 5x as part of the Paypal category.)
    • Some wholesale clubs sell third-party gift cards or even Visa gift cards.
  • Select Charities – we’ll have to wait to find out what’s included for this

Tip: Click this link (login required) to check how far you are along the $1,500.

We still have until the end of today (9/14/23) to activate the Q3 2023 categories of Gas Stations, EV Charging, Live Entertainment, and until the end of the month to use up the $1,500 allotment there and at the other Q3 category cards.
    Chuck
  • On September 14, 2023, 09:57
Tags: chasechase freedomchase freedom flexquarterly categories

View Comments (151)

  • Has anyone been able to get Shell Fuel Rewards and PayPal to work this quarter? I've done it in the past and it worked flawlessly. This time around, when I try to pay with Fuel Rewards > PayPal at the pump via the FR app, it is throwing error after error. First, "Payment declined". Then "Purchase Limit Exceeded" (probably from trying too many times).

    I called Chase; they say no blocks on their side. I called Fuel Rewards and then Shell; colossal waste of time.

    Removed PayPal from FR and then re-added it as a payment method. Tried again later at another station and still a no-go.

  • Has anyone found a way to split a large bill payment (insurance, property taxes) on PayPal Pay Bills between two different cards to maximize quarterly cashback? My property tax bill is around $3,000. Chase's quarterly purchase limit for cashback is $1,500 per card, so I would like to put half on each card. The taxing county doesn't allow payment of the property tax bill in two separate payments/checks/credit cards, BUT, if PayPal would pay it as a single payment and spread it across two Chase cards, that would work. I don't think it's possible, but just in case anyone has found a way?

    (When I get my property tax bill in a couple of weeks, I will be the data point I wish to see.)

  • Many thanks for this heads-up my friend. I've got 3 OG F5's + 1 Flex. Easy 30K UR's

    I'll probably try to max all 4 cards, via 1040 ES payments. If I hit a "velocity limit", my local Sam's club still has $20-$500 VGC's that should still work BAU at wally-world so it should be all good.

    • From what I can see and tried, Google Pay will only use your PayPal balance to fund a transaction, not a credit card linked to it. Additionally, you can't fund your PayPal balance with your credit card so I don't think this strategy works.

      Is there something I'm missing?

      • I successfully added PayPal to my Google Wallet but I haven't actually used the combo at a point-of-sale, so maybe I have this wrong. I can tell you that I don't have a balance in my PayPal account and I don't have a bank account linked to my PayPal account, so I'm not sure; I'll have to give it a try. I apologize for the waste of time if this method is a no-go. @guest_1694802

        EDIT: Per comments on Reddit, it appears that this used to work but you can no longer use a linked credit card => PayPal => Google Wallet.

  • The "Select Charities" list is now available: American Red Cross; Equal Justice Initiatives; Feeding America; Habitat for Humanity; International Medical Corps; International Rescue Committee; Leadership Conference Education Fund; NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; National Urban League; Thurgood Marshall College Fund; United Negro College Fund; UNICEF USA; United Way; World Central Kitchen; GLSEN; Out and Equal; Sage.

    I'm a little underwhelmed. Of the half dozen or so charities I regularly contribute to, only one is on the list. Sure, one or two are tiny charities no one has ever heard of, but several of them are big, well-known charities that I would have expected to be on this list.

  • I recently converted my CSP, Frdm UL to Old Freedom visa card. Loving this offer and plan to use fullest. Probably will buy GC near the end to hit max limit.

  • @chucksithe,

    You might want to add a note to the post that BJ's sells $500 Visa gc. That might of use to some people.

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