If you have a Chase Freedom Flex, you can earn 7x Chase Ultimate Rewards points on up to $1,500 in food delivery (or takeout / pickup) through the end of the year. You’ll need to jump through one hoop first, though.
In this article
Freedom Flex 4th Quarter Bonus Categories are PayPal and Walmart
Of course, you’re wondering how, as there is no promotion from Chase for this. The rotating Chase Freedom categories for the 4th quarter of 2020 are PayPal and Walmart – and those would only earn 5X anyway, right?
The answer lies in something called PayPal Key.
PayPal Key: Quick Overview
Assuming you already have a PayPal account, all you need to do is signup for PayPal Key. PayPal Key lets you link any credit card to a virtual credit card number on PayPal (called PayPal Key). When you signup, make sure the checkbox is not checked to use your PayPal balance. You want to select your Chase Freedom Flex card.
You’ll then be given a virtual credit card number to save. You can’t use this in person… only online. Save this information somewhere secure.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card LIMITED TIME OFFER: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. Plus, get up to $300 in Chase Travel statement credits in the first year of account opening for any purchases made on Chase Travel. How to apply for this offer.
How PayPal Key Stacks Bonus Earnings on Freedom Flex
My next move was to put this virtual card number into all of my food delivery apps… Seamless, GrubHub, Caviar, DoorDash, Delivery.com, etc.
Whether I use one of these apps for food delivery or takeout to pickup, as long as the payment is processed on this virtual credit card account number (the PayPal Key), it gets processed as a PayPal charge, triggering this quarter’s 5X PayPal category.
But Chase *also* picks up the underlying bonus category – dining – and adds the extra 2X points per dollar for dining. If you are wondering why this is 7X and not 8X (5X + 3X), that is because the bonus categories are actually +4X for PayPal and +2X for dining in addition to the base 1 point per dollar. You don’t get that base point twice, so it’s 7X total.
Caveat
My assumption is that this is by design. The PayPal Key should pick up the bonus category of the merchant and pass that on. And PayPal is a Chase Freedom Flex 4th Quarter bonus category. That said, it’s always possible that it isn’t intended to give both bonus categories, so there’s no guarantee that this continues to work.
Either way, this is yet another example of how powerful the new Chase Freedom Flex card is, even just with the 3X earning rate on dining with no annual fee.
Thoughts?
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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.
