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Chase Freedom Flex vs. Chase Freedom Unlimited: 5% Bonus vs. 1.5% Non-Bonus - YouTube
Channel: Logan Allec
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what's up everybody logan alec here with
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a comparison between the chase
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freedom unlimited credit card and the
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chase freedom
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flex credit card i reviewed both of
[9]
these cards in their own respective
[11]
review videos
[12]
there will be links to each of those in
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the description below if after watching
[16]
this video
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you want a fuller more robust analysis
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of each of these cards specifically be
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sure to check out each of their review
[25]
videos
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uh but in this video of course i'm
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simply comparing these two products
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because one question i received a lot
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is which one you should get out of these
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two cards in the chase freedom line
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so i thought i would take a closer look
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at these two cards so
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in this video i will discuss how they're
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similar how they're different
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and then at the end of the video i will
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discuss the kinds of people that the
[44]
freedom flex might be a better pick for
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as well as the kinds of folks the
[48]
freedom unlimited might be a better pick
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for so let's get right into it
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first i want to go over the cash back
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rewards you can get with each of these
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cards
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both the freedom unlimited and the
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freedom flex offer five percent cash
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back on travel booked through
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chase ultimate rewards plus three
[63]
percent cash back at drug stores and
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restaurants including dine in
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takeout and delivery now the freedom
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flex
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also comes with a five percent cash back
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in certain bonus categories each quarter
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so for example in the first quarter 2021
[77]
the five percent bonus category was
[79]
wholesale club streaming services
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and internet cable and phone services
[83]
we're currently in the second quarter
[85]
the bonus categories for this quarter
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are gas stations and home home
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improvement stores
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they should announce the categories for
[91]
the third quarter shortly before the end
[94]
of june
[95]
these bonus categories are not available
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with the freedom unlimited
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but on the flip side the freedom
[101]
unlimited comes with 1.5
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cashback on all non-bonus purchases
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compared to just a flat
[107]
1 cashback on non-bonus purchases with
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the freedom flex
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you can see the information summarized
[112]
in this table both cards
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are the same in the first three rows the
[116]
key difference is getting that quarterly
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bonus category versus getting an extra
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half percent cash back on other
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purchases
[122]
that aren't included in one of the other
[123]
categories now to be clear there are
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generally unlimited rewards with both of
[128]
these cars
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okay the one exception is that the
[130]
freedom flex card only provides
[132]
five percent cashback in the quarterly
[134]
bonus categories on up to fifteen
[136]
hundred dollars
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in purchases per quarter so that's
[139]
seventy five dollars in bonus rewards
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quarterly
[142]
after that the rewards you get for those
[144]
bonus categories will just revert to the
[145]
base one percent rate
[146]
which really cuts into how much you can
[148]
actually get out of the rotating
[150]
bonus category now it's a tough choice
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right i mean without looking at your
[154]
particular spending situation it's tough
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to say
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whether the chase freedom flexes bonus
[158]
categories will make up for its lower
[160]
cash back rate
[161]
on non-bonus purchases but i would point
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out that neither the freedom unlimited
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nor the freedom flex has a great
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base cash back rate on those non-bonus
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purchases obviously the freedom
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unlimited is 1.5 percent is better
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than the freedom flex is one percent but
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you may also want to look at the city
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double cash which comes with no annual
[177]
fleet fee
[178]
and a flat two percent cash back on all
[180]
purchases one percent when you make your
[181]
purchase
[182]
and another percent when you pay your
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bill there is a link in the description
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below
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to that card as well as a link to my
[188]
review of that card so
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if you pair the city double cash with
[191]
the freedom flex and the one percent
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doesn't make much of a difference
[195]
you can simply use the freedom flex for
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travel restaurants
