Chase Freedom Q1 2018 5x Points Bonus Category Revealed

[woodyman100]

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@MrDisco99 wrote:
For those too lazy to follow the link:

The Freedom 5% bonus categories for Q1 2018 are...

Mobile payments (Chase Pay, Android Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay)

Cable/Internet/Phone service

Gas Stations


I see this as a major improvement over the previous quarter and over Q1 last year. Freedom is alive and well, folks.

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Definitely an improvement! I’ll max this out easily

[Anonymous]

This is great we have two Freedoms! I am glad that its not just gas stations, I do not use mobile pay but will to get these points.

[woodyman100]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@minski wrote:

Mobile payments, though? Hmm. I don't really have much use for that but I could try. 

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To be honest, I've never understood the allure of the "pay by phone" phenomenon. I don't find it more convenient than paying with a physical card. Maybe if 100% of the places I spend at accepted Android Pay, then I'd be able to not carry cards at all. But if even 1 out of 100 places doesn't take Android Pay, that means I have to carry all of my cards anyway. And a good percentage of the time, the cashier is uncertain which of the mobile platforms they support, and even when they say they know, they're often wrong. I think some don't even understand the difference between an Android phone and an Apple phone. There seems to be variance between PIN pads about how to activate pay. Do you tap the terminal with the phone? Wave it along one side? Hold it flat over the face of the pad? And sometimes even when it *should* work, none of the above will activate pay. And to make Android Pay work I need to secure my phone, which I hate doing, and unlock it before I make a purchase, which is a pain. And depending on the state my phone is in when I try to use AP, I may have to reenter my PIN, or lock and unlock the phone again. Way more hassle than it's worth.

OTOH, to get 5% cashback, I'll live with it, LOL.

Chris.

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AMEN!

[Anonymous]

$1500 x 7.5% travel URs assuming CSR is not horrible. Discover first year cash back smokes it at just $1125/quarter for Disco. But for those without the first year bonus this is excellent. $450/year potential if redeemed for travel with CSR bonus? Wow.

I don't have the Freedom or the 5% Discover but both are on my wish list down the line.

[Anonymous]

Chase is doing it a little differently this time around with their categories: Mobile Wallet Purchases (Chase Pay, Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay), Gas Stations, Internet Services & Cable TV, Phone Service.  Discover is doing: Gas Stations, Wholesale Clubs.  Citi Dividend is doing: Gas Stations, Car Rentals.

It is going to be a great spending quarter with all of these opportunities. 

My quarterly spending with these categories:

• Citi Dividend & Discover it for gas (except for at Shell)
• Chase Freedom at Shell Gas (see why by clicking on the hyperlink at the bottom of this post)
• Discover it at Sam's Club
• Chase Freedom for all of my mobile purchase and everything that I usually use my Chase Ink Cash for (internet, tv, phone).

You can also get 5¢/gal at Shell off with a partnership between Shell Fuel Rewards and Chase Freedom...

[mongstradamus]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Chase is doing it a little differently this time around with their categories: Mobile Wallet Purchases (Chase Pay, Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay), Gas Stations, Internet Services & Cable TV, Phone Service.  Discover is doing: Gas Stations, Wholesale Clubs.  Citi Dividend is doing: Gas Stations, Car Rentals.

It is going to be a great spending quarter with all of these opportunities. 

My quarterly spending with these categories:

• Citi Dividend & Discover it for gas (except for at Shell)
• Chase Freedom at Shell Gas (see why by clicking on the hyperlink at the bottom of this post)
• Discover it at Sam's Club
• Chase Freedom for all of my mobile purchase and everything that I usually use my Chase Ink Cash for (internet, tv, phone).

You can also get 5¢/gal at Shell off with a partnership between Shell Fuel Rewards and Chase Freedom.

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Hopefully tmobile will have another 25 cents off gallon promotion like they did this week for tmobile tuesdays

[Anonymous]

They are all kind of changing it up this year it seems; Dividend has not really offered any basic quarterly bonuses (which, in my opinion are gas, groceries etc) in years. And Discover....the last time they offered groceries it was for only one month instead of one quarter and that was probably almost 10 years ago. I am pretty excited about 2018's promotions.

Good to know about the Shell station with Chase Freedom. I am assuming reading the fine print that that would be in lieu of the Kroger relationship for $0.10 off per gallon for redeeming 100 fuel points. If that can be stacked then hallelujah. 

[MrDisco99]

That Shell promotion says nothing about needing to use your Freedom card to purchase gas to get the 5 cents off.  It's just giving Fuel Rewards gold status to Freedom card holders, which means you get 5 cents off regardless of what payment method you use.  You have to be a Fuel Rewards member to get the benefit.

I pretty much only fill up at Shell, so I have gold status anyway.  Nice to not have to think about whether I bought enough fill-ups this time, though.  I'll be using my Freedom card anyway since that gives me an additional 5% off, but it's not a requirement.

[Anonymous]

Wow I have got to make note of this & add my wife's freedom into Samsung pay! Easily post 60+ SamPay transactions a month. Gas won't help me with either chase or disco since except when traveling I only get Costco gas with 4% but phone/internet/cable is looking nice. Discover will get heavy grocery, dining and amazon use & honestly at this point I don't know why we haven't taken up citi on their offers to PC the wife's dividend to double cash. All their categories are either not anything we use or are stupidly redundant due to other cards. Really liking chase though, I wonder if I have to be Au to load her freedom into my SamPay? After realizing Au counts 5/24 I'm trying to avoid it

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
What's the cap on quarterly spending? I don't have the F yet just the FU. Also, 5% URs is 7.5% if redeemed for travel. Huge!

Mobile pay is so easy I taught my 70s mom and 80s neighbor to use it. They love it. Accepted everywhere around me. Even tiny restaurants around here are now accepting it. Went to a handmade goods fair and everyone had a Square contactless card reader. Everyone.

Cards are dead in the short term. Too much hassle, identity theft, wallet theft, etc. My old Android phone just works (fingerprint to unlock and tap). Takes 3 seconds to checkout at my supermarket.

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Huh.  Obviously, my experience is different than yours.   

I really don't understand the restaurant thing.  Any restaurant I go to, a waiter comes to the table with a bill in a folder, I stick my credit card in the folder, and the waiter takes it away to some hidden place in the restaurant and comes back a couple of minutes later with my card and a slip to sign.  I'm never close to, or even in sight of, a POS terminal.  What do I do, stick my phone in the folder instead of my card, and then make sure it's unlocked when the waiter takes it?  What happens if it locks between the time the waiter takes it runs it?  He has to run it back to the table for me to unlock?  With as busy as many restaurants are, that could take a lot of recursion.

Seems like there is going to be a lot of changes to a lot of POS situations (restaurants, gas stations, drive-thru windows) before "cards are dead" even in the medium term, let alone the short term.

Confused.

Chris.