The new set of 5% categories for the 1st quarter are now live and open for registration for 5% bonus categories for the Chase Freedom Flex and original Chase Freedom credit card. Although the Chase Freedom and the Chase Freedom Flex are technically cash back cards, if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Ink Business Preferred or Ink Plus card you can transfer points from your Freedom account into one of those accounts and then can transfer those points to various Chase travel partners.

The Chase Freedom 5% categories for 2023 Q1 quarter (January 1, 2023 – March 31, 2023) are Grocery Stores
(excluding Walmart®), Target & Fitness Clubs & Gym Memberships.

Chase provides clarification on what is included and excluded in each category:
•  Grocery Stores exclusions: Larger stores that sell a wide variety of goods and groceries, such as Target®, Walmart®, warehouse clubs, discount stores and some smaller merchants such as drugstores, and merchants that specialize in only a few grocery items; Purchases made at gas stations operated by merchants who also operate grocery stores; Delivery service merchants unless they classify as a grocery store merchant.
•  Target purchases include: Target and Target.com.
•  Target exclusions: Non-Target merchants operating within or on Target premises including merchants that sell fast food, beauty services, and gas stations that are not Target branded.
•  Fitness Clubs & Gym Memberships exclusions: Merchants that specialize in offering personalized or therapeutic services such as massage therapy, dietary and weight management counseling and personal training are not included in this category; Merchants that sell a wide variety of general goods, which may include fitness or athletic apparel, sporting goods, dietary food, health food or similar supplements are not included in this category; Merchants with a primary category in lodging, hotel, motel, resort and central reservation services offering access to third party facilities that include fitness clubs or gyms are not included in this category unless the merchant has set up such purchases to be classified in this category.

The 5% only applies to the first $1,500 spent on combined purchases each quarter. This means if you spend $1,500 on a combination of Grocery Stores, Target & Fitness Clubs & Gym Memberships this quarter you will receive a total of 7,500 points (1,500 plus a bonus of 6,000 points).

Don’t Forget to Activate

Please note, that in order to earn the 5% you must activate the offer each quarter (by text, email or other methods). If you have a Chase Freedom and have signed up for email reminders you should have already received an email asking you to activate this quarter’s categories. If you have not yet activated the 5% for this quarter, you can register now or any time during the registration period and earn the full 5% for the entire quarter retroactively. Registration for the 1st quarter of 2023 ends on March 14, 2023.