Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

iNathanDrake · ‎10-20-2016

Hey guys, I'm wondering if I should upgrade to the chase freedom unlimited card? I know most people say that the .5% isn't worth it compared to the rotating 5% cash back but I'm wondering if it might be right for me? I currently have AMEX blue cash (3k limit) , Quicksilver from Cap 1 (2k limit) and Chase Freedom (1200 limit -_-). I use my Amex as my primary card for everything, and have certain reccuring bills on my other 2 cards (Cell phone bills, insurance, etc, just to keep the cards in use!). With that said, I don't really take advantage of the 5% rotation as much since it isn't my primary card. I try to when possible ofcourse but its barely there. I easily spend over 600 at least on my freedom card monthly with the bills on it and am currently amounting 1% cash back. Do you think it's worth upgrading to the unlimited? I would lose out on the 15000 points (150 dollars free) which as I stated with bills I pay on the card I would easily make the 500 in the first 3 months. However, I feel conflicted on having 2 freedom cards, as I would favor one over the other, making my old freedom card redundant. Is the free 150 worth have 2 freedom cards? as opposed to just upgrading?

Also does anyone know if the upgrade counts as a hard pull? Any chance for an increase on upgrade? I've been at 1200 forever man and my other cards have all gone up atleast once or twice.

newhis · ‎10-20-2016

Upgrade will not be HP. There is no increase on PC. If you need more limit you need to burn a HP and ask for CLI.

If you have low util reported and good history, you may get the Unlimited and $150 with a better limit (with a HP). Keep the Freedom and only use for 5% cat, or don't use it for a few months and you can transfer all the limit to your new Unlimited. Good luck.

Anonymous · ‎10-20-2016

If you put a lot of value in UR points, Freedom + Freedom Unlimited (plus CSP or CSR plus Ink... heh) is a pretty killer combination. If you are just looking at cash back alone, QS and Freedom Unlimited are redundant to be honest, but if you never, ever use the quarterly bonus categories you'd get more out of the 1.5%, clearly. However, depending on spending habits and whether or not you rewards-chase you may or may not be leaving money on the table by not aligning your normal spending on the Freedom during a bonus quarter. I don't know what you spend your money on, but during the gas quarter the Freedom beats BCE and BCP (not sure which blue cash card you've got), and during the grocery quarter it beats BCE but not BCP (unless you've already maxed out the 6%)... etc etc etc heh.

iNathanDrake · ‎10-20-2016

@newhis wrote:
Upgrade will not be HP. There is no increase on PC. If you need more limit you need to burn a HP and ask for CLI.

If you have low util reported and good history, you may get the Unlimited and $150 with a better limit (with a HP). Keep the Freedom and only use for 5% cat, or don't use it for a few months and you can transfer all the limit to your new Unlimited. Good luck.

If I do that, transfer all the limit to the new unlimited card, do they close out my old card? Will that affect my age of accounts and all that good stuff?

iNathanDrake · ‎10-20-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
If you put a lot of value in UR points, Freedom + Freedom Unlimited (plus CSP or CSR plus Ink... heh) is a pretty killer combination. If you are just looking at cash back alone, QS and Freedom Unlimited are redundant to be honest, but if you never, ever use the quarterly bonus categories you'd get more out of the 1.5%, clearly. However, depending on spending habits and whether or not you rewards-chase you may or may not be leaving money on the table by not aligning your normal spending on the Freedom during a bonus quarter. I don't know what you spend your money on, but during the gas quarter the Freedom beats BCE and BCP (not sure which blue cash card you've got), and during the grocery quarter it beats BCE but not BCP (unless you've already maxed out the 6%)... etc etc etc heh.

I'm not sure how all the points and combinations work lol, all I've ever known was spend money, pay it back, earn cash back, apply that towards credit balance or gift cards lol.. I'm a noobie but I'm on top of my stuff and in good standing. How does all that points combination stuff work lol? I always thought it was redundant having 2 or more CC's from the same bank?

