In April, I offered an alternative to way to maximize the Chase Freedom Second Quarter 5x without eating out.
For background information: The Chase Freedom offers 5x Ultimate Rewards points on up to $1,500 in spending each quarter at select merchants, or merchant categories (see below):
Just for fun, I tried the two different strategies with my 2 Chase Freedom cards.
For one, I went all in and got $1,600 worth of Visa Gift Cards from Bed Bath and Beyond.
For the second one, I just used it for restaurants. I found it particularly interesting, that in the first month and a half of the quarter, I’ve spent $777 on restaurants. I didn’t expect it to be that high, to be honest, but there were a couple contributing factors. The biggest contributing factor was that my wife and I were able to travel to see my mother for her birthday, and so, we had a few nice meals out. Other than that though, pretty run of the mill.
So where are you with your Chase Freedom 5x?
I’m done. I did it with reselling, but I should have bought the items with discount gift cards. I have a hard time leaving ultimate rewards points on the table even when I can make more another way. Pretty irrational.
@Oren – Nice! I kind’ve look at some of these quarterly opportunities and minimum spend thresholds as the easy MSing… I haven’t typically knocked either out with reselling, believe it or not. I did try this quarter with Bed Bath and Beyond, but it ended up being more of a pain than it was worth.
It’s a great idea, but a $7 fee for a $200 card is just too high for me to deal with liquidation. I’ve never been into buying $200 cards on Chase Ink at office supply stores at full price. To each his own.
It’s not a big deal but I think the math on the VGCs at Bed Bath says that getting the last $51.35 ($1,500 – ($206.95 x 7)) by buying a whole 8th GC isn’t really worth it. You end up with 400 or so UR for $6.95. Might as well buy two micofiber tablecloths (with coupons) or something. 🙂
@Miles – you’re completely right on the last VGC. A better path would be as you say, or, just get 7 and call it a day.
I’ve spent maybe $75. 5X on 1500 worth of overpriced stuff isn’t worth the squeeze when I can get 5X and free cashback at office supply stores. I’ll dust off the Freedoms again in July.