You Could Earn $1,370 in One Year With This Card
KEY POINTS
- The Chase Freedom Unlimited® has a limited-time double cash back welcome offer.
- Chase matches the cash back you've earned after your first 12 months of spending.
- If you spend $4,000 on your credit card per month, you could potentially earn $1,370 in one year of using the Chase Freedom Unlimited®.
The Chase Freedom Unlimited® was already a great cash back card, but Chase recently gave it a big upgrade. It added a new, double cash back welcome offer for a limited time. After you've been using the card for 12 months, Chase matches the cash back you've earned, and there's no limit to how much it will match.
Thanks to that change, you could earn $1,370 in one year by using the Chase Freedom Unlimited®. Here are more details on this card's cash back rewards and how they could add up to that much.
Click here to apply for the Chase Freedom Unlimited®.
The impressive cash back rates of the Chase Freedom Unlimited®
To start, let's look at the cash back rates for the Chase Freedom Unlimited®. Here's how much it normally earns and how much you can earn in the first year, after factoring in the double cash back offer:
- 5% on travel purchased through Chase Travel (10% in the first year with the welcome bonus)
- 5% on Lyft rides through March 31, 2025 (10% in the first year with the welcome bonus)
- 3% on dining, which also includes takeout and eligible delivery services (6% in the first year with the welcome bonus)
- 3% at drugstores (6% in the first year with the welcome bonus)
- 1.5% on other purchases (3% in the first year with the welcome bonus)
Since this is a no annual fee card, it's free to use. If you avoid any other credit card fees, such as late fees and interest charges, then you'll come out ahead from all the cash back you earn. Just make sure to pay your credit card bill on time and in full every month.
How you could earn $1,370 in one year with this Chase card
For an example of how much cash back you could earn with this card, we can do some math based on a hypothetical budget. The average American household spends $6,081 per month. But that includes bills you can't put on a credit card, such as housing (at $2,025 per month).
To make it easy, let's assume that you average $4,000 per month ($48,000 per year) in credit card spending. Based on that, we'll assume you spend the following during the first 12 months using the Chase Freedom Unlimited®:
- $4,500 per year on travel (booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards): $450 cash back*
- $500 per year on Lyft rides: $50 cash back*
- $4,000 per year on dining: $240 cash back*
- $1,000 per year at drugstores: $60 cash back*
- $38,000 on other purchases: $570 cash back*
*Cash back amounts are the totals after factoring in the double cash back welcome offer.
It adds up to $1,370 in cash back: $685 you earned from your spending, and another $685 once Chase matches it. That could take six to eight weeks from the end of the 12th monthly billing cycle, according to the offer terms.
The exact amount of cash back you earn will depend on your expenses. If you're a big spender, then this Chase card is one of the best credit card options because the welcome offer is unlimited. For example, if you spend enough to earn $1,000 in cash back, Chase will double that.
Even if you don't spend that much, the Chase Freedom Unlimited® is still worth checking out. The cash back rates were already competitive with the top cash back credit cards. With the double cash back welcome bonus, those rates are even more impressive.
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