I thought the 5x on groceries was a form of sign-up bonus and would not apply on a PC. Did I misunderstand?

Self-edit.

Thanks

I looked at my CSR transactions and see that both my CVS Caremark mailorder and my monthly YMCA charges says "health and wellness" for category. This will be great if my gym membership would get the bonus points. I always thought drug stores were a different catgetory than gyms.

They are different, The broad Chase categories that you see are not the VISA/MasterCard merchant classifications which determine bonus eligibility.

My next interest is whether a hospital specialty pharmacy would get the drug store bonus.

Try it and let us know. Unlikely, IMO.

This is how I interpreted it as well.

I PC'd from the regular Freedom and got my Freedom Flex today. Although you can't add it through the Digital Wallets section of the Chase app, it does work with Apple Pay if you add it through the Wallet app (I suspect Google Pay would be similar). The card itself isn't contactless, which is a step backward from the Freedom it's replacing, but I haven't used that feature much (almost all contactless is Apple Pay for me). Just thought I'd share since there was a lot of concern about the "no digital wallet" comment from customer service when PC'ing.

Does anyone know if PC'ing a CF to the CFF will count against 5/24? We all know it shouldn't but I'm a little concerned that the Visa to MC switch will confuse the computers at Chase.

Oh, you got my hopes up!

And you dashed my hopes (although what you said had popped into my mind even as I read jamesteroh's post).

I'll find out soon. Placing an prescription order tomorrow.

It may depend on how long ago you opened the CF card. If more than 24 months ago, no issue that I can see.

Do you not know how Chase does 5/24 calculation?

They pull your credit report and count the cards (both open and closed) which show an "opened on" date in the past 24 months.

So as long as you opened your CF more than 24 months ago, the CFF will inherit the age of the card from the CF for credit bureau reporting purposes. So even if both cards show up on the credit report for a period of overlap, both cards will show as too old to be a 5/24 factor.

And since Chase determines 5/24 by checking your credit report, all should be fine.

The only confusion possible that i see is if someone got their CF card less than 24 months ago, then it the CF card doesn't drop off of the credit report before the CFF card hits the credit report, that could look like one extra card opened in the past 24 months for a short time. (I would expect the CF card to eventually drop off of the credit report, but I don't know about the timing.) I would presume a recon call to Chase could straighten that out (similarly to how sometimes recon calls are sometimes needed to straighten out Chase 5/24 computers getting confused about AU accounts).

Which is a reason to not product convert a CF card that's less than 24 months old to CFF, if you're worried about that.

But it's a reason to have no concern about product converting a CF card that's more than 24 months old.

Received my Freedom Flex card today - disappointed that it is not contactless. It does work with Apple Pay however

I can't seem to find this info anywhere. To take advantage of the cell phone insurance, do I have to buy it through the carrier?

That's a big miss in the current environment (I strongly preferring contactless at the moment and using the physical card to tap is easier than Apple Pay with a mask).

I assume this is a MasterCard issue since the rest of the Chase family with contactless is all Visa? Though the Citi cards are all Mastercard and contactless so it shouldn't be a big issue for Chase to include the relevant Mastercard requirements

You just pay your cellphone bill with this card

The benefits guide is here: https://www.chasebenefits.com/freedomflex

How does the 0% APR on a new application work with the sign-up bonuses?

We've been considering a Peloton and there's no real downside to taking the 0% APR approach through Affirm which was our plan to date. However, the Freedom Flex has 0% for 15 months so now I'm thinking maybe I just grab the new Freedom Flex and use the 15 month 0% APR via Chase (shorter timeframe than Peloton so higher monthly payment but that's fine), use my hard pull for the Freedom Flex I want anyway and knock out the sign-up bonus at the same time.

Is there any downside? Does the first $500 have to be paid off in full to collect the sign-up bonus. Obviously we'll pay the whole thing off in 15 months, just want to make sure I'm not missing anything and there's no downside to either the sign-up bonus or the first 12 month 5% grocery bonus (the two big benefits of opening this as a new card vs. a PC).

Duke787, are you sure that all of Chase Visa's are contactless?

My regular Freedom card (Visa), updated for a new expiration date only about half a year ago, is also not contactless. Did the regular Freedom card ever go contactless?

The Hyatt card and Southwest Performance card, which I got well before I got the updated Freedom card, were contactless, so obviously they are not doing them all at once.

