Highlights of why I use my Chase Freedom everyday:
- Ultimate Rewards
- 1 point for every dollar spent
- 10 points for every transaction
- 10% of the purchase in points
- No fees
To get the 10 points for every transaction and 10% of the purchase in points, you must have a Chase checking account. The basic checking account has a fee of $12/month unless:
No Monthly Service Fee*
- With monthly direct deposits totaling $500 or more made to this account.
- OR with a $1,500 minimum daily balance
- OR, with an average daily balance of $5,000 or more in linked deposits/investments
The easiest way in my opinion is to have the direct deposit. Otherwise, option 2, of $1,500 minimum balance is best.
For instance, a purchase of $180 will net 100 + 10 + 18 for a grand total of 128 points.
Every quarter, Chase offers 5% for certain categories at $1500 max purchase. For Q4 of 2012, Hotels, airlines, Best Buy, and Kohl’s are the categories. Hotels and airlines must be booked directly, so straight from Hilton or United, not through hotels.com or travelocity.com. If you hit the $1500 max, you would get $75 back in Ultimate Rewards in which you can redeem for cash.
Let’s look back at the other 3 quarters at www.chase.com/freedom
If you order a lot of product from Amazon, 5% cash back could have been had. I actually had to put away my Amazon credit card for the first quarter. For every dollar purchase you get 3 points per dollar on the Amazon card. Obviously 5 points to the dollar is more than 3. The quarters, depending on your shopping categories can be great.
