Credit Card Details

The Chase Freedom® MasterCard - $100 Bonus Cash Back has a lot to offer to the cardholder. Once you are approved and start using the card, there will be a $100 bonus credited to your account after making $800 in qualifying transactions within the first 3 months. The transactions include purchases, balance transfers, and checks, but cash advances do not count. You earn 1% rebate for every dollar spend, which is to be expected of a good cash back credit card. However there are also rotating categories every quarter, which qualifies for a 5% rebate. Most people regularly make purchases in these categories, so the added cash back is a nice feature.

• January 31st – March 31st: Groceries and Drugstores
• April 1st – June 30th: Home improvement, Home Furnishings, Lawn and Garden
• July 1st – September 30th: Gas, Airlines, Hotels
• October 1st – December 31st: Restaurant, Department Stores, Movies, Charities

They do have a quarterly maximum, which is often as high as $1,500 in purchases. You are still eligible for the 1% after reaching the maximum.

You can save up to a 10% discount in addition to any cash back earnings, when using their online shopping links to hundreds of merchant. The only requirement is to use the links provided in your rewards account, which allows Chase to track your purchases and issue the rebates.

I find this to be an exceptional offer, where everyone who plans their purchases strategically by knowing the yearly schedule for the 5% rewards can benefit greatly from the Chase Freedom credit card. The savvy cardholder may consider this in a combination with other cards, which also have rotating categories offering 5% cash back. This approach could increase the earnings, but it would also become more complicated. However I believe Chase Freedom has the edge, simply because of the limits being much higher than anyone else.