An Even Better Backup for the Blue Cash Card
Posted on By Jim at 6 October, 2007, 5:03 pmIn my last post, I talked about how the Chase PerfectCard MasterCard was a nice companion to American Express’ Blue Cash card. Although I still believe this is true, I’ve found another card that fits the bill even better.
The new card is also from Chase, and it’s the Chase Freedom Cash World MasterCard. I’ve been using this card for about a week now, and I’ll share a deep dive review of my experiences with it here in the coming weeks after I’ve kicked the tires a bit more with it.
For now though, there were two primary reasons for the change of heart. First is that Chase recently changed the way the Freedom Cash card works. As Free Money Finance points out, you now earn 3% in the top 3 categories you spend the most on each month. There are 15 total categories that are eligible for the 3%, and Chase automatically rotates which categories give you the 3%, depending on your spending pattern for each month.
Because of this change, I called up Chase and asked them to flip my PerfectCard MasterCard to a Freedom Cash MasterCard. It was a pretty painless process. Because I chose the MasterCard version of the Chase Freedom Cash card, I was able to even keep my same card number. Had I chosen the Visa Signature version, my card number would have needed to change. There is no difference between the World MasterCard and the Visa Signature flavors of the Chase Freedom Cash card in terms of how the cash back works. The only difference is in what kinds of fluff benefits come along with a Visa vs. a MasterCard card (such as built-in rental car insurance).
I now pay my cable, internet, and cell phone bills with my Freedom Card and get 3% instead of the 1.5% I would otherwise get with the AmEx Blue Cash card. I am also using my Freedom Cash MasterCard at fast food restaurants for the same reason.
What’s also nice about Chase’s Freedom Cash card is that when you redeem $200 worth of accumulated rebates, Chase will send you a check for $250 - a $50 bonus. That’s an extra 25% return on my rebate earnings.
I liked my PerfectCard MasterCard because I didn’t have to wait long to get my rebate — Chase would always automatically credit my account with the previous month’s rebate earnings. Since I used my AmEx card most of the time, the Chase rebate each month was relatively small. So, it was nice to put this money to work right away earning me interest in my Salem Five eOne account. I have since rethought that philosophy though. Because of the extra $50 for every $200 redeemed, I am effectively getting a 25% ROI on my cash back by letting the rebate accumulate instead of cashing out. A guaranteed 25% return blows away anything that I could get with some other investment over the same period of time.
The other cool thing is that the other two benefits about the PerfectCard MasterCard still apply to the Freedom Cash MasterCard as well — it also works at Sam’s Club and the least you’ll earn is a full 1% on the card. There’s no tiering your way up to 1% based on some spending level.
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Is there a minimum you need to spend to qualify for a 3% rebate each month? A maximum? Thanks.
Hi Irina - with the Chase Freedom Card, the 3% is a flat rate for your top 3 categories. The 1% is also a flat rate for all other purchases. There’s no tiering your way up to these percentages as is the case with other cash back cards (e.g., like those from Discover or American Express).
There is a maximum spend of $600 in any particular month for your top 3 categories combined, so that means that the max amount of rebates you can earn in a month at the 3% rate is $18 ($6 at 1% + $12 at 2%). After the $600 cap is reached, you’ll still earn 1% for your top three, and there is no cap for the amount of 1% cash back you can earn on this card.
Since I wrote this post, I’ve also written another post that goes into more details about this card.
Hope this helps!
Jim, Thanks. After I read you post at midnight last night I did what you did. I called Chase and asked them to put me on Chase Freedom Cash from a Chase Amazon.com card. Chase Amazon.com had no benefits at all as far as I’m concerned. WhoooHoo!
Before I read you post, I didn’t know that you can just call and switch your cards around just like that.
Now, I guess you don’t have to sign up for the top categories, they just will figure it out themselves when they see the statement, right? And the 3% will be applied to your top 3 expenses, right? And if next month they are different, it will be applied to those, right?
That’s great! I think you’ll be happy with the Freedom Cash card. I know I have been.
You’re exactly correct on both questions - Chase will “automagically” determine the top 3 of the 15 categories that have the most spending on your statement and apply the 3% rebate to those transactions that are part of the top 3 categories. And yep, the top 3 categories can vary month-to-month depending on what was spent during a statement period.
Can you clarify two things?
1) Does the Freedom Card give you the rebates the following month just like the PerfectCard or is it different?
2) What was required to ‘flip’ your card from the PerfectCard to the Freedom card? Do they close your PerfectCard account and open a new Freedom account which negatively affects your credit history score? Or do they make it seem like one continuous account? And do they require a hard credit pull to ‘flip’?
@Peter - With the Freedom card, you accumulate the rebates and request a $50 check when you have $50 in accumulated cash back, or a $250 check when you have $200 in cash back.
To flip my PerfectCard MasterCard, they just changed my account type. I kept the same cardnumber and there was no hard or soft credit pull.
Since this post, I’ve written more about the Freedom card here.