Registration is now live for the January – March 2021 period.
This is for both the legacy Chase Freedom and the new Freedom Flex.
As a fresher, the old Chase Freedom and the new Freedom Flex allow you to earn 5X Ultimate Rewards points on whatever the chosen categories are for that 3 month period. The limit is $1,500 in spend for the quarter per card, for a total of 7,500 Ultimate Rewards points on the spend.
In this article
Chase Freedom Family 1st Quarter 5X Bonus Categories
You can now register for the 1st quarter on your Chase Freedom or Freedom Flex. Both Chase Freedom Flex (including converted Freedom Flex cards) and Freedom cards will have access to these bonus categories which
- Wholesale Clubs
- Internet, Cable, & Phone Services
- Select Streaming Services
If you haven’t yet, you still have time to max out your 2020 4th Quarter categories: Walmart and PayPal. Even if you aren’t a Walmart shopper, you can use PayPal at a ton of places online. Worst case, you could pay $1,500 in estimated taxes using Pay1040Tax. You’d pay a fee of 1.96% and get back 5%, for a $46 profit. Again, that’s just if you can’t use it another way.
As for 1st Quarter 2021? If you shop at Costco, it’s a bit of a wrinkle. They only take Visa and the Freedom Flex is a Mastercard. (They also issue a Costco Anywhere Visa Card by Citi). If you have an old Chase Freedom, that’s a Visa and would work. Else, you can shop at BJs or Sams Club and get 5X in the 1st quarter.
Internet, Cable, and Phone is a category you could consider pre-paying several months to maximize your 5X. What’s nice is that the Freedom Flex DOES have cell phone protection, so you won’t be giving that up by moving your cell phone expenses to this card. Normally, these are your best credit cards for cable and internet (ranked by the value of each dollar spent in the category) and these are your best credit cards for your cell phone.
Streaming? Meh. How much could you possibly pay for streaming? And if it’s a lot, you should probably have one of the three cards that offer a nice bonus on streaming year round. Our best credit cards for streaming services include the Blue Cash Preferred Card (6X on streaming), the Wells Fargo Propel American Express Card (3X on streaming), and the US Bank Altitude® GO (2X on streaming).
How will you earn your 1st Quarter 5X bonus?
Let me know below in the comments, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group. And don't forget to follow me on Instagram for all sorts of tips on miles, points, credit cards, and travel.
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You can find credit cards that best match your spending habits and bonus categories at Your Best Credit Cards.
New to all of this? My “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available on Amazon and at major booksellers.
Any guesses on whether the Amazon Kindle gift trick will trigger the 5x multiplier? Worked great to trigger the Amex Platinum streaming bonus this year.