The Chase Freedom Unlimited® is a great beginner card for those who are looking for a card with no annual fee, a low spending requirement, and a solid return on all spending. There are other similar cards, like the Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card and the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, but the Freedom Unlimited is my top recommendation! Here are all the details you need to know.

<All information about the Chase Freedom Unlimited® has been collected independently by The Traveling Hansens. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.>

Chase Freedom Unlimited® Details

The current welcome offer: Earn a $250 bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first three months from account opening. This is the highest bonus we’ve ever seen on this card.

This card is marketed as a cash-back card, which is why you see the offer listed as $250. However, the card actually earns 25,000 Ultimate Rewards®.

The thing is, you need an additional card to make these points flexible. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card are my top choices for this. When you move your points to one of these cards, you can easily double or triple the value of your points by accessing Chase’s transfer partners.

The Freedom Unlimited has no annual fee.

This card will count against Chase’s 5/24 rule. However, it’s worth a spot if you’re looking for a no annual fee card, a low spending requirement and/or are trying to establish or build your credit. This is a good first card to dip your toes into points and miles.

<All information about the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card has been collected independently by The Traveling Hansens. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.>

Freedom Unlimited® Credit Card Benefits

• 5% back on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
• 3% cash back at drug stores and restaurants
• 1.5% on all other purchases
• Extended warranty – extends the manufacturer’s U.S. warranty by an additional year, on eligible warranties of three years or less.
• Trip cancellation/interruption – You can be reimbursed up to $1,500 per traveler and $6,000 per trip for your pre-paid, non-refundable passenger fares, if your trip is canceled or cut short by sickness, severe weather, or other covered situations.

How to redeem Ultimate Rewards

USE THEM WITH CHASE TRAVEL℠

One way to use your Ultimate Rewards® is by booking travel through Chase Travel℠. This works like any other travel search portal and allows you to run searches across all airlines and hotels to find the best option for you.

When doing this, your points are worth a standard one cent per point, meaning every 10,000 points is worth $100. This can be a good option when booking boutique hotels that may not be part of a larger program like Hyatt or Marriott, or when you don’t want to figure out how to transfer to travel partners (although that’s easier than you think and is worth learning!)

CASH THEM OUT

Another option is to cash out your points as a statement credit. This also gives you a one cent per point value. This is an easy way to cover travel purchases made on your card. Just charge your hotel room or airfare (or anything else) to your card, then use points as a statement credit to cover some or all of the cost.

TRANSFER THEM

This is my favorite way to use Ultimate Rewards® because it generally gives you the most value.

With the Freedom Unlimited by itself, you do not have access to Chase’s transfer partners. However, if you also have a Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, or Ink Preferred, you can combine the points onto one of those. Then, you can access Chase’s 11 airline and 3 hotel partners. All points transfer at a 1:1 ratio in increments of 1,000.

Here are the partners:

• Aer Lingus
• Air Canada
• Air France-KLM
• British Airways
• Emirates
• Iberia
• JetBlue
• Singapore
• Southwest
• United
• Virgin Atlantic
• Hyatt
• IHG
• Marriott

More often than not, we transfer our Ultimate Rewards to Hyatt. Hyatt points rates are so much lower than other hotel chains, which means we can get really great value out of them.

However, we’ve also used them for things like Flying Blue (Air France) flights to Paris, Southwest flights to Hawaii, Virgin Atlantic flights to Cabo, and more. They really are the very best points.

Earning more points and combining

You can earn a lot of Ultimate Rewards® through a variety of Chase cards. The great thing is that all of these points can be combined easily.

When you earn points with the Freedom Unlimited, you will need to combine them with another card to make them flexible. Your options for this are:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
• Chase Sapphire Reserve®
• Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card

You can stock up on more Ultimate Rewards by earning extra points through any of these cards:

• Chase Freedom Flex® – click the link and choose Flex. This card is advertised as cash back, but it actually earns Ultimate Rewards.
• Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card – advertised as cash back, but it actually earns Ultimate Rewards
• Ink Business Cash® Credit Card – advertised as cash back, but it actually earns Ultimate Rewards

Just remember, similar to the Freedom Unlimited, points earned from those cards will need to be combined with the cards from the first list to make them flexible.

<All information about the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, Chase Freedom Flex®, Ink Business Unlimited®, and Ink Business Cash® Credit Card has been collected independently by The Traveling Hansens. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.>

HOW TO COMBINE POINTS

So, how do you combine the points between cards? It’s pretty simple!

To combine points from multiple cards, log in to your Chase account, and go to your Ultimate Rewards. Click Rewards Details, then click “combine points”.

Choose which cards you want to move points from and to, enter how many points you want to move, and hit confirm. It’s easy and instant!

What to do after one year

The Freedom Unlimited has no annual fee, which means that it doesn’t hurt to keep it open long-term. As with all cards, ALWAYS keep them open for a full year. After that, you can decide what to do.

This card is a long-term keeper in our book since it has no fee and earns 1.5% on all purchases. We also have a Sapphire Preferred, so we know that any points earned on the Freedom Unlimited can easily be moved to that card to make them flexible.

Other card options

If you feel like this card isn’t a good fit, here are some other great beginner card recommendations:

• Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card
• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
• Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express

Wrapping it up

The Freedom Unlimited is a solid card with a good welcome offer for being a no annual fee card. It’s a great beginner card to start stocking up on Ultimate Rewards, boost your stash, or help establish your credit.