Chase Freedom Unlimited Review | Bankrate (2024)

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The Chase Freedom Unlimited has long been a favorite among fans of cash back credit cards.The card’s higher rewards rate in several useful purchase categories and valuable perks mean that travelers and cash back enthusiasts can find a lot to love. Cardholders who make Chase Travel℠, Lyft, dining and drugstore purchases are the best candidates for this card.

Although it offers solid cash back in a handful of categories, it doesn’t have boosted rewards for general travel purchases or groceries. These two categories make up a majority of peoples’ annual spending, so you may want to pair the Freedom Unlimited with a higher-tier Chase travel credit card to maximize your rewards.

• Rewards

  • 5 percent cash back on Lyft purchases (through March 2025)
  • 5 percent cash back on travel booked through Chase Travel
  • 3 percent cash back on dining at restaurants
  • 3 percent cash back on drugstore purchases
  • 1.5 percent cash back on all other purchases

  Expert Appraisal: Exceptional
  See our expert analysis

• Welcome offer

  • Earn an extra 1.5% on everything you buy (on up to $20,000 spent in the first year) — worth up to $300 cash back. That’s 6.5% on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, 4.5% on dining and drugstores, and 3% on all other purchases.

  Expert Appraisal: Typical
  See our expert analysis

• 0% intro APR offer

  • Regular APR: 20.49 percent to 29.24 percent (variable)
  • Purchase intro APR: 0 percent for 15 months
  • Balance transfer intro APR: 0 percent for 15 months
  • Intro balance transfer fee: $5 or 3 percent of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater in the first 60 days. After that, $5 or 5% (whichever is greater).

  Expert Appraisal: Good
  See our expert analysis

• Rates and fees

  • Annual Fee: $0
  • Late payment: $40
  • Return payment: $40
  • Foreign transaction fee: 3 percent

  Expert Appraisal: Typical
  See our expert analysis

• Other cardholder perks

  • Complimentary DashPass subscription
  • Purchase protection and extended warranty coverage
  • Trip cancellation and interruption insurance

  Expert Appraisal: Good
  See our expert analysis

The Chase Freedom Unlimited is an all-around excellent card that has much to offer cardholders.

Rewards rate: Boosted cash back rate in everyday categories

The Chase Freedom Unlimited stands out as one of the most valuable no-annual-fee cash back cards on the market, and it especially shines for its elevated rewards rates in popular categories. For example, few cards offer 3 percent back at drugstores, a key spending category for many people. Though plenty of cards offer 3 percent cash back on dining, the Freedom Unlimited includes eligible takeout and delivery purchases in this category, while others may not.

The 5 percent rewards rate on Lyft purchases (through March 2025) and 5 percent cash back on all travel purchases in the Chase Travel portal give the card a great travel focus compared to other flat-rate cards. However, frequent travelers may benefit more from a travel-focused card, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card.

The Freedom Unlimited card stands out because it pairs the high cash back rates on tiered rewards cards with the boosted bottom line familiar to flat-rate cards. In addition, it also earns Chase Ultimate Rewards points, which you can redeem for cash back at a 1:1 rate.

Rewards program: Flexible and potentially powerful

The Chase Freedom Unlimited offers various redemption choices. You can redeem your cash back for a statement credit, direct deposit, travel, gift cards or online purchases at Amazon.com. Like many other credit cards, you can also redeem your rewards for charitable contributions (which currently have a 25 percent boost in value).

You can also combine your rewards with a premium Ultimate Rewards card, like the Chase Sapphire cards or the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, to enjoy additional flexibility. As a premium travel card holder, you can transfer rewards to one of Chase’s transfer partners at a 1:1 ratio, or redeem for travel purchases to receive an up to 50 percent boost to the value of your redemption. This feature makes the Chase Freedom Unlimited a crucial part of the popular and valuable Chase Trifecta, a three-Chase-card combination that allows you to maximize Ultimate Rewards.

Welcome offer: Unique cash back rate boost

The Freedom Unlimited card's latest welcome offer is a nice step up from its "business as usual" offer, giving you a chance at up to $300 in cash back. As a new cardholder, you can earn an additional 1.5 percent cash back on everything you buy, up to $20,000 spent in the first year. When maxed out, this new offer is a $100 boost to the card's typical offer of just $200 after spending $500 in your first three months.

Instead of earning a lump sum of bonus cash back after you meet a set spending requirement, you'll enjoy an extra 1.5 percent back on everything you buy. You'll earn 6.5 percent back on travel purchased through Chase Travel, 4.5 percent back on dining and drugstores and 3 percent back on all other purchases. These boosted rates apply to the first $20,000 you spend during your first year. After you meet that threshold, the rate drops back down to normal.

A 3 percent cash back rate is almost as good as it gets for general purchases, and 6.5 percent back on Chase Travel can offer huge savings if you have a trip on the horizon. This offer makes now a terrific time to apply for the Freedom Unlimited card. It improves on the card's typical offer and beats nearly every other sign-up bonus on other no-annual-fee cash back cards. The only downside is that in order to earn the full bonus, you'll need to spend $20,000 in your first year, which is tougher to meet than $500 in your first three months.

Cardholder perks: Generous for a card with no annual fee

You won’t find tons of perks on the Chase Freedom Unlimited like you’d find on a travel or luxury card. However, the card offers a few handy benefits rarely found on a no-annual-fee credit card.

Chief among these perks is a complimentary subscription to DashPass, DoorDash’s membership service, after you enroll. DashPass gets you unlimited deliveries with a $0 delivery fee on orders over $12. The Freedom Unlimited comes with three months of free DashPass membership, after which — if you don’t cancel beforehand — you’re automatically enrolled in DashPass for 50 percent off the monthly rate (typically $9.99 per month) for the next nine months. This offer is only eligible for those who activate the offer by Dec. 31, 2024.

