The Chase Freedom Flex credit card is one of the better-known cash-back cards with changing 5% bonuses. Like cards from rival issuers Discover and U.S. Bank, it offers three-month windows when you can earn the lucrative reward rate on different types of everyday spending. How exactly does it work? Here’s a guide and some tips to maximizing the card’s potential.
How the Chase Freedom Flex Card Calendar Works
Rewards cards tend to award 5% cash back more sparingly than 2% and 3%, sometimes offering it on the same one or two purchase categories indefinitely; other times giving cardholders a choice of two categories each quarter, and often imposing a limit on earnings. In the case of the Chase Freedom Flex card, cardholders earn 5% cash back on a different combination of purchase categories every quarter, up to $75 per quarter ($300 per year). All other purchases earn 1% cash back. In other words, the 5% applies to the first $1,500 of spending in those categories each quarter, then you’ll earn 1% back on even the bonus categories. You’ll need to affirmatively opt in every three months to receive the bonus, but Chase makes that easy to do by sending you reminder emails with a button you only have to press once—you won’t even need to sign in to your account. You can even earn the 5% retroactively for the quarter, as long as you activate by the final deadline, which is usually a couple of weeks before the quarter ends. Let’s say you forget to sign up until late in the quarter. You’ll still get 5% cash back for any purchases you’ve made the whole first quarter in the qualifying categories. However, if you don’t make that deadline, every purchase you made during the quarter will earn just 1% cash back. The deadlines to opt in for each quarter in 2022 are:
Q1 (Jan.-March): March 14, 2022Q2 (April-June): June 14, 2022Q3 (July-Sept.): Sept. 14, 2022Q4 (Oct.-Dec.): Dec. 14, 2022
How To Optimize Your Freedom Card Spending
Although you can wait until almost the last minute, it can pay to activate early so you’re conscious of the earning opportunities that lie ahead. Chase typically announces upcoming bonus categories a few weeks before the start of a new period, and that’s the earliest you can activate your bonus. The bank provides reminders you can add to your favorite online calendar, or you can set a reminder on your own. Use that two- to three-week window to not only opt in, but strategize your spending.
January Through March: Grocery Stores and eBay
From Jan. 1 through March 31, 2022, you can earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in purchases at qualifying grocery stores and on eBay. Qualified grocery stores include supermarkets, delis, bakeries, and smaller grocery stores. Some major retailers, including Walmart and Target, are excluded from this category because of the wide variety of goods they sell. Discount stores, warehouse clubs, and drugstores that sell select food items are also excluded. The eBay category includes any Buy It Now or Auction purchase made on eBay’s website or mobile apps. Select streaming services include: Apple Music, Apple TV, Disney+, ESPN+, Fubo TV, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Pandora, Paramount+, Peacock, Showtime, SiriusXM, Sling, Spotify, YouTube Premium, YouTube TV and Vudu.
July Through September: Gas Stations, Rental Car Agencies, Movie Theaters, and Select Live Entertainment
It’s no surprise that Chase has included gas stations among the 5% earnings categories, since the bank has done so in the past. This year the relief may be appreciated more than in summers prior. Still, if your spending at gas stations is in line with average spending figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), you won’t reach the earnings cap on gasoline spending alone. That’s because the average American spent $2094 on gasoline in 2019, or $524 per quarter, according to the BLS. (We’re comparing to 2019 instead of 2020 because the pandemic depressed gasoline consumption that year.) Hitting the summer roads in a rental car to see a live show (one that’s covered by Chase’s offer) may get you most of the rest of way to the $1,500 spending cap for the 5% earnings rate, depending on the show, how far you go to get there, and the luxuriousness of your rental.