Anonymous · ‎10-20-2016

@iNathanDrake wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
If you put a lot of value in UR points, Freedom + Freedom Unlimited (plus CSP or CSR plus Ink... heh) is a pretty killer combination. If you are just looking at cash back alone, QS and Freedom Unlimited are redundant to be honest, but if you never, ever use the quarterly bonus categories you'd get more out of the 1.5%, clearly. However, depending on spending habits and whether or not you rewards-chase you may or may not be leaving money on the table by not aligning your normal spending on the Freedom during a bonus quarter. I don't know what you spend your money on, but during the gas quarter the Freedom beats BCE and BCP (not sure which blue cash card you've got), and during the grocery quarter it beats BCE but not BCP (unless you've already maxed out the 6%)... etc etc etc heh.
I'm not sure how all the points and combinations work lol, all I've ever known was spend money, pay it back, earn cash back, apply that towards credit balance or gift cards lol.. I'm a noobie but I'm on top of my stuff and in good standing. How does all that points combination stuff work lol? I always thought it was redundant having 2 or more CC's from the same bank?

Well, with Chase's Ultimate Rewards program, if you have the family of cards and are interested in redeeming in something that isn't straight cash back, the points are valued at well over a cent a point (straight cash back is still a cent a point, of course). So if you had the family you'd get 5 points on office supplies and cellular phone, landline, internet and cable TV services (Ink Cash or Ink Plus), 3 points on travel and dining (CSR, or 2 points for those categories on CSP), and 1.5 points on non-category spending (Freedom Unlimited), and of course the 5 points on the rotating categories of the Freedom (which were gas/local commuter travel, groceries/wholesale clubs, restaurants/wholesale clubs, and department stores/wholesale clubs/drug stores for 2016). Plus signup bonuses across the board.

Of course, the CSR and CSP (and Ink Plus but that's unnecessary here) have annual fees so you'd have to decide if pooling all of the points would be worth it (minimum to do so would be with a CSP at $95 annually).

Of course, this is a credit card board so people do this sort of thing, haha. It's not generally speaking something that everyone out there does. It isn't even something I do myself. I just know some people like to really, really maximize rewards and Chase'll let you do it.

iNathanDrake · ‎10-20-2016

I don't really know much about all of that lol and from what I've read the points benefit and max out best when being used for travel and flights, something I don't do too much of lol.

newhis · ‎10-20-2016

@iNathanDrake wrote:
@newhis wrote:
Upgrade will not be HP. There is no increase on PC. If you need more limit you need to burn a HP and ask for CLI.

If you have low util reported and good history, you may get the Unlimited and $150 with a better limit (with a HP). Keep the Freedom and only use for 5% cat, or don't use it for a few months and you can transfer all the limit to your new Unlimited. Good luck.
If I do that, transfer all the limit to the new unlimited card, do they close out my old card? Will that affect my age of accounts and all that good stuff?

Yes, they will close your old card. It will report for 10 years then it will drop, then maybe you can see a score change, and I say maybe because in 10 years you will have a better file anyway.

iNathanDrake · ‎10-21-2016

So would most of you say it's better to stick to the regular freedom card and just be more proactive on the rotating quarters? Would you say it's a bad decision to have both cards? Also, thinking of my future in the credit world, is there any card I should be after? What I mean is I'd like to have as many of my cards as early as possible to not affect AAOA later on. So thinking long term, in terms of personal needs and maybe vacations and flights (much later on lol) is there any cards I should start aiming for now? I also don't want to have a lot of cards. I feel its unecessary and then you have to make the effort to spend money on all of them to keep activity on them. I would ideally like to have 4 major cards at MOST, each with around 5-7 thousand per card. And MAYBE, a retail card or 2. Any advice? Suggestions?

newhis · ‎10-21-2016

If you only want to have 4 cards I will say go with Discover. First year they will match the cash back, so it will be a 2%-10% card (or more with online deals) after 13 months (you get some cash back month to month, and the 'match' on 13th statement).

Amex, Cap1 and Discover can grow with SP CLI. You can try CLI:

- Amex every 90 days if denial, 180 if aproved

- Discover every 30 days a 3-5 days after statement close

- Cap1 every 6 months (?)

When you need/want to travel, you can apply for Chase Reserve or the better travel card at the time. Good luck.