This card is certainly interesting but it’s a little more involved than the other two so we usually tell people to get this card last (if at all). At only 1x for non-bonus spend, it’s not a good everyday card but it makes up for that with 5x up to $1500 per quarter on rotating categories. You also have to activate these categories and stay on top of what they are so it does involve a little more work. For example, the first quarter might by gas so for any purchases you make at a gas station you’ll get 5x up to $1500 worth of spend. The second quarter might be Lowes and Amazon. Easy if you are doing home improvement or if you buy a lot of stuff on Amazon. So per year, you can earn 5x on $6000 if you max out each category which you should definitely try to do.
There’s a number of ways to meet category spend if you’re having trouble. One way is to front load purchases which means that you overbuy things now that you’ll need later. An easier way is to buy gift cards. So for example, if the category is Lowes and you don’t need to buy anything there, you can buy a gift card there to another store where you need to make a purchase. Before you go crazy, we suggest buying a gift card in a small amount as a test to make sure that it codes properly. I’ve never seen an issue but that doesn’t mean that this won’t change at some point. Either way, if you do it right you’ll earn 30,000 points per year.
Besides the 5x rotating categories, you’ll also earn 3x at restaurants and drug stores. Like the Chase Freedom Unlimited, there’s no annual fee. I personally find it easier to only use this card for the bonus category spend instead of mixing and matching. Just makes it easier to track the spending in the bonus categories but that’s just me. You’ll also earn 5x back on Lyft rides.
The sign up bonus can vary but its not usually amazing. However, you don’t need to spend much and there’s no annual fee so it’s hard to complain about that.
Click here to access our referral links on our recommendation page to apply for the Chase Freedom Flex Card. You’ll not only get the best sign up bonus available, you’ll be supporting this website.
Before you apply…
Please consider the following before you apply for this card. As much as we talk about the Chase Trifecta, this card might not be the best card for some people, at least not until later on in the game. A lot depends on whether you are going to go for business card. Despite telling people to not be scared of business cards, a lot of people will not listen. For those people, go for it. However, if you take our advice and go for business cards, you should first get the Chase Ink Business Cash (CIBC). That card will allow you to get 5x on almost everything up to $25,000 a year by buying gift cards at Office Supply stores. Nothing to activate and no categories to worry about. Once you master that, you’ll see that using the CFF with its categories is mostly pointless especially since most people are not going to exceed the $25,000 limit. If you’re in 2 player mode, you’ll have up to $50,000 to spend and again, I doubt many people are exceeding that.
This is not say that you should never get this card. It’s free points and you’ll get a referral bonus if you’re in 2 player mode. However, it takes up a 5/24 slot and I think there are just better cards out there. Eventually you can get this card just for the small SUB and referral bonus but after that, it should go in the sock drawer.
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