Today is the first day of a new quarter and a new set of 5 percent categories for the Chase Freedom card (one of my favorite credit cards). Although the Chase Freedom is technically a cash back card, if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase 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.

This quarter (April 1, 2020 – June 30, 2020), the Chase Freedom 5% categories are Grocery Stores, Fitness Club & Gym Memberships and Select Streaming Services.

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Chase provides some clarification on what is included or excluded in each category.
•   Grocery Stores: Merchants in the Grocery Stores category include supermarkets, merchants that offer a full service grocery line of merchandise including a deli and bakery as well as smaller grocery stores. Some merchants that sell grocery items are not included in this category; for example, larger stores that sell a wide variety of goods, such as Target®, Walmart®, discount stores, warehouse clubs, and some smaller merchants such as drugstores and merchants that specialize in only a few grocery items. Purchases made at gas stations from merchants who also operate grocery stores are not included in this category. Delivery service merchants will not be included in this category unless the merchant has set up such purchases to be classified in the grocery stores category.
•  Fitness Club & Gym Memberships: Merchants in the Fitness Club & Gym Membership category include health clubs, exercise, or athletic facilities requiring membership and offering access to services related to physical fitness, such as fitness clubs, fitness centers, fitness studios, gyms, aerobics, cardio fitness and other services such as yoga and cross fit training. 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. In addition, some 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. Also, certain 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.
•  Select Streaming Services: Merchants in the Select Streaming Services category specialize in delivering music and video content over the internet. Only subscription services paid for with the following select merchants will qualify for this offer: Disney+, Netflix, Hulu, Sling, Vudu, Fubo TV, Apple Music,SiriusXM, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube TV, Google Play, ESPN+.

Click here for complete list of merchants on chase.com.

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, Fitness Club & Gym Memberships and Select Streaming Services 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 this 2nd quarter of 2020 is open and will end on June 14, 2020.

How to Maximize the 5% Bonus

This is a pretty easy quarter to maximize the bonus as pretty much everyone will be shopping for groceries.  If you are not planning on spending a total of $1,500 on your Chase Freedom on Grocery Stores, Fitness Club & Gym Memberships and Select Streaming Services this quarter, you can maximize the bonus by buying gift cards at grocery stores.

Overview of the Chase Freedom Credit Card

For anyone not familiar with this card, the Chase Freedom credit card is a great no annual fee card that earns you points that can be indirectly transferred to frequent flyer and hotel loyalty programs. Chase Freedom is technically a cash back card only and points earned using the Chase Freedom cannot be directly transferred to airlines and hotel programs. However, if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Ink Business Preferred or Ink Plus card you can transfer or combine your points from your Chase Freedom account to one of those cards and then from there to the various Ultimate Rewards travel partners. See related post How To Combine or Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards Points Between Accounts.

While the Chase Freedom® normally offers 1% cash back on all purchases, every quarter there are certain bonus categories for which you can earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 spent in bonus categories each quarter. This means if you spend the full $1,500 each quarter in those 5 percent categories you can earn a total of 30,000 points a year (6,000 points + extra 24,000 bonus points).

The 5 cash back categories vary each year. You have to register each quarter for the bonus and then you can earn the 5% on up to $1,500 on purchases for that quarter.

If you already have the Chase Freedom you are currently able to earn $100 for referring the Chase Freedom to friends/family using Chase refer-a-friend.