Chase Freedom®

10-second breakdown:

Designed to be your daily spending credit card so you can rack up big cash back bonuses, the Chase Freedom card is for individuals with a good credit score looking to indulge themselves a little bit with their rewards.

Key benefits:

• Rotating categories that allow you to get 5% cash back (up to $1500 in purchases).
• Spend $500 in your first 3 months and you’ll get $150 bonus.
• Intro APR is 0% for the first 15 months on purchases and transfers.

Who it’s for:

Very few people have flawless credit scores, so the top tier of rewards cards might be just out of reach. What if you’re one of the majority without a perfect score but still want a kick butt cash back rewards program? Chase has your back.

This card is for individuals with good credit (from 700 to 749).

The details:

The Chase Freedom doesn’t have the stringent credit score requirements of higher tier cards but still packs in plenty of cash back bonuses for you to chew on. There’s 1% cash back on everyday purchases and 5% cash back on certain categories that rotate every quarter. Chase makes it simple to hit the 5% cash back as much as possible, some of their categories have been gas stations, grocery shopping, restaurants and holiday shopping. It’s a shame you can’t pick the categories yourself, but at least they make it easy to get your full cash back bonus. Similar to their competitors, the 5% is capped off on $1,500 worth of purchases every quarter.

One big advantage the Chase Freedom card has over other cash back rewards cards and even those with stricter requirements is their sign on bonus. They offer a $150 bonus if you spend $500 or more in purchases during the first three months after opening your account.

In addition, there are no annual fees at all and Chase offers 0% APR for the first 15 months for both purchases and balance transfers. After that they offer a variable APR of 14.24% up to 23.24% based on credit history and score – it’s roughly the industry average you’ll find on most cash back rewards cards. It’s a great deal if you’ve been looking to make a large purchase – you can pay it off over time while still earning competitive cash back rewards.

The great part about this card is how approachable it is. If you haven’t been a saint with your credit in the past or don’t have much of a history to speak of, you may still qualify for the Chase Freedom card and start building, or re-building, your credit. It’s a great card to start out with and hit the ground running. The really cool part is that all of the cash back rewards never expire, so you never need to worry about finding a place to ‘dump off all of your points’ before they go away forever.

If you have been racking up the rewards points recently, spending them won’t be difficult. All of the rewards are accrued through Chase’s ‘Ultimate Rewards’ program. Your points can be spent on any number of things including gift cards, Amazon purchases, cash back and more. The points roughly translate to 1¢ per point, and the cash back bonus requires a minimum of 2,000 points spent for $20. While it’s true that the points never expire, if you’re a low monthly spender it might be frustrating to watch the cash back slowly build up and have to wait until you hit that magic 2,000 mark.

Chase recently unveiled a mobile app for Freedom cardholders that’s free for all members. It tracks your reward points and can be used to purchase e-gift cards right from the app. The cards are stored on your phone and work just like regular gift cards, you can scan them when checking out at participating retailers.

If you’re willing to wait until you get home, you can get a better deal using your rewards points on Chase’s Ultimate Rewards website. If you purchase the same goods from the same retailers but through Chase’s online portal, you earn an additional 10% cash back on the purchase. This doesn’t just apply to spending your rewards points either, you can go onto their Ultimate Rewards site and spend on your credit card and earn the 10% back as well.

No card is perfect, there are a couple of pain points with the Chase Freedom card worth considering before you fill out the application. If you’re a frequent traveler, unfortunately the Freedom will charge you an international fee whenever you make a purchase abroad.

The rotating rewards aren’t for everyone. Although Chase chose very popular categories, you don’t have any say in the matter and in order to be eligible you need to remember to log into their website every quarter and enroll in the rewards. More of a minor annoying than a deal breaker but it’s annoying if you already spent money at the gas pump and missed your 5% because you didn’t activate the quarterly bonus yet.

Although you will need a good credit history to get your hands on one, Chase’s Freedom card is a great daily spender that offers great cash back rewards that tempt you to splurge a little.

For complete rankings of all personal credit cards, go here.

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