Chase Freedom Unlimited® Review
By John Ta - January 08, 2024
One of the best no-annual-fee cards on the market is offering an additional 1.5% of everything you buy.
The Chase Freedom Unlimited is widely considered to be among the best no-annual fee credit cards out there, with fantastic point-earning categories for everyday spending. It’s a card I have, my girlfriend has, my parents have… etc.
If you want a simple credit card that will help you earn lots of Ultimate Reward flights you can use to book award flights, then you’re looking in the right direction.
Earn a $250 Bonus After You Spend $500 in 3 Months Sign-up Offer
The Chase Freedom Unlimited has an sign-up offer for new cardholders: Earn a $250 Bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening.
While Chase markets this card as earning cashback, cashback is actually accrued as Ultimate Rewards points, meaning $1 of cashback accrues as 100 points. If used for travel via transfer partners, cardholders can easily get more than 1.5 cents per point rather than the standard 1 cent per point.
The Freedom Unlimited's Earn Structure
This card presents a fantastic earning structure across the board. It’s continuously worth noting that cashback earned on this card is accrued as Ultimate Rewards points, meaning that their value is much higher than just 1 cent per point.
- Lyft Rides: 5% cashback (5x points) through March 2025
- Travel booked via the Chase travel portal: 5% cashback (5x points)
- Dining: 3% cashback (3x points), including on takeout + delivery
- Drugstores: 3% cashback (3x points)
- Everything else: 1.5% cashback (1.5x points)
How To Turn Cash Back Into Ultimate Rewards Points
Although this card advertises itself as earning “cashback,” cashback is accrued in the form of Ultimate Reward points, which are Chase’s invaluable points currency. However, cardholders cannot tap into the full potential of these points unless they have one of the following premium Chase cards:
Without possessing one of these three cards, cardholders can only redeem their points at the face value of 1 cent per point. When having one of these cards, points suddenly become significantly more valuable.
In fact, just having these cards immediately raises the value of them when booking travel via the Chase travel portal.
- Sapphire Preferred / Ink Business Preferred: Redeem points in portal for 1.25 cents each
- Sapphire Reserve: Redeem points in portal for 1.5 cents each
Having the right card suddenly increases the value of your points by 25-50%. This suggests that the Freedom Unlimited’s earn “floor” is 2.25 cents, which beats out many competitors for a no annual fee card (although you need to have the Reserve as well to maximize its value).
Other Pros & Cons of the Chase Freedom Unlimited
While it is generally a fantastic card, the Freedom Unlimited does have some cons that are worth highlighting. We’ve captured some major things in the following table below:
BRAND
Pros
Cons
- Purchase Protection: Cover your new purchases for 120 days against damage or theft up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account
- Extended warranty protection: Extend the time period of the U.S. manufacturer's warranty by an additional year, on eligible warranties of three years or less
- 3% foreign transaction fees
- No bonus categorical earnings on groceries
Quick Comparisons: Freedom Unlimited vs. Flex
Both cards are oftentimes seen right next to each other, but while are similar in many aspects (such as their no annual fee), differ in others.
- Freedom Unlimited: 1.5x points on all purchases
- Freedom Flex: 5x points on rotating quarterly categories on up to $1,500 of spending; 1x on everything else
Both cards also offer:
- 3x points on dining & drugstore purchases
- Purchase protection & extended warranties
- 3% foreign transaction fees
Simply put, the Unlimited is great for a simple, no frills everyday spending card, while the Flex is great for someone who spends a lot in certain categories.
Conclusion
The Chase Freedom Unlimited card is a key card in most cardholder’s wallets, pairing especially well with the likes of the Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Notably, the card has no annual fee and provides a minimum floor of 1.5x points per dollar across all purchases. This card works together extraordinarily well with several other Chase cards and should be considered seriously in any Chase-centric card strategy.
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