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drug stores and the rotating bonus
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category and then use the double cash
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for everything else
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so then you're not losing anything with
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the freedom flex compared to the freedom
[207]
unlimited on the other hand
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let's say this is going to be your first
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credit card then that 1.5
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might be more important since you won't
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have another card to use for purchases
[218]
that don't fall under one of the bonus
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categories there are a few more
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minor perks that come with both cards
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first you'll get five percent
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uh on all lift rides and subscriptions
[228]
through the end of next
[229]
march so nearly a full year this doesn't
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apply to things like gift cards and car
[233]
rentals but for day to day lift usage
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you should get that five percent back
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whether you have a freedom flex or a
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freedom unlimited
[240]
there are no limits restrictions etc on
[242]
those extra rewards
[243]
so that's a really helpful perk for
[246]
anyone who uses a lot of rideshare
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services
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either you use lyft already or you're
[250]
willing to switch to get that cash back
[252]
another thing i want to mention is the
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doordash dash
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pass subscription you'll get three
[258]
months free
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plus nine additional months at fifty
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percent off when you get a new
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freedom flex or freedom unlimited card
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and that essentially removes the
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delivery fee
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on orders from eligible restaurants with
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a subtotal of 12
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or more that subscription applies to
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doordash as well as caviar
[277]
it would usually cost 10 dollars per
[279]
month but if you get it through your
[280]
freedom flex
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or freedom unlimited then you'll only
[283]
end up spending forty five dollars
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instead of one hundred and twenty
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dollars for your first year
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zero dollars for the first three months
[289]
and then five dollars for each of the
[291]
nine months after that
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one thing i highlighted in each of the
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individual reviews i did for these cards
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is the opportunity
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to transfer points to a chase sapphire
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preferred or sapphire reserve card
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you can do this from the app or the
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website and chase will let you transfer
[305]
unlimited points between cards as long
[307]
as they belong to you
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or someone in your household the
[310]
advantage here is that the sapphire
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preferred provides an extra 25
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credit when you use points to book for
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travel through chase and that
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bumps up to 50 with the sapphire reserve
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the sapphire cards only come with a base
[323]
one percent cash back rate
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on non-bonus purchases so let's say you
[327]
have a sapphire reserve
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and a freedom unlimited now you can get
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one point five percent
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right back on non-bonus purchases uh by
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using your freedom unlimited
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okay instead of your sapphire reserve
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and then
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you can transfer those points from your
[342]
freedom unlimited to your sapphire
[343]
reserve and get that 50
[344]
bonus on that 1.5 percent so that's an
[346]
additional 7.75 percentage points
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uh so when you transfer the points you
[350]
earned on your freedom unlimited over d
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them for travel on your chase sapphire
[354]
reserve account
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that essentially turns into uh 2.25
[358]
percent
[359]
right rewards on non-bonus spending with
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their freedom unlimited
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or if you have the freedom flex it will
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take 1 to 1.5
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the same applies to other categories
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both the freedom unlimited and the
[369]
freedom flex come with three percent
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back at drugstores compared to one
[372]
percent with a sapphire preferred or
[373]
sapphire reserve
[374]
and with the extra fifty percent you get
[376]
from booking travel through chase
[377]
ultimate rewards on your reserve account
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you could turn that three percent into
[382]
4.5 percent
[383]
again this works with both the freedom
[385]
flex and the freedom unlimited
[387]
obviously their cash back structures are
[389]
slightly different
[391]
but you can transfer points from either
[393]
card to a sapphire preferred
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or a sapphire reserve and this is a
[397]
really effective strategy
[398]
for anyone who adds one of the sapphire
[400]
cards so if you think there's a chance
[402]
you might want to upgrade one of these
[404]
later on
[405]
you can save up some of your points
[407]
right on your freedom flex your freedom
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unlimited
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and convert them into even more travel
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rewards in the future
[413]
on one of the sapphire cards all right
