When it comes to earning rewards with credit cards, there are various ways to account for those rewards. For instance, Chase Bank’s rewards program is called Ultimate Rewards. Using the program, you receive points that can be redeemed for various awards. How you can use points is determined by the Chase card you possess. The fewest options are available to the Chase Freedom cards, which is reasonable since they do not have annual fees.
Even though the Freedom cards are called cash-back cards, that’s not true. One of the misunderstood things about Ultimate Rewards is that all Chase cards earn the same type of points. If you have a Freedom Unlimited card, you earn the same points as someone with a Sapphire Preferred. The only difference is the choices on the Ultimate Rewards website that the Sapphire Preferred cardholder can access are different than those available to the Freedom cardholder.
Here’s how Chase describes the cash back earned with the Freedom Unlimited card:
“Cash Back rewards” are the rewards you earn under the program. Cash Back rewards are tracked as points and each $1 in Cash Back rewards earned is equal to 100 points. You may simply see “Cash Back” in marketing materials when referring to the rewards you earn. You may also see, “points” or “Ultimate Rewards points” when referring to the points you can use
If you have a Freedom card and go to the Ultimate Rewards website to use your points, here are your options. Notice that there are more choices than just redeeming points for cash back.
That last one about Combine Points is important, but more about that in a bit.
If you have the Sapphire Preferred, your options are different. These are two options not available to Freedom cardholders:
The most important one is being able to transfer points to travel partners. This is when you transfer Ultimate Rewards to one of the Chase’s partners.
If you have both Freedom and an Ultimate Rewards card that charges an annual fee (such as Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve & Ink Business Preferred), you can transfer the points you earn with Freedom to a card that lets you send them to travel partners. This way, you can make the most of your Ultimate Rewards points.
Final Thought
The Chase Freedom Cards, Ink Cash, and Ink Unlimited cards are marketed as cash-back cards. However, the points earned with these cards aren’t limited to cash-back rewards. They can be redeemed for other rewards as well. Moreover, when you transfer the points from the Freedom or Ink cards to other Ultimate Rewards cards, their value becomes equal to the points earned with those cards.
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