The card also offers some perks designed to help save and protect your money, such as purchase protection and extended warranty protection. If something you bought with the card is damaged or stolen within 120 days of your purchase, the Freedom Unlimited covers the cost, up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account. Plus, eligible U.S. manufacturers’ warranties of three years or less on items you purchase with the card are extended by a year.

Finally, the card also comes with trip cancellation and interruption insurance. These are prized perks when travel looks uncertain, and you typically only find this level of coverage with travel cards that charge a hefty annual fee. If your trip is canceled or cut short due to sickness, severe weather or other covered circ*mstances, you can be reimbursed up to $1,500 per person and $6,000 per trip for prepaid tickets and non-refundable passenger fares.

Intro APR: Save on purchases and balance transfers

On top of a strong rewards program, the Chase Freedom Unlimited also comes with an intro APR on purchases and balance transfers. You don’t often see an intro APR on a rewards card — let alone an intro APR on both purchases and balance transfers. This gives the Chase Freedom Unlimited added flexibility and makes the card agood fit whether you want to minimize interest to pay for a large purchase over time or whittle away at card debt you transfer.

Keep in mind that a few rewards cards offer slightly longer intro APR offers, and dedicated balance transfer cards have the longest intro APRs available. If this feature is important to you, be sure to shop around.

The Chase Freedom Unlimited is a superb do-it-all card that can easily fit into most wallets. However, consider a few of its downsides before taking the plunge.

Maximizing rewards: It can get complicated

While earning rewards on the Chase Freedom Unlimited is straightforward because there’s no activation required or rotating categories to worry about, maximizing those rewards is another story. If you want to squeeze more value out of your earned rewards than the standard 1:1 cash back rate, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the Chase Travel portal. This is where you can redeem your earned points as well as access the Chase Offers program, which can help you earn morecash back for purchases at eligible retailers.

If you truly want to get the maximum value for your Chase Ultimate Rewards points, you need to add one of Chase’s premium travel cards to your wallet. The Sapphire Preferred and Reserve let you redeem points for travel through the Chase portal with a 25 percent or 50 percent bonus, respectively. These cards also allow you to transfer points to eligible travel partners, which could double your point value. This requires a bit of extra leg work and research, which may not suit your reward preferences if you want a straightforward cash back strategy.

Rates and fees: Nothing unexpected

The Chase Freedom Unlimited falls in line with what you’d expect from a no-annual-fee rewards card. While it doesn’t have hidden or surprise fees, the card also isn’t doing you any favors in this area.

The card charges a 3 percent foreign transaction fee, which will cut into your cash back earnings if you use it for international purchases. Chase charges the greater of $5 or 3 percent of the amount of any balance you transfer, which could end up as a sizable sum depending on how much you transfer.

The card’s interest rate ranges from slightly lower than the current average to around 30 percent. Its APR isn’t out-of-this-world, but you could get some hefty charges if you carry a balance after the intro period.

Bankrate credit cards editor Steve Dashiell added the Chase Freedom Unlimited to his wallet to complete the Chase Trifecta:

“By the time I was eyeing the Chase Freedom Unlimited, I was already familiar with the Chase Ultimate Rewards ecosystem. The Chase Freedom Flex (simply called the Chase Freedom back then) was the first credit card I opened after salvaging my credit score, followed shortly by the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

The ability to transfer points earned on the Freedom cards to the Sapphire cards is indispensable, though I knew I wasn’t truly maximizing my reward earnings with just two cards. The Chase Freedom Unlimited was the final piece I needed to create my rewards engine.

Now I follow the textbook example of credit card reward spending: I only use the Chase Freedom Flex for purchases on its rotating categories, the Reserve for its redemption value and boosted rates on travel and dining, and the Freedom Unlimited for its solid flat cash back rate on all other purchases. The rewards on these cards have covered numerous travel flights for my family in the past few years and I’d be hard-pressed to choose any other combination.”

— Steve Dashiell, Editor, Bankrate

While the Chase Freedom Unlimited pairs nicely with various rewards cards, you have two cards to consider when creating the best combination. When combined, you’ll complete the Chase Trifecta.

Just watch out for Chase’s 5/24 rule. If you’ve opened five or more cards in the past 24 months, you won’t be eligible to open a Chase credit card.

The Chase Freedom Unlimited could be an exceptional deal for anyone who spends in its top categories, wants a rewards card with an intro APR or plans to expand into the Chase Trifecta in the future. It’s hard to beat the card’s ongoing rewards, particularly given that most cards that offer bonus cash back in specific spending categories offer just 1 percent back on general purchases.

With plenty of options for redeeming your rewards, an intro APR and the opportunity for even bigger value, the Freedom Unlimited positions itself as a great all-around card.

Dig deeper:Is the Chase Freedom Unlimited worth it?

We rate credit cards using a proprietary card scoring system that ranks each card’s estimated average rewards rate, estimated annual earnings, welcome bonus value, APR, fees, perks and more against those of other cards in its primary category.

Each card feature is assigned a weighting based on how important it is to people looking for a card in a given category. These features are then scored based on how they rank relative to the features on other cards in the category. Based on these calculations, each card receives an overall rating of 1-5 stars (with 5 being the highest possible score and 1 being the lowest).

We analyzed over 150 of the most popular rewards and cash back cards to determine where each stacked up based on their value, cost, benefits and more. Here are some of the key factors that influenced this card’s overall score and how the score influenced our review:

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