1st Quarter Bonuses Ending Soon
This is just a friendly reminder that you have only 8 days remaining to use your Chase Freedom at a grocery store, Starbucks or a movie theater in order to earn 5% cash back on those purchases. (Or 5x Ultimate Rewards points if you have a Sapphire Preferred (my review) or Ink Plus/Bold card.)
On a side note: the same applies for the Citi Dividend 1Q bonus at Macy’s and Home Furnishing Stores (yawn) and Discover It (my review) at Gas & Ground Transportation (better).
The Chase Freedom
For those who don’t know, the Chase Freedom card (my review) has different categories that pay back 5% every quarter. This quarter the big category is grocery stores, which is really good since they are very easy to manufacture spend at. (Not to mention many people spend $1,500 at grocery stores in three months anyway.)
Last week when I asked people how they manufacture spend, the most common answer was grocery stores. Just about everywhere in this country it is possible to walk into a grocery store and purchase a $500 gift card for $5.95. These cards can then be loaded to Bluebird/Serve at Walmart or even REDbird at Target.
Since the Freedom’s 1Q bonus is capped at $1,500 in spending, don’t go overboard, but don’t leave money on the table. If you were to purchase 3 x $500 gift cards for $1517.85, you would receive 7,518 points or $75.18 in cash back thus resulting in a profit of AT LEAST $57.33.
I don’t redeem my points for cash back though. After several years of doing this, I conservatively value my Ultimate Rewards points at 1.7 cents each. So for me, maxing out my Freedom card means a profit of $109.96. Definitely worth a quick trip to the grocery store.
Conclusion
I personally have two Freedom cards and while I have already maxed out one of them, the other has been sitting silently in my credit card book. With time running out, I think I better get to the grocery store sooner rather than later. It may have to wait though, because something else takes priority today!
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Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
