New Chase Freedom Unlimited Signup Bonus Now Available Via Referral Links ($200 + 5% Grocery)

The new signup bonus offer on the Chase Freedom and Freedom Unlimited cards is now available via referral links. As previously reported, the new offer is $200 after spending $500, plus 5% back on your groceries during the first year (up to $12,000 in grocery spend). 

At time of this writing, referral links (even newly-generated links) show a message, “The offer your are attempting to access is no longer available, you will be redirected to the most current offer.” It then goes to the new $200 + 5%/$12,000 signup offer. I believe that still tracks for referral credit.

The ability to use referrals is the final bang to this new Freedom Unlimited signup offer, especially for those in 2-player mode, since it’s now $200 + 5%/$12,000 + bonus for referrer.

Unfortunately, it’s not currently possible to sign up for the Freedom card using a referral link – all referral links from both Freedom cards only go to the Freedom Unlimited signup. So if you want to sign up for the Freedom card, you’ll have to use a regular non-refer link. (You can also sign up for the Freedom Unlimited and subsequently product change to Freedom – I’m not sure if they make you wait a year before product changing from a no-fee card to a no-fee card.)

Hat tip to coole106

View Comments (46)

  • I referred my mom for CFU on 7/28/20. The 5x grocery deal was active by then, at least for new sign ups. Were referrals back then not eligible for the 5x grocery or something?

    She just got her statement (no 5x grocery awarded) and CSRs all say the 12mo 5x grocery is not connected/applied to her account.

    We called again today and they said they'd escalate it to the marketing dept for verification that it fell within the offer begin date. I believe the 5x grocery began on 7/24/20

  • If only Chase considered Wal Mart a grocery store (very few do, PenFed being a great example), I would consider getting this card, even though I already have the CF, Chase Ink, Chase Ink Unl, and Chase Amazon Pr. Still thinking hard about the Captiol One WM MC for it's initial year of 5% back in-store at WM.

    • Walmart Groceries (ie Pickup/Delivery) is considered a grocery purchase. Even if you order other things.

      • Chase EXPLICITLY lists Wal-Mart purchases as not qualifying for the category bonus. I have tried it for Walmart Online Grocery -- works for Amex, but not for Chase.

        • Dugroz Reports--Just to confirm--you are sure you have the recent 5% grocery sign up bonus, and tried an online order of Walmart Grocery Pickup, and it did not qualify? (Not just ordering groceries from walmart.com for mail order delivery)

        • Interesting DP. When the Sapphire got 3% in Grocery stores earlier this year, Walmart Grocery Pickup was coding as Grocery and I got the 3%. So they must treat it differently for this offer.
          I also remember someone writing that the quarterly 5% on the Freedom worked on Walmart Grocery Pickup, too.

          Amex explicitly lists Walmart as exclusion, too, as far as I remember. But Walmart Grocery works.

  • Just to make sure:

    Got CFU in April 2019 and (after reaching 20k spending cap for 3% bonus) product changed to CF in Dec 2019.

    So even if I qualify with 5/24 rule, I'd still need to wait 24 months till April 2021 to receive a new sign up bonus on the CFU, correct?

    • You would have to wait 24 months after you received the bonus. So if you got the card in April but didn't get the $200 bonus for $500 spend or whatever the signup bonus was at the time until May, you would have to wait until May 2021.

  • So I've had my Freedom Unlimited for over 10 years and barely learned that I can close it and reapply for this bonus. Should I refer someone with it first, get the referral bonus and then close it or will the new one allow me to refer immediately?

    • This is tough man. Feels like a wanna have your cake and eat it type of thing. You’re assuming the offer is going to last. Chase could pull the offer at the end of the month for all we know. But you can try this. Do the referral. Wait until the referral bonus is given to you. Then close the card. Reapply after 30 days. You should qualify. Better hope the offer is still live at that point. Otherwise do what the other person said, let the same person you referred send you a referral link.

      • Any clue how long it is after you have referred someone that they get the ability (i.e. the CFU referral email) to refer you back?

    • It is actually impossible to have your Freedom Unlimited for 10 years because this card wasn’t launched until 2016.

      • Product change won’t qualify him for new member signup bonus. It would be up to Chase’s discretion if they want to make an exception for him. Also, he says he has CFU. There is no downgrade option for CFU.

        • Product change to CF. Wait a week. Apply for CFU. If it's been >2 yrs since the SUB on the CFU then he is eligible. Or just apply for the Freedom and don't make it so complicated. The hoops people make themselves jump through.

    • There are some DPs including my own that state Chase's offer for (200 +5% on grocery for 12 month) will likely expire in mid September. You're better off doing the referral now. Then, the person you referred can refer you back to CFU after enough time has passed from the day you closed the card. I believe it is 90 days. Don't quote me on that though cause the amount of time to wait (90 days) between closing an account and re-opening a new one may apply to checking and savings accounts. I'm not entirely sure it applies to CCs as well.

      I dont know if you can close a chase card that is older than 24 months and reapply for the same card in less than 1 month and be eligible for the bonus. Perhaps someone who reads this post and has done it before might be able to answer that for you.

  • Ok. Round 3: back to SM to see if we can get a match up to the new offer. Previously 2 SM to ask for the 5x grocery spend was unsuccessful (p2 applied with P1 referral). Would love to hear some positive dp.

    • Did you ever get an answer? We've been told NO, and it looks like all the positive data points were for very early referrals. It's a really grey area and unfortunately we are stuck without the 5x on groceries.

      • I referred my mom for CFU on 7/28/20. The 5x grocery deal was active by then, at least for new sign ups. Were referrals back then not eligible for the 5x grocery or something?

        She just got her statement (no 5x grocery awarded) and CSRs all say the 12mo 5x grocery is not connected/applied to her account.

        We called again today and they said they'd escalate it to the marketing dept for verification that it fell within the offer begin date. I believe the 5x grocery began on 7/24/20

    • t-
      Anxious to hear how it goes. Got the CFU in May and I tried for 5X matches via SM, then calling customer service - total fails. Maybe this referral update will change things for us too.
      -Samuel

  • It shows "The offer your are attempting to access is no longer available", however, the remaining page has no 5% grocery offer, just 200 offer.