Do I Get the Sign-Up Bonus If I Convert my Chase Slate to the Chase Freedom?

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Million Mile Secrets reader Jeff tweeted:

If I convert a Chase Slate card to a Freedom, do I still get the sign on bonus?  Not much $ [money] 4 [for the] signup,but everything counts

Jeff’s asking if he will get the Ultimate Rewards point sign-up bonus if he converts his existing Chase Slate card to a Chase Freedom card.

Chase Slate

Link:  Chase Slate

The Chase Slate card is the only card which does NOT charge a fee to transfer a balance and has a 0% APR on BOTH purchases and balance transfers for 15 months.

The Chase Slate is a no annual fee card, so Jeff’s been building a relationship with Chase (which has the best miles and points cards) and improving his credit score without paying an annual fee!

But the Chase Slate does not give you any miles and points for signing-up for the card or for using the card.

Chase Freedom

Link:  Chase Freedom

Jeff can get 10,000 Ultimate Rewards points or $100 in cash back with the Chase Freedom.  Jeff gets 10,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $500 within 3 months.

The Chase Freedom is also a no annual fee card, so he can continue to build a relationship with Chase and build his credit score.

But unlike the Chase Slate, the Chase Freedom earns points!

Jeff can earn an additional $300 cash back or 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points a year (7,500 points per quarter X 4 quarters in a year) if he spends $1,500 in each quarterly bonus category.

For example, he will earn 5X Ultimate Rewards points for shopping at Amazon.com from October to December 2013.  Emily and I bough gift cards from Amazon.com and will use it for Holiday shopping!

Jeff can redeem the points for cash back (5% cash back isn’t too shabby and some folks prefer cash back).

Or he can transfer the Ultimate Rewards points to the Chase Sapphire Preferred, (no longer offered) Chase Ink Bold, or Chase Ink Plus cards and then transfer to airline or hotel partners such as Hyatt, Southwest, British Airways, or United.

Here are step-by-step instructions on how to transfer points from the Chase Freedom to a card which allows you to transfer them to hotels and airlines!

Convert Or Upgrade

Because Jeff has a Chase Slate card, he could call the number at the back of the card and ask Chase to convert his Chase Slate card to a Chase Freedom card.  That way he will earn miles and points and 5X points for bonus category purchases.

Emily’s oldest card was a Chase Slate card which she got in college.  She called Chase and converted it to a Chase Freedom card.  She didn’t get the sign-up bonus since she didn’t submit a new application for the Chase Freedom.  But she was able to keep the credit history associated with the card.

Since this was Emily’s oldest card, we preferred giving up the 10,000 point sign-up bonus (the sign-up bonus was lower when Emily converted her card), to keep the longer credit history with the card.

Like Emily, Jeff can keep his credit history if he converts his Chase Slate card to a Chase Freedom card.  But he will NOT get the 20,000 point signup bonus.  But it could be worth giving up the points to keep the long credit history associated with his Chase Slate card.  That said, Jeff can get up to 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points by using the Freedom card in the 5X bonus categories each year.

On the other hand, if Jeff has credit cards which are much older than his Chase Slate card, he can cancel the Chase Slate card and apply for the Chase Freedom card.

Bottom Line

Jeff can get the sign-up bonus for the Chase Freedom card.

But he will NOT get the points if he converts his Chase Slate card to a Chase Freedom card.

If Jeff has credit cards which are much older than his Chase Slate card, he could cancel his Chase Slate card and apply for the Chase Freedom card to get the sign-up bonus. But he should NOT cancel his Chase Slate card if it is one of his oldest credit cards!