trikotret

Your UR points stay with new product until you use them. You earn 5x Travel when you book flights or hotels through Chase travel portal.

RNE

I'm not sure either now that I think about it. OK, lemme try this again.

• I'll pay the CSR's AF in October.
• After my December statement closes, I'll earn a $300 statement credit, and then downgrade it to something else and get a prorated refund.
• In January (which is 49 months after my last Sapphire SUB posted), I'll apply for the CSP to get its SUB.
• At some point in the foregoing, I may apply for a CFF to get its SUB. (Yes, to me, 20k is worth a 5/24 slot.)

How's that sound?

pallhedge

Yes, your points will stay with the CFU.

Yes, assuming no change in Chase's policy regarding combining UR points

You won't earn 5x if you book using points, only if you pay cash.

Perfect! It sounds like exactly what I would do. You have from now until December to plan how you will quickly use up the new travel credit so you can downgrade CSR as soon as possible

Diplomatico

Anyone else think the Flex Freedom is the credit card equivalent of a "thirst trap"?

Chase sucks people in for the new card....then denies the people who apply/re-apply for CSP/CSR after 48 months due to "too much credit in the last xxx months".

Happy

Do we still have "indefinite" time after the AF is billed, to downgrade and still get Pro-Rated refund?

I thought the window has shortened to like 45 days or 60 days from the time AF is billed, in order to still got pro-rated refund from the AF when downgrade the CSR to another product? Can't remember where the DPs were posted else I would try to find that.

The only CSR in our household sees the AF posted on Sept 1st. I would like to find out if the downgrade pro-rated refund still works for the whole duration of the fee-based card's whole year versus a limited time.

Thru 12/31/20 the travel credit can be met thru grocery and gas spend - so that is relatively easy even many of us only have a week or so to do it (statement closes by last week of Dec, if your CSR was gotten during the first few days of introduction in 2016).

Happy

Somehow I got that gut feeling as well.

The current CSP while earning structure is inferior, the sub is 3x of what the new freedoms are, granted the required spend is much higher. Also it is only 1 card slot

I would also be cautious even if one is only 1/24 - because Chase obviously does not like new card applications being spaced too closely even you are way under 5/24 - the last thing you want is to have system flag you as "opening too many new cards in too short of a period" type of thing which has happened many times in the past few years, so should not be any news to anyone reading this forum - being low on the 5/24 is one thing, being a frequent applicant to new credit card is another thing, and argubly more alert-worthy to the risk assessment algo (burst mode).

Why some folks want to make quick decisions versus wait to see how things unfold first?

Adelphos

It’s interesting, I for one gave never gotten a Sapphire bonus at all - I have always applied for various Freedom cards, earned those bonuses, and upgraded to the Sapphire Preferred, then Reserve... While getting a Sapphire bonus is cool, at the end of the day the bonuses aren’t that unique (60,000 transferable points can be bad with Amex and Citi), and some of these Freedom bonuses aren’t that inferior. The cool thing about Chase is that as long as you have the credit line, you can always upgrade / downgrade

zorbachs

To be clear, the current Freedom will not earn 3x on dining on 9/13, correct? I would need to use the FU or get the Freedom Flex?

Happy

For those thinking about product change - this is the latest confirmed by Chase Media Team

https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.c...-freedom-only/

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/tip-p...dom-cards-now/

Of course this from the bloggers therefore no Chase official announcement in case some insists on those to be the only verifiable source.

Barciur

It appears that Freedom will be grandfathered and I can keep that, and then I can just apply for Flex. Can we assume that rotating categories will stay and be the same on Freedom as well as Flex? In other words, can I apply for the Flex but keep my Freedom for Costco use and just about nothing else, maybe a second set of 5x cashback? I wonder how all of this will work - can you double your quarterly allowance for Flex and Freedom that way or will they keep you to one limit on both cards.

diesteldorf

I currently have a Chase Freedom Unlimited and a Chase Sapphire Reserve, with an annual fee that renews April, 2021. I was initially going to wait until September 14 to product change my Freedom Unlimited to the new Freedom Flex, but decided to jump the gun and product change to the original Freedom while it is still available.

1, There is a rumor that one will only be permitted to hold one Freedom Flex card, so by getting a Freedom now, I'll still have the option to hold a Freedom Flex in the future

2. I currently have 6-7 months worth of credits on my cell bill from various overpayments, so I would not be eligible for the cell phone insurance benefit until March or April 2021

3. Since the Citi Double Cash started allowing the conversion of cash to Thank You Points at a rate of 1:1, it has taken most of the spend that previously went on my Chase Freedom Unlimited, since $1.00 equals 2 Thank You points, compared to 1.5 Chase UR points. At some point, when I decide to travel again, I'll get a premium Citi card and convert all my cash back to points and transfer to airline partners at a rate of 1.1.

4. The Citi Double Cash is also a World Mastercard Elite, so it has all the Mastercard benefits that the Freedom Flex will have, minus the cell phone insurance.

5. When my Sapphire Reserve renews in April, 2021, I'll product change to a Freedom Flex. The original Freedom may be completely obsolete in 1-2 weeks, but I figured holding a grandfathered card that can always be changed at a later point was not a bad idea.

6. I am currently in the Amex ecosystem for dining and thought the Freedom Flex would be valuable to use overseas when Amex wasn't accepted. Then I remembered the Freedom Flex has a 3% fee on foreign transactions, so it's worthless to travel with anyway.

Anyone else planning to keep, or product change to, the original Freedom before it goes away?

mia

Some Citi Double Cash cards are World Elite, but not all. Some are World level cards.

When you convert Double Cash rewards to points they are placed in a separate ThankYou account which is not eligible to transfer to airlines. To work around this you can Share points from the Double Cash ThankYou account with a Prestige or Premier account, but bear in mind that Sharing is capped at 100,000 points per year.

wooootles

^I'm keeping my CF, since it's barely 2 months old, and I have a CFU that will get the same upgrades. Also from posts above, CF users can also get CFF so I am not in a rush to get CFF overall.

exp

My Citi Double Cash eliminated the extended warranty benefit.

So beware of what kinds of cards you get for bigger purchases.

jamesteroh

One thing to be careful as well with Citi double is that if you make large purchases and pay the balance in full each month, they may cancel the card even if it's not MS and legit business purposes. Citi closed my account last month and screwed me out of the rewards I earned in that period (luckily I cashed out my rewards right after the last statement closed and would have been a lot worse if I wouldn''t have). Theiir only explanation was they chose not to do business with me anymore and didn't have to give me the rewards I earned. I'm sure if I said in the middle of a statement period I didn't want to do business with Citi anymore, I'd be expected to pay back the money charged. I had this account for over five years and didn't pay a penny in interest (which is probably why they closed it), was never late and in fact made multiple payments some months so my credit line could be freed up and all were legit charges.

Also there are foreign transaction fees if you travel out of the country a lot, no bonus categories like with chase. I'd avoid Citi at all costs. If you are planning on keeping your CSF, just get a chase freedom unlimited and transfer the points over for non-bonus everyday spending . If you use it on travel you get 2.25% back in the end instead of 2 percent