- Yes, Freedom Unlimited is marketed as a cash back card, but earns Ultimate Rewards points
- Probably. Cardholders should be able to move UR points earned with other cards to their Sapphire Reserve UR account and redeem all of them at the Sapphire Reserve rate. No one has had the card long enough to have received a statement to verify this.
- You can redeem UR points from any card for cash. The rate is always $0.01 per point. Freedom Unlimited earns more points per dollar, but the points have the same value as any other UR card.
- Yes. See (2).
- Utilization is calculated based on the balance reported by the card issuer to a credit bureau. This is usually the balance which appears on your statement. The only way to have 0% utilization is the pay the bill in full before the statement is generated. The fact that you pay the bill in full before the next statement is invisible to the credit bureau.
Knowing this...it seems like it would be ignorant of me not to ditch my SWA Chase card in favor of the Freedom Unlimited since it has better earning potential and better redemption rates.
I just wonder what impact it'll have on my credit score and whether I'm better off just keeping the SWA and not using it, or closing the account completely...