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Best-ever offer for Chase Freedom Unlimited — $200 bonus and 5% back (or 5x points) on grocery purchases

  • Joseph Hostetler

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    Update:   One or more card offers in this post are no longer available.  Check our Hot Deals for the latest offers.

    The Chase Freedom Unlimited® was already one of the best no annual fee credit cards on the market. But Chase has introduced a new offer for the card, and it’s a clear improvement over its predecessor. Depending on your spending habits, you’ll almost certainly earn hundreds more dollars from this intro offer than before!

    You’ll earn $200 (20,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points) after spending $500 within the first three months of account opening. We’ve never seen a higher bonus for this card, though the $200 bonus has made a handful of appearances in the past. However, the card will also earn 5% cash back (5 Chase points) on grocery store purchases (excluding Target and Walmart) for the first year you have the card, on up to $12,000 in qualifying purchases.

    And when you strategically combine this card’s earning ability with one of the other best Chase credit cards, you can skyrocket your earning rates. I’ll show you how!

    Use your Chase points to stay for free at the Andaz Maui, arguably the best hotel on the island. (Photo by EQRoy/Shutterstock)

    New Chase Freedom Unlimited welcome offer

    This is a big deal. If you’ve got a large family and spend $1,000 per month on groceries, you’ll get a return of $600 (60,000 Chase points) the first year you have the Chase Freedom Unlimited.

    The card earns 1.5% back on all purchases. If you were to swipe this card for $12,000 per year at grocery stores with the previous offer, you’d net $180. But with this new 5% bonus category, you can now potentially earn $420 more for the first year. Remember, this card doesn’t even come with an annual fee!

    The most important detail to remember is that the card actually earns Chase Ultimate Rewards points, not cash. You can redeem your points at 1 cent each, meaning that earning 5 Chase points per dollar is effectively 5% cash back. However, you can redeem your points for significantly more value if you have one of the below cards:

    See, you can transfer your points from your Chase Freedom Unlimited to one of these cards, and your points are immediately more valuable. For example, you can redeem your points through the Chase Travel Portal for flights, hotels, rental cars, or cruises at between 1.25 and 1.5 cents each, depending on which card you have. That’s up 50% more value for your points!

    Similarly, you can use your points through Chase Pay Yourself Back on groceries, home improvement stores, and dining, for the same rates.

    But best of all, you can redeem your points with valuable Chase transfer partners for amazing value. Partners include Hyatt, United Airlines, Iberia, and Southwest. We estimate that Chase points are worth 2 cents on average — but it’s possible to get significantly more value from them.

    I recently transferred Chase points to Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio for a free stay at the Andaz Maui. This hotel costs about $600 per night, or 30,000 Hyatt points. In other words, I received a value of 2 cents per point.

    Because it’s not difficult to receive a value of 2 cents per Chase point, earning 5 points per dollar at grocery stores effectively nets you 10% back! For more details on this strategy, read our post on the Chase Trifecta.

    One important note is that if you’ve opened five or more cards from any bank (not counting business cards from Chase and other banks) in the past 24 months, it’s unlikely you’ll be approved for this offer. This is known as the “Chase 5/24 rule.”

    Bottom line

    Chase has changed the intro offer for the Chase Freedom Unlimited, and it’s the best we’ve ever seen. It comes with an amazing earning rate of 5% back (5 Chase points per dollar) on grocery purchases for the first cardmember year. Plus, it comes with a sign-up bonus of $200 bonus (20,000 Chase points) after meeting minimum spending requirements..

    Let us know if you jump on this deal! And subscribe to our newsletter for more deal alerts like this delivered to your inbox.

    Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)