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What if you could have your cake, and eat it too? It’s natural to want to be greedy when it comes to earning credit card rewards, but it’s not always easy to get the whole cake to yourself. High annual fees and limited earning potential typically stand in the way of the “perfect” credit card.

But right now, there’s a near perfect card offering 5X points on a year of groceries, and 5X on travel, all with no annual fee and a solid bonus you only need to spend $500 to unlock. It’s the Chase Freedom Unlimited Card, and it’s worth seriously considering adding to your wallet.

Chase Freedom Unlimited FTW

Chase Freedom Unlimited and Freedom Flex are each no brainers in their own regard. No annual fee, meets high points earning potential is a lovely combo, and if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred, or Chase Sapphire Reserve Card, the offering is even better, since you can then opt for airline miles or hotel points, rather than the standard cash back offered by both cards.

Spending $500 on the card within the first 3 months unlocks $200 in cash back, or if you have either of the Sapphire Cards as mentioned, those points can be converted into airlines or hotels, for 20,000 points. Not a bad start…

Huge Earning Potential

Right now, the no annual fee Chase Freedom Unlimited Card is offering an enticing way to maximize your Thanksgiving and December Holiday food shopping, and really the whole year too, with 5x points on the first 12 months of groceries, up to $12,000.

That’s up to 60,000 points or $600 in cash back on groceries, if you average $1000 in grocery spend for the first 12 months of carrying the card. With the exception of the $550 a year Amex Platinum limited time offer right now bringing 10X on all grocery, there’s no better rebate out there.

The 12 months of additional earning on groceries is nice, but for a no annual fee card to offer a bunch of 3X and even 5X earning categories is almost unheard of. Somehow, this card does both. From day one, until further notice, the Chase Freedom Unlimited brings…

  • 5X Points on all Travel booked via Chase Travel, which is powered by Expedia. This includes airfare, hotels, car rentals and more.
  • 3X Points On Dining, Take Out, Delivery, which puts it on the list of best earners for this category, particularly when those offering more points have annual fees.
  • 3X Points at Drugstores, which makes prescriptions, or covid-19 tests to enable future travels a lot more rewarding.
  • 1.5X Points On Everything Else is a great way to earn at a better rate than most cards, which stick with a simple 1X earning on all other types of spending.

Why Consider The Card Now?

You could easily argue that this no annual fee card deserves a place in your wallet as part of the master plan of always earning at the highest rates, for every purchase.

Does it have a downside? Yeah, we found one, but pretty much only one. The Chase Freedom Unlimited does charge foreign exchange fees on travel purchase made abroad outside the USA, but that’s about it.

But with the limited time offer of 5X on up to $12,000 in groceries for the first 12 months, you’re not only enjoying the standard bonus of $200 or 20,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points, and 3X on Dining, 3X on Drugstores and 5X on Chase Travel, but this major extra bringing up to 60,000 additional points too.

Chase is basically, making a ‘best in class’ case for using the Freedom Unlimited card on a year of grocery purchases, to make sure you actually give it a serious look, which was not a part of the previous bonus. While it lasts, it’s worth seriously considering. It’s a great card without the additional 60,000 point or $600 cash back earning potential, and one that’s extremely hard to ignore with it.


Gilbert Ott

Gilbert Ott is an ever curious traveler and one of the world's leading travel experts. His adventures take him all over the globe, often spanning over 200,000 miles a year and his travel exploits are regularly...

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