Just got a freedom card (switched from CFU) and it's contactless.

The Freedom is definitely contactless. As you said perhaps yours was issued prior to the switchover.

I downgraded from CSR to CFU and got the card today, contactless.

different number but it showed up in my Apple Pay last week.

Yeah Freedom is definitely contactless. Been using it at Whole Foods this quarter. Not sure about Hyatt, it’s in my sock drawer, but my core 3 of CF, CFU, and CSR are all contactless.

Sorry to add to the echo chamber, but I got a CF last December, and it was contactless. I PC'd it to a CFF last week and the new card arrived as not-contactless. From what I've gathered, any personal Visa card issued by Chase is contactless. If you have a Visa from Chase and want contactless, it may be worth a call/message/app request for a replacement and it would be probably contactless. The IHG cards are Mastercards and not contactless either.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...912c3b8eb.jpeg

Will be interesting to see if Chase ever goes above 3x for a non-rotating, non Chase Travel portal category on either of the Sapphire cards...

So my neighbor's new Freedom Unlimited arrived. I helped her set up Chase online account then it shows she has a closed Freedom from Ions ago! I am really surprised!

In any case when I showed her the Ultimate Reward site, I noticed her newly minted Freedom Unlimited does NOT show 5x at grocery store at all! She definitely went thru the current offer on Chase own site that showed the 5x for 12 months offer to apply for this card... but the application went time out. She subsequently reapplied, but I had no idea whether she used the web offer again or simply did it thru phone rep who confirmed there was no record of the app the day before.

Shouldn't all Freedom Unlimited applied whether thru web or thru phone rep get the same 5x at grocery store?

The bonus is based on spending, not payments. So you would be okay, though obviously as you already note it's important to have a plan to have everything paid down by the time the rate expires and to always make at least the minimum payment each month.

if you want a contactless Chase Visa, I think there is now an option to pick that reason for replacement card on the website. Otherwise, it will automatically come on the next renewal. No idea if Flex will ever have contactless.

I also recently received the CFU and looked at the benefits part of both the website and app, neither shows 5% grocery (unlike the giant 3% dining/drugstore images), and I know I applied through my account that showed the offer. I waited until a grocery purchase posted and saw that I did get the extra 3.5%. I'd recommend doing that to confirm it whether or not your neighbor is getting the benefit, before contacting Chase.

Thanks a lot for sharing the very helpful info. I would let my neighbor know this.

Second this, but I'll add that before this option came along, marking the card as damaged worked too. The card # doesn't change if you choose damaged, just the cvv and expiration. The old card also works until the new one is activated.

Can one get a freedom flex sign on bonus if one already has the freedom card open (from many years ago)?

It is a new card. You can get the SUB and keep the Freedom open, they are both no fees. The old Freedom is not accepting new applicants.

Was wondering the exact same thing! Haven't tried a grocery store purchase yet to see if I get the 5% back, but I'm glad others also noticed.

Have had the CSR since the 100K bonus, have kept it as I thought the benefits were worth it and we were certainly traveling quite a bit the past few years. Pondered getting the CFU in the past but didn't. Finally got it for my wife and I. Now that we have both, I'm just slightly confused as it seems there's quite a bit of overlap. It seems the only reason to actually spend any money on the CSR is for non-chase portal travel (like Lyft), and any rotating categories. Is that right? Now that CFU earns 5x on travel via the portal and 3x on dining and of course 1.5x on anything else, why wouldn't we just use the CFU for everyday spending?

I think that everyday spending was always the intent for Freedom Unlimited, even before drug stores were a bonus category, and it is true today. As you note, FU would absolutely be preferred over Sapphire Reserve for drug stores now, but it was preferred even before now. For dining, it's a toss-up between FU and SR, but any points earned on SR would not need to be transferred from FU to SR. I see no reason to prefer the FU over SR for dining unless one would not otherwise carry the SR. (If one had Sapphire Preferred, of course, dining should go on the FU.)

You should use the CFU for every day spending - the kicker is that you should have always used a CFU for everyday spending if you had a Chase Sapphire Reserve! The enhancements to the Freedom Unlimited just make it more obvious.

I use my CSR for Pay Yourself Back purchases and Travel. All remaining spend goes on other cards. I don't use the UR portal for cash bookings, so that CFU 5x category is useless to me.

Yeah I see that now lol. Oh well, you live and learn!