By far the most unique card in my wallet today is the Chase Freedom card. I say the card is unique because unlike other cards, the bonus point categories change each quarter. Most cards offer 2X or 3X points on certain purchases year-round. However, the Chase Freedom card offers 5X points on certain purchases each quarter. This benefit is then capped to just $1,500 a quarter. All in all, if you maximize each quarterly promotion you’ll earn a total of 7,500 Chase points each quarter.
As you probably know, the Chase Freedom card is actually a cash-back credit card. So, typically those 7,500 “points” would be worth $75 of cash-back. However, if you also carry a Chase Ultimate Rewards credit card (Chase Sapphire, Sapphire Preferred, or Sapphire Reserve) you can then transfer those “points” into Ultimate Rewards points. By transferring Freedom points to the Ultimate Rewards program your points become much more valuable.
The Chase Freedom Q3’18 5X Bonus Categories
As I mentioned above, the unique aspect of the Chase Freedom card is that the bonus categories change quarterly. Chase typically then waits to release each quarterly bonus category until a few weeks before the beginning of the new quarter. So far this year the 5X bonus categories are as follows.
As you can see, for Q3 2018 Chase Freedom card holders receive 5X back on all purchases at gas stations, Lyft rides, and at Walgreens. The quarters began on July 1 and ends on September 30. As you can see, we’re about halfway through the quarter, but don’t worry there is still time to activate the bonus category. Card holders have until September 14, 2018 to activate their 5X bonus.
Even better, Chase retroactively rewards bonus points once you activate the quarterly bonus. So, if you haven’t yet activated your quarterly bonus, but have made qualifying purchases, Chase will grant you the bonus points you are due.
Then, on September 15, 2018, Chase will announce the Q4’18 bonus. For reference the 2017 bonus categories were as follows.
Typically Q4’18 bonus categories include retailers and other big box retailers. It sure would be nice if Chase includes Amazon this year for the holiday season.
How To Activate Your Chase Freedom 5X Bonus
If you haven’t already activated your Chase Freedom Q3’18 bonus make sure to do so before September 14. Chase seems to be emailing customers who haven’t yet activated their bonus so the easiest way to activate is by following the link in the email.
Just look how much fun you’ll be having once you activate your Chase Freedom 5X quarterly bonus! Evidently, once you do this you’ll be having the time of your life. On a serious note, clicking the link automatically activated the quarterly bonus as promised.
The activation page has a handy graphic to remind you how the quarterly bonus works. That graphic is then followed by two links to download the Lyft app or to visit the Walgreens website.
If you haven’t received a reminder email you can activate your Chase Freedom 5X quarterly bonus here.
Final Thoughts
This year has been a bit of a learning year for me. This is my first full year with the Chase Freedom card and I really haven’t done that great of a job maximizing my quarterly bonuses.
The reason is that most of my spend this quarter has been on my Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red card. See, I have to make sure that I spend at least $25,000 on that card this year. Going into the year I thought I could do it through organic non-bonus spending, but I was dead wrong. Instead, much of my miscellaneous spend has been on that card. By doing this I’ve been missing out on the quarterly bonus offered by the Chase Freedom card, but also other sign-up bonus that have come and gone. The reason is, I simply can’t afford to not put spend on my AAdvantage Aviator card this year. If I don’t hit the $25,000 limit I won’t earn the $3,000 American EQD that I need in order to earn Executive Platinum status. Long story short, lesson learned, next year I will not plan on earning EQD through credit card spend.
