Chase Freedom Unlimited® Review

Overview

The Chase Freedom Unlimited® is a points-earning card from Chase, running on the Visa network. The Chase Freedom Unlimited® earns up to 3x on dining and drugstores, so it pays you the most exactly where you already spend. There is no annual fee, which means every dollar of rewards is pure profit. New cardholders can earn $200 cash bonus after $500 in 3 months.

It earns its keep without an annual fee, which is rare for a card with real bonus categories. That combination makes it a strong everyday keeper that you never have to justify paying for.

Our 4.0 out of 5 rating

Each score weighs the rewards rate, value after the annual fee, welcome offer, points flexibility, and perks, with every point valued at a flat 1 cent. This is our editorial assessment to help you compare cards, not a guarantee of approval or of the value you will get.

Rewards: how it earns

Where the Chase Freedom Unlimited® earns its rewards is its bonus categories: 3x on dining (about $90 a year on the $3,000 a typical household spends there) and 3x on drugstores (about $14 a year on the $480 a typical household spends there). Across a full year of average household spending, the card returns roughly $446 in rewards before any welcome bonus, so the more your spending overlaps those categories, the better it does.

Every point and mile above is valued at a flat 1 cent, the same honest standard we use for every card. Run your own spending through the calculator to see what this card would actually return for you.

Pros and cons

The welcome bonus

The current welcome offer is $200 cash bonus, earned after you spend $500 in 3 months. Valued honestly at a flat 1 cent per point, that is worth about $200. The spending requirement works out to roughly $166 per month, so make sure it fits your normal budget rather than pushing you to overspend. Stacking the welcome offer on top of a typical year of rewards and accounting for no annual fee, the first year is worth roughly $646.

Is the annual fee worth it?

The Chase Freedom Unlimited® has no annual fee, so there is no break-even math to worry about. Every dollar of rewards is profit, and you can keep it open for free, which also helps the average age of your credit over time.

Benefits and protections

Beyond the rewards, the perks and protections worth knowing about include:

• Pool points with Chase Sapphire for 1:1 airline and hotel transfers
• Trip cancellation/interruption insurance
• Purchase protection and extended warranty
• Secondary rental car coverage

Statement credits

This card does not come with recurring statement credits. Its value is in the rewards rate and welcome offer.

Ecosystem and transfer partners

The Chase Freedom Unlimited® earns Ultimate Rewards, one of the more valuable currencies in rewards because of where the points can go. On its own it earns flexible points, but paired with a premium Chase card you can pool them together and unlock 1 to 1 transfers to 8 airline and hotel partners: United Airlines, World of Hyatt, Southwest Airlines, British Airways, Air France/KLM, Singapore Airlines, Air Canada, and Virgin Atlantic. As an earner, its job is to rack up points cheaply that you move to a hub card before transferring. The sweet spots are usually premium-cabin flights and high-end hotel nights, where a single point can be worth well more than the 1 cent we value it at here.

Who should get it, and who should skip it

It is best for people whose biggest monthly spending is dining and drugstores and who want to maximize those categories without paying an annual fee.

Skip it if your spending does not line up with its bonus categories, or if you would rather not think about where you swipe at all.

How it compares

If the Chase Freedom Unlimited® is not quite the right fit, these related cards are worth weighing against it:

Frequently asked questions