Starting today, you’ll get 2,500 extra Ultimate Rewards points for adding an authorized user when you sign-up for the Chase Freedom and Chase Sapphire cards. The authorized user has to make a purchase within 3 months for you to get the extra 2,500 points.
Usually, these cards don’t have a bonus for adding an authorized user, so this could be good news for folks who were thinking of signing-up for these cards soon. This is very similar to the 5,000 extra Ultimate Rewards points you get for adding an authorized user to new Chase Sapphire Preferred applications.
However, you can’t add an authorized user to your existing cards to get the bonus because this promotion is only for new accounts.
Chase Freedom
Link: Chase Freedom
Link: My review of the Chase Freedom
The Chase Freedom has a sign-up bonus of 10,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points or $100 cash back after you spend $500 in the 1st 3 months.
But now, you’ll get an additional 2,500 Chase Ultimate Rewards points or $25 cash back when you add an authorized user and make a purchase in the 1st 3 months.
The authorized user bonus is only for new sign-ups, so if you already have the card, you’re out of luck.
I love the Chase Freedom because it makes it easy to earn 5X the number of Ultimate Rewards points (up to $1,500 or 7,500 points a quarter) for purchases which Emily and I normally make. You’ll earn 5X points or 5% cash back on rotating categories each quarter.
And it’s a fee-free card, so it’s good to keep for a long time to increase the length of your credit history and possibly improve your credit score.
Ultimate Rewards points from the Chase Freedom can’t be transferred by themselves to select airlines and hotels. But here are step-by-step instructions on how to transfer points from the Chase Freedom to a card (like the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Ink Bold, or Chase Ink Plus) which allows you to transfer them to hotels and airlines.
I like the extra points for adding an authorized user. However, previously Chase has increased the sign-up bonus to 20,000 points or $200 cash back. That deal MIGHT come back but I don’t know for sure.
Chase Sapphire (NOT Preferred)
Update: The Chase Sapphire card is no longer available for new sign-ups.Link: Chase Sapphire
I haven’t written much about the Chase Sapphire because I like the Chase Sapphire Preferred version better. You can NOT transfer points from the Chase Sapphire to airlines and hotels like you can with the Preferred version.
Normally, the sign-up bonus on the Chase Sapphire card is 10,000 points ($100 in rewards) after you spend $500 in the 1st 3 months. They’ve now added a 2,500 point ($25) bonus for adding an authorized user when you sign-up and make a purchase in the 1st 3 months.This card earns 2X points per $1 you spend on restaurants (but NOT travel, like the Sapphire Preferred) and 1 point per $1 you spend on everything else.
Ultimate Rewards points from the regular Sapphire card can’t be transferred by themselves to select airlines and hotels. But here are step-by-step instructions on how to transfer points from the Chase Freedom to a card (like the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Ink Bold, or Chase Ink Plus) which allows you to transfer them to hotels and airlines.
I wouldn’t go out of my way to get this card, but if you were planning on applying for it anyway, now is a good time to get the extra sign-up bonus.
Bottom Line
The Chase Freedom and Chase Sapphire Visa cards have added an authorized user bonus to their sign-up deal. You’ll earn an additional 2,500 points ($25) when you add an authorized user and make a purchase in the 1st 3 months.
This is in addition to the regular sign-up bonus of 10,000 points or $100 cash back.
And because these cards don’t have an annual fee, you can keep them for a long time to help improve your credit score.
These cards don’t normally have an authorized user sign-up bonus. But I wouldn’t sign-up just for the bonus, unless you were planning on getting these cards soon anyway.