Chase Freedom vs Chase Freedom Unlimited!

[grillandwinemaster]

 So I'm seriously considering going with UR travel program.  In your opinion, is it really worth going with the Chase Freedom Unlimited for the 0.5% vs the regular Freedom? 

Assuming you take FULL advantage of the category spend, the unlimited only gives you a 0.5% advantage over the regular Freedom. 

In your opinion, is the Unlimited, in conjunction with regular freedom, worth the hp, New tradeline, and the hit on your AAofA?

Please share your thoughts on the infamous Chase Trifecta. Or, is a "Daily Double" of regular Freedom/CSP-CSR sufficient? 

TIA

*edited to correct the name to "unlimited."

[Anonymous]

Unlimited........or did they change the name? 

[Anonymous]

I assume you are talking about chase freedom and chase unlimited. 

I think you should only get chase unlimited if you have CSR. If you don't have CSR, don't get it. 

So what you'll do is... CSR for restaurants at 3%. Chase freedom for quarterly 5%. The rest on chase unlimited at 1.5%. 

Then combined all the UR points under CSR. 

CSR gives an additional 50% worth towards travel. So your 1.5% earned on Chase unlimited is actually 2.25% (better than CITI double cash)

**if you don't travel a lot. Don't get the card. 

[Revelate]

Better solution is to just get both.

If I had to go one or the other I'd pick the Unlimited personally as default spend at 2.25% base on a Visa is a thing when married to the Reserve, and popular revolving categories (for me anyway) can generally be covered differently.  If your spend lines up differently maybe it's reversed for you.

If you're stacking UR, stack it, though in my case, I justified the CSR even on my restaurant spend without the travel bit... and suddenly I have 70% of my meals absolutely covered even when I am in town other than if I'm going out on a date.  Benefits to having a gig with a company that still is making money hand over fist and puts a lot of it towards employee perks; ultimately free > rewards, especially when the food is often better than what I'd get on my own haha.  Ah well, my budget is passing strange now.

[Anonymous]

If you are married to chase, travel, all spend with them, the trifecta makes sense. I redeem more overall with my regular freedom because I use bonus categories. 0.5% loss doesn't make up.

I myself guilty of spreading spend between companies so even though you might get 2% with Citibank or CU it may or may not transfer over to a partner Chase has so that's leaving it on the table.

[grillandwinemaster]

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@Justagirl73 wrote:

Unlimited........or did they change the name? 

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It's not you, it's me...

I edited my post, oops

[Anonymous]

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@grillandwinemaster wrote:

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@Justagirl73 wrote:

Unlimited........or did they change the name? 

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It's not you, it's me...

I edited my post, oops

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Blame it on the wine......that's what I do 

[longtimelurker]

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@grillandwinemaster wrote:

 So I'm seriously considering going with UR travel program.  In your opinion, is it really worth going with the Chase Freedom Unlimited for the 0.5% vs the regular Freedom? 

Assuming you take FULL advantage of the category spend, the unlimited only gives you a 0.5% advantage over the regular Freedom. 

In your opinion, is the Unlimited, in conjunction with regular freedom, worth the hp, New tradeline, and the hit on your AAofA?

Please share your thoughts on the infamous Chase Trifecta. Or, is a "Daily Double" of regular Freedom/CSP-CSR sufficient? 

TIA

*edited to correct the name to "unlimited."

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I think the "rule" might be slightly different for the CSP vs CSR.  

With the CSP, a transferred 1.5 UR becomes 1.875c when used for travel on the Chase UR portal.  This is obviously less than a 2% card, so if that is the way to redeem your URs, the FU is less attractive.    If you transfer to partners and get much more value, then I think the answer is obvious anyway, get the FU for daily spend if this is large enough and the Freedom if the potential categories are useful to you.  (Assuming that you have enough travel to use the URs)

With the CSR, the transferred poitns are worth more than a 2% card, so, again assuming you travel enough to consume the URs, the FU would be the way to go for uncategorized spend, with the Freedom if you can use the categories

(If uncategorized spend is small, and the Freedom categories are useful, and you can only have one card, get Freedom)

Apart from the increase in value on CSR, I think it has another impact: the additional AF ($65 more than CSP effectively) sort of nudges you to embrace the UR program more.

[wilmer007]

I have the Unlimited and it works for me as i put pretty much everything on my BCP for 6% CB and then whatever doesn't fall into that 6% CB (such as cell phone bill, healthcare bill, walmart, costco, etc... ) i put those on the CFU. this combo is actually really effective and i highly recommend doing. i'll get the CF eventually but all those quarterly categories i get on my BCP anyways. maybe i'll get the CF when i spend more than $6k a year on my BCP.

[longtimelurker]

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@wilmer007 wrote:

I have the Unlimited and it works for me as i put pretty much everything on my BCP for 6% CB and then whatever doesn't fall into that 6% CB (such as cell phone bill, healthcare bill, walmart, costco, etc... ) i put those on the CFU. this combo is actually really effective and i highly recommend doing. i'll get the CF eventually but all those quarterly categories i get on my BCP anyways. maybe i'll get the CF when i spend more than $6k a year on my BCP.

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Do you have a transfer card as well (CSR/CSP/Ink), or plan to?  If not, a 2% card is going to be better than CFU.