Posted by: John S Kiernan

EDITOR’S RATING 3.3 / 5 PROS

• No annual fee
• $150 initial bonus
• 0% purchase financing for 15 months

CONS

• Doesn't really offer cash back
• Rotating bonus rewards categories
• Earning limit in bonus categories
• 3% foreign transaction fee

The Verdict:  The Chase Freedom® (Chase is a WalletHub partner) brand name connotes fun, excitement and independence – primarily the financial variety.  But instead of freeing you from budgetary concerns, this card requires hands-on account maintenance to live up to its potential and, even then, would provide less value than numerous other available credit cards for people with excellent credit.

The card’s 5% maximum earning rate on rewards applies only to purchases made in select bonus categories, which rotate on a quarterly basis and users must sign up for each time they change.  What’s more, only the first $1,500 you spend across these bonus categories each quarter will accrue rewards at a 5% clip.  So, if you are a relatively heavy spender or you forget to sign up for the bonus categories or these categories don’t happen to complement your spending habits, you’ll be stuck earning just the market average of 1% on most of your transactions.

In other words, the Chase Freedom® Credit Card often ends up looking better from a window-shopper’s perspective than an actual user’s, and interested applicants should thus make sure to check out the Competition section of this review for other offers that may prove superior.

The Highlights

Yes, the might of JPMorgan Chase has helped Freedom attain notoriety. But its popularity is not just a product of marketing. The offer does have a number of defined strengths, and we will break them down below.

• No Annual Fee: The absence of an annual fee is perhaps the Freedom Card’s biggest draw, enabling it to serve as an affordable alternative to the highest yielding offers on the market.  The absence of fixed costs also helps the offer’s rewards structure avoid too much scrutiny.  Expectations tend to be a lot lower and people more forgiving when perks aren’t being paid for directly.

• Booking Flexibility: The fact that Freedom is ostensibly a cash back credit card would seem to indicate that you should redeem for a simple statement credit or check.  And while you can certainly do so, the fact that you won’t sacrifice value when redeeming for things like Amazon.com purchases and gift cards differentiates the offer from many other rewards cards. Points tend to be slightly less valuable when redeemed for travel, however, according to WalletHub’s Chase Ultimate Rewards Program Review. 

• 0% Financing For 15 Months: All else being equal, we’d all prefer to have 0% financing on new purchases for the first 15 months our accounts are open than not.  Combined with the ability to earn rewards on purchases, this interest-free term provides powerful earning potential to new applicants with big-ticket expenses in their future.  The one thing you have to be careful about in this regard is to not spend more than you can afford to repay by the conclusion of the 15-month intro term.  Revolving a balance beyond this point would trigger finance charges that would quickly negate your rewards balance.Transferred balances will not accrue interest for the first 15 months either, which is more than most rewards cards can say. But keep in mind that you will be assessed a 3% balance transfer fee that will also increase the cost of your debt. 

• $150 Initial Bonus: At $500 over the first three months, the amount one needs to spend to qualify for Freedom’s sign-up bounty makes it far more accessible than the market's best credit card deals. And the amount you get in return is nearly 50% higher than the market average for a cash bonus. As a result, this is a steal for light-spenders.

The Lowlights

We’re giving you the bad news second. Here are Freedom’s biggest blemishes.

• Rotating Bonus Categories: Each month, you need to sign up for new bonus categories in order to earn Freedom’s 5% cash back rate. You could possibly make this pay off if you’re diligent and strategic, but few people want that kind of burden from their rewards credit card.  After all, isn’t meeting monthly due dates hard enough? And what happens when you’re stuck for three months with only purchases made through Amazon.com, Audible.com, Diapers.com and Zappos.com eligible for maximum earnings?Ultimately, considering natural human forgetfulness and the fact that none of us needs an excuse to spend more than we normally would, a card with a more straightforward earning structure is likely to be more rewarding for most people over time.

