Cash Back Goldmine: How to Maximize Chase Freedom's No Annual Fee!

Hey there Money Saver! Welcome back to another week of How to Save A Buck, where we explore ways of saving money in personal finance, credit cards, and investing! Check out my archive here!

No annual fee credit cards are often called “sock drawer” cards.

Because there’s no fee, there’s no incentive to use them regularly.

So you stuff them in a sock drawer and forget about them.

But - they can offer excellent value, like the Chase Freedom cards, which I used recently to get 2 free nights of hotel stays.

You just have to know how to extract it!

Chase’s Freedom cards are no annual fee cards. They don’t offer a ton of value, but their quarterly categories are GOLD. Mainly because there are very few cards that offer 5% cash back (or 5x points) on anything!

Chase Freedom cards offer a sweet 5% cash back (or points!) on rotating categories that change every quarter. But here's the catch – you gotta activate the offer on your credit card first. Once you've done that, every purchase you make in those categories will earn you that coveted 5% cashback - up to $75 (equates to a max of $1,500 of spend).

The cash you earn initially comes in the form of points. So, $1,500 of spending means 7,500 points (1500 × 5 = 7500). Now, if you're sitting there thinking, "Okay, points are cool, but what can I do with them?" – well here's where it gets interesting.

If you happen to have a higher-tier Chase card, like the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you can do a little something called "point transfer magic." This is where you leverage your no-fee annual Chase Freedom card.

You transfer those points over to your Chase Sapphire Reserve. Once complete, transfer them again out to loyalty partners like Hilton or Hyatt. It's like turning lead into gold, but it's way more financially rewarding!

For an upcoming trip, I researched hotels that offered point redemptions through their loyalty program. Here’s what I saw when I looked into reserving the hotel rooms with cash:

For a Friday/Saturday 2-night stay, the cash rate is about $400. Not thrilling when you’re talking about Townplace Suites near Pittsburgh, PA.

After transferring points to my higher-tier Chase card as I’ve done for many months, I moved those points to Marriott to book the hotel.

I’m extracting the maximum amount of value on these basic, no-annual fee cards to gain 2 free nights at a hotel that otherwise would cost me $400.

For Chase Freedom cards, the process is: activate, spend, earn, transfer, and watch your cash back multiply like bunnies in springtime.

"But why should I care about all this?"

Well, my dear money-minded friend, let me tell you why. With the cost of living constantly on the rise, every penny counts. Even this not-so-exciting hotel in Pittsburgh would cost $400 for 2 nights.

And if you're not taking advantage of opportunities like these to maximize your cashback, well, you're leaving money on the table. This is money that could be put towards your financial goals, whether it's paying off debt, saving for a rainy day, or treating yourself to a much more glamorous vacation.

Examining your credit cards (even the basic ones) and maximizing their value can propel your rewards from silly statement credits to actual free hotel nights. You don’t need a credit card that has a $500+ annual fee!

For the Chase Freedom cards, activating quarterly rewards, and strategizing your spending can turn a sad, no-annual fee sock-drawer card into an under-the-radar rewarding superhero!

Save On,

Chris