Did the credit card world need another contender? Apparently, yes. Chase, with the new Freedom Flex card, is bringing premium features typically only reserved for $450 a year cards to a card with no annual fee, and making rewards easier to understand.
If you’re considering applying for the card, there are a few things worth knowing about how you earn points, how you can spend points, and a few card perks which can save you huge money each year before making a decision, so here’s everything you need to know about the Chase Freedom Flex.
Chase Freedom Flex Overview
If you need airport lounge access, and luxury travel or lifestyle perks, this isn’t the best card for you. If, however, you like maximizing your points or cash back earnings on all your everyday purchases like groceries, drugstores, dining and travel booked through Chase, you’d seriously struggle to find a better offering.
Add in the fact that the Chase Freedom Flex offers all of these things without an annual fee, and you actually won’t find a better entry level rewards card.
The Chase Freedom Flex is a card that fits easily into your wallet, because it costs nothing to stay there, and allows you to earn 5X points on many purchases where other cards only offer 1-3X. And though there’s no annual fee, the card still manages to offer money saving perks which anyone with a mobile phone can benefit from.
On its own, Freedom Flex a brilliant cash back card, but paired with a premium card from Chase, like the Sapphire Preferred, which has a limited time 80,000 point bonus, or the Sapphire Reserve, you can convert any points earned from the Freedom Flex into lucrative ultimate rewards points, which can be transferred to airlines and hotels.
In other words, your 5X earning could mean 5X Hyatt, Virgin Atlantic, United or other points, if you have one of these cards.
Chase Freedom Flex Earning Rates
There’s rarely a better time to get a card than when it first launches. Why? Because banks go out of their way to to make their latest products shine. With the new Chase Freedom Flex, that means additional 5X earnings for the first year.
Here’s how the new Chase Freedom Flex earns, in your first year and thereafter..
- 5X on select categories each quarter. This quarter is Paypal and Walmart. The Freedom Flex caps earning to $1500 per quarter, but that’s $75 cash back, or 7,500 points if maxed out each quarter for annual earnings of $300 or 30,000 points.
- 5X on groceries (US only) for the first year. To make a big statement upon entry into the credit card market, Chase is offering 5X on groceries for your first 12 months, up to $12,000 total. That’s up to $600 cash back, or 60,000 points in your first year if maxed out properly.
- 5X on all travel booked through Chase Travel. This is huge, because Chase Travel is powered by Expedia, which means you have access to most airfare, car rentals and hotels you would buy elsewhere anyway. Earning 5X makes this no annual fee card more powerful than many $500 a year cards.
- 3X on dining, take out and delivery. Whether you’re always out on the town or just like your Pad Thai delivered, earning 3X points is super solid, and matches earning on Chase’s own Sapphire Reserve, and is just a point below Amex Gold, the best in class card for dining.
- 3X on pharmacies and drugstores. Scrubbing your hair with good shampoo feels better when you’re earning 3X points on all drugstore purchases to buy it. Chase Freedom Flex is now one of the few cards which actually rewards spend on every day items at drugstores.
- 1X on everything else. With Chase Freedom Flex, you’re always earning at least 1 point per dollar spent, wherever you are. For spending where you’re earning just 1X with Chase Freedom Flex, you may be better off pulling out another card with a higher earning rate, but it’s good to earn on everything.
Chase Freedom Flex Additional Card Perks
With no annual fee, it’s hard to expect much in the way of perks from a card, but Chase found a few clever ways to kit out the Freedom Flex with things everyone can benefit from, whether they’re big travelers or never travel at all. Think: faster delivery, and the what if’s for what happens to your mobile phone.
$1000 Annual Mobile Phone Coverage
If you’re prone to dropping a phone, or have had phones stolen, Freedom Flex’s $1000 annual phone coverage is superb. You can claim up to $1000 back in a year, and up to $800 per claim in the event that your phone is damaged, or stolen, so long as you pay your mobile phone bill, with Freedom Flex.
With just a $50 deductible and up to two claims per year, it could be all the difference in crying over a broken phone, and not worrying about it.
Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver
If you charge the entire cost of a car rental to your Chase Freedom Flex Mastercard, you’ll be able to benefit from collision damage waivers, which act as a secondary supplement to your primary coverage. This allows you to decline the rental company’s collision insurance, which can add up if you rent frequently over the year.
Collision damage waiver coverage is something you don’t want to have to use, ever, but it’s nice that Freedom Flex has it.
Trip Cancellation And Disruption Insurance
If your trip is cut short because of severe weather, health problems or other covered issues, Chase Freedom Flex covers each passenger who up to $1,500, for up to $6,000 per trip. The coverage applies only if you use your card to charge nonrefundable travel to the card for the trip, typically including flights and hotels.
This coverage can be huge in the increasingly weather impacted travel world, and also as the world grapples with the current pandemic.
There are a variety of other solid benefits too.
Big Welcome Bonus On Chase Freedom Flex
No annual fee cards tend to offer the least attractive welcome bonuses, which makes fair sense. You’re not paying anything to get the card, per say, so why should they give you something just for getting it?
Well, Chase is extending the olive branch anyway, offering a $200 welcome bonus, which could also be 20,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points if you have a premium card like Sapphire Reserve, or Sapphire Preferred in addition to Freedom Flex.
Basically, it’s $200 cash back after just $500 in spending for everyone, or 20,000 points after $500 in spending if you have an Ultimate Rewards earning card, and want to earn that way instead, your choice.
You can check out the Chase Freedom Flex offer.
First Year Freedom Flex Earning Potential
When a no annual fee card can earn you over $1000 in cash back, or 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points in a year from relatively modest credit card spending, you’re winning.
If you max out each Chase Freedom Flex 5X quarterly category by spending up to $1500 each quarter, for an annual total of up to $6,000 in spending, you’d earn 30,000 points, equalling $300 cash back for the year.
If you also max out the 5X on up to $12,000 in groceries for the first year, you’d earn a total of $600 cash back, or 60,000 points. Spend $2,000 on travel, and you’re already at $1,000 cash back, or 100,000 points for the first year. Oh, and of course, you were already there thanks to the $200, or 20,000 point welcome bonus.
Not bad, for a no annual fee credit card, right? Check out the Chase Freedom Flex with $200 welcome bonus offer.