• Bonus Earnings Caps: Not only do bonus earning categories come with a time limit, but their spoils also have a ceiling. You’ll earn 5% only on the first $1,500 you spend across bonus categories each quarter. That means you only even have the potential to rake in $25 per month and $300 per year via Freedom’s eye-catching 5% maximum earning rate. 

• 3% Balance Transfer Fee: The fact that Freedom offers 0% on transferred balances for the first 15 months shouldn’t really matter in light of the card’s corresponding surcharge.

• 3% Foreign Transaction Fee: It’s kind of ironic. The card is called Freedom, but users are far less free to travel internationally than people packing no foreign transaction fee credit cards, which are rapidly growing in number. While consumers are incentivized to use credit cards instead of cash when traveling abroad by much lower currency-conversion costs and better theft protection, the roughly 90% of cards that charge a 2% to 4% international surcharge complicate the decision. So, if you regularly travel internationally or pay international merchants, you may want to consider a more fee-friendly offer.

Other Things To Consider

There’s more to these account features than meets the eye. And, upon further inspection, they might not seem quite as appealing.

• Not Actually Earning Cash Back: Freedom is fully marketed as a “cash back” credit card. The problem with that is it’s not. Freedom cardholders actually earn points that can be redeemed for cash at a predefined rate (currently, 1 point = 1 cent). So, at the end of the day, you will get cash back. But Chase could always move the goalposts and effectively devalue the points you hold in your account. An issuer can’t do that when earnings are expressed in terms of dollars and cents from the start. 

• 0% APR On Balance Transfers: On its own, a 15-month respite from interest charges seems pretty good. You still have to pay for it, though. If you have a big balance, Freedom’s 3% surcharge could wind up costing you hundreds of dollars. Interest or fees, it all looks green coming out of your wallet. 

• Contactless Capabilities: Some outlets report being able to use the Chase Freedom Card to directly make contactless payments, but this appears to be a mischaracterization.  Freedom, like an increasing number of credit cards these days, merely has an embedded computer chip in compliance with the country’s transition to EMV payment security.  That’s probably more detail than you’re interested in, but the short answer is that you cannot waive your card in front of a merchant’s reader and walk out the store – the payment won’t go through and you’ll be shoplifting!Here’s what Chase’s website has to say on the matter:

  “Q. Do chip cards use contactless, NFC (Near Field Communication) or blink technology?

  A.  NFC technology is different from chip technology. At this time, Chase cards with chip cannot be used directly for NFC payments. However, you can load your Chase chip card to a digital wallet that uses NFC technology to make payments.”

Compared To The Competition

	SponsoredChase Freedom®	SponsoredChase Freedom Unlimited®	SponsoredCiti® Double Cash Card – 18 month BT offer	SponsoredCiti Simplicity® Card - No Late Fees Ever
Annual Fee	$0	$0	$0	$0
Rewards Bonus	$150	Double Cash Back	N/A	N/A
Rewards Rate	1 - 5% Cash Back	1.5% Cash Back	2% Cash Back	N/A
Purchase Intro APR	0% for 15 months	0% for 15 months	Not Offered	0% for 12 months*
Transfer Intro APR	0% for 15 monthsTransfer Fee: Either $5 or 3% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater	0% for 15 monthsTransfer Fee: Either $5 or 3% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater.	0% for 18 months*Transfer Fee: 3% (min $5)	0% for 21 months*Transfer Fee: 5% (min $5)
Regular APR	17.24% - 25.99% (V)	17.24% - 25.99% (V)	15.74% - 25.74%* (V)	16.24% - 26.24%* (V)
Editors’ Rating	3.3 / 5	4.7 / 5	5.0 / 5	3.7 / 5
Details, Rates & Fees	Learn More	Learn More	Learn More	Learn More
Winners	Citi® Double Cash Card – 18 month BT offer		Citi Simplicity® Card - No Late Fees Ever

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