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Best Beginner Travel Credit Card: Chase Freedom Flex Credit Card Review
The Chase Freedom Flex credit card is one of our favorite starter cards!
If you’re just getting into travel hacking, someone with limited credit, or someone who is young and trying to rebuild credit, the Chase Freedom Flex is one of the best travel credit cards to start with.
It’s an all-time favorite for a few reasons:
First of all, it’s part of the Chase Program:
- If you’re using the Chase Freedom Flex by itself, you’ll be able to earn cashback bonuses and points right away.
To be clear, the Chase Freedom Flex is just a cashback credit card to start, but if you have other Chase cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card or the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, you can transfer points from the Chase Freedom Flex which will become more valuable and transfer them into a lot of different programs.
- Great sign up bonus as a “ low tier card”
- Low spending threshold to get the $200 welcome bonus which is spending $500 in the first 3 months. That’s pretty easy to do for most people.
Read More: Top 10 Chase Sapphire Reserve Benefits
Other reasons why we love this starter credit card.
However, the really cool thing to keep in mind is that there’s a rotating 5% back category that rotates every 3 months (up to $1500 on combined purchase). Cashback awards do not expire as long as your account stays open.
*To get the 5% cashback, you need to login into your account and review the categories once every quarter.
If you’re paying attention to these rotating categories, it can sometimes work out really well with a category of 5% back with Online Shopping during holiday seasons such as:
- Shopping at Walmart/Amazon
- Restaurants
- Entertainment
- Home Improvement
Apart from the rotating categories, cardholders will earn cashback on other purchases:
- 5% on travel purchased through Ultimate Rewards.
- 3% on dining which includes takeout and eligible delivery services.
- 3% on drugstore purchases.
- 1% on all other purchases.
Read More: Chase Sapphire Preferred Review + Perks
2 big zeros with the Chase Freedom Flex that we love!
- A BIG $0 Annual Fee
- A 0% APR interest for a term of 15 months.
Some other things to be aware of:
The earnings aren’t great, 1% on each transaction.
**Be careful with the 0% interest for the first 15 months. The Chase Freedom Flex is a starter card, but you will still get retroactively charged for any balance that was left after the 15 months are over.
DO take advantage of the 0% interest by potentially paying off debt on other cards or make a large purchase with this card if you know you can pay it back in time with no added penalties during the first 15 months.
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