Free Money Finance Reader Could Earn Up to 50% More Using Chase Freedom Credit Card

Here's a comment left on my post titled Details on Chase Freedom Credit Card (Plus $50 Bonus):

Thanks to your earlier blog on this card, I was able to "trade" my old regular Chase card to a Freedom Rewards card you describe above. I should be receiving my card any day now and will use it as my primary card as soon as it comes. I went back and recomputed a couple months of my old Citibank dividend card bills and would have earned about 25-30% more each month, and that's not even figuring in the additional fast food and utilities that I will charge on the cards when they come. I suspect I might earn up to 50% more a month with this card. So I guess that's a long way of saying "Thanks, FMF".

I LOVE comments like this! This is what Free Money Finance is about -- helping people earn more, save more, and manage what they have in a way that helps them grow their net worth! Thanks for sharing this, Kevin.

Just to be clear, I think the best way to earn the most on cash back credit cards involves a hybrid approach using both the Blue Cash from American Express card and the Chase Freedom Cash Visa Card. I've been a Blue Cash user for years (it earned me almost $500 last year) but I've applied for the Chase Freedom card and plan to use the hybrid strategy in the future.

Comments

[Kevin]

You're welcome. I received my card last week and have already started using it quite a bit. I'll try to remember to post an update after I get my first statement, comparing the rewards from Chase vs. Citibank Dividend.

[Kaleb]

Kevin,

Did Chase allow you to "upgrade" your card to the Freedom Card? I have a Dividends Platinum Select from Chase and it would be sweet if I didn't have to open a new credit account, but instead just upgrade.

[Kevin]

Kaleb,

Chase did allowed me to "trade" cards. My old Chase card had no rewards to start with. All it took was an email to customer service using the messaging center on their website (after logging in to my account). I did mention in my email it would be my primary card if I was upgraded and told them I would probably charge about $1,000 a month on it (to give them incentive to switch me.)

The only thing I had to do was request a credit line increase to get it over $5,000 so I could get the "Signature" card. But even that just took another email to customer service and by the next morning I had the credit line increase.

You want the Signature card because it is the one that switches categories every month based on spending patterns. The non-signature has set categories that will not change.

Oh, and I was assigned a new card number with the Freedom card, but that to me was no big deal.

[Kaleb]

(Thanks a bunch Kevin!)

A word of caution to everyone... this Chase Freedom card has a MINIMUM interest rate of 18%... if something happens and you have to keep a balance, it's going to hurt! Of course, keeping a balance is not the point of getting this card.

I have a Chase rewards card now and the interest rate is 8.99%, so I will hold of "upgrading" until I pay this balance off this year.

-Kaleb

[Kevin]

Kaleb -

My purchases rate is 7.99% fixed, which I think carried over from my other card. Not sure why they told you 18% minimum. Not that it matters since I pay it off every month.

Probably a smart move for you to wait until it's paid off though.

Good luck!

[Doug]

So speaking of the Amex Blue + Chase Freedom combo, I've received both in the last month. Given that there are fewer than three months left in the year, an important question arises on how to manage the two.

The Amex requires that you have $6,500 in annual spending before the 3%/1.5% level kicks in. My assumption is that this is based on calendar year, which would mean that it just isn't worthwhile to use that card until January for anything but Gas/Groceries/Drugstores. However, if the reset is from the time you started using it, then it makes sense to go ahead with it.

Does anyone who has had the Blue Cash card for a while know when it resets?

[FMF]

Doug --

Here's what their site says:

"Your Rebate is awarded annually for each Rebate Year (12 consecutive billing periods)."

I always thought it was based on calendar year but it appears I was wrong. I guess since I got mine in January, it doesn't really matter to me.