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let's talk about some of the other
[415]
benefits
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as well as fees both freedom cards are
[418]
currently running the same offer for new
[420]
card holders so you'll get a 200
[421]
bonus if you spend 500 in the first
[424]
three months after opening either one of
[425]
these cards
[426]
they also come with zero percent apr for
[428]
the first 15 months so you won't pay any
[430]
interest for those 15 months as long as
[432]
you make the minimum payment
[433]
every cycle and you pay off any
[435]
remaining balance at the end of the
[436]
promotional period
[438]
similarly both cards are offering five
[440]
percent cash back on lift rise through
[442]
the end of march 2022
[443]
and neither one comes with an annual fee
[446]
unlike the sapphire preferred and the
[448]
reserve which run
[449]
ninety five dollars and five hundred
[450]
fifty dollars per year respectively
[452]
uh so you won't have to worry about
[453]
whether you'll spend enough to offset
[455]
the cost or anything like that
[456]
that being said both cards do charge a
[458]
foreign transaction fee of three percent
[460]
which basically means that you should
[462]
make sure to get another card before
[464]
traveling
[465]
outside of the united states three
[467]
percent might not sound like a lot
[469]
but it can certainly add up quickly
[471]
especially if you're spending a lot of
[472]
money while traveling
[474]
and it's really easy these days to find
[475]
cars with no foreign transaction fees
[477]
for example either the sapphire cards i
[480]
mentioned there's also a link in the
[481]
description
[482]
to some good options for those of you
[483]
who are looking for a card
[485]
uh for international travel that don't
[487]
charge a foreign transaction fee
[488]
all right at this point you're probably
[489]
wondering which of these cards i would
[490]
recommend the answer is going
[492]
uh to really depend on your own spending
[494]
and your overall credit card strategy so
[496]
now
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i'm going to discuss two situations in
[499]
which the freedom flex
[500]
might be a better fit for you and then
[502]
two situations where the freedom
[504]
unlimited
[504]
might be the better bet keep in mind
[507]
that really this analysis
[509]
uh is driven primarily by comparing the
[511]
freedom unlimited
[512]
uh 0.5 percentage point advantage
[515]
on non-bonus spending versus the freedom
[518]
flex's
[518]
five percent cash back on rotating
[520]
quarterly categories
[522]
that you don't get with the unlimited
[523]
all right situation number one with the
[525]
freedom flex makes more sense is if you
[527]
already have
[527]
a double cash card or another card for
[530]
rewards on general spending
[531]
in that case the freedom flex is going
[533]
to be a better choice than freedom
[534]
unlimited
[535]
because you will only be using it for
[537]
the bonus categories anyway
[539]
so the first use case for the freedom
[540]
flex or the freedom unlimited is for
[542]
someone
[542]
who already has another credit card that
[545]
they use for non-bonus spending
[547]
that matches or exceeds the 1.5 percent
[550]
you would get with the freedom unlimited
[552]
now
[553]
i want to emphasize here right that if
[555]
you do have a sapphire preferred
[557]
or a sapphire reserve that can
[559]
effectively turn the freedom unlimited
[560]
1.5
[561]
base cash back rate uh you know into
[564]
1.875 percent for the preferred or 2.25
[567]
percent for the reserve as discussed
[568]
previously
[569]
right uh so in that case you need a car
[571]
with an even higher cash back rate than
[573]
that
[573]
in order to break even compared to the
[575]
combination of freedom unlimited
[576]
and one the sapphire cards keep in mind
[578]
though right of the sapphire uh
[580]
transfer you're only limited to
[582]
redeeming those points for travel
[583]
through chase
[584]
number two the freedom flex is also
[585]
gonna be better for people who don't
[586]
have much spending
[587]
and that comes out really clearly when
[589]
you compare the rewards side by side
[590]
remember
[591]
the main advantage of the freedom flex
[592]
is that you get five percent back in the
[594]
quarterly bonus categories but that only
[596]
applies to a maximum
[597]
of fifteen hundred dollars in purchases
[598]
per quarter okay five percent of fifteen
[600]
hundred seventy five dollars
[602]
so over an entire year uh you can only
[605]
get up to 300
[606]
in rewards through uh getting five
[608]
percent cash back on bonus categories
[610]
right and that's if you max them out
[611]
every single quarter so let's assume
[612]
you're able to do that
[614]
you will earn three hundred dollars on
[615]
six thousand dollars of spending over
[616]
the course of a year for those five
[617]
percent bonus categories
[619]
that same three hundred dollars would
[621]
only get you ninety dollars
[622]
right as non-bonus spending on the
[624]
freedom unlimited and to make back that
[625]
210 difference you would need to have
[627]
forty two thousand dollars in non-bonus
[629]
spending in a year with the freedom
[630]
unlimited card so the point is
[632]
uh that if you're generally able to max
[634]
out these rotating categories with your
[635]
freedom flex
[636]
or if you can at least come close that's
[638]
going to offset a lot of the losses
[640]
from the 0.5 percentage point difference
[642]
in the non-bonus spending rate between
[643]
the flex and the unlimited
[645]
all right now let's talk about some
[646]
scenarios with the freedom unlimited
[647]
might be the better choice to you
[649]
for you rather than freedom flex the
[650]
first situation is you were just looking
[652]
for a starter credit card or something
[653]
like that if you're in that situation
[655]
then you'll likely get more overall cash
[657]
back with the freedom unlimited
[659]
uh because of the benefits on non-bonus
[661]
spending okay which you're probably
[662]
going to have a lot of
[664]
if you only have one credit card for all
[666]
of your purchases remember
[667]
uh non-bonus spending comes with a 0.5
[670]
percentage point difference
[672]
more cash back if you have the freedom
[673]
unlimited over the freedom flex
[675]
and on the other hand bonus spending
[677]
comes with a 3.5 percentage point
[679]
advantage more to freedom flex up to the
[681]
quarter limit quarterly limit of course
[683]
the 3.5 percentage point advantage of
[685]
the freedom flex on spending
[686]
in the rotating categories is seven
[688]
times higher than the freedom unlimited
[690]
advantage on non-bonus spending at 0.5
[692]
percent
[692]
so when it comes down to it if you will
[694]
spend at least seven times more in
[695]
non-bonus categories
[697]
than you would spend in the rotating
[698]
categories up to the quarterly limit
[700]
then you're going to come out ahead with
[702]
the freedom unlimited if this is your
[704]
first credit card
[705]
and you're planning to put most of your
[706]
general spending on the freedom
[708]
unlimited
[709]
then that might be enough to make up for
[711]
your losses in the rotating bonus
[713]
categories for example
[715]
if you're only going to spend an average
[717]
of two thousand dollars in the bonus
[719]
categories per year
[720]
then the difference on those rewards
[722]
between a freedom flex and a freedom
[724]
unlimited
[725]
is only seventy dollars right which you
[727]
can make up with just fourteen thousand
[728]
dollars in non-bonus
[730]
spending on the freedom unlimited right
[732]
which is only about two thousand dollars
[733]
a month
[734]
all right the second situation in which
[735]
the freedom unlimited might make more
[737]
sense than freedom flex
[739]
is if you're a big spender due to the
[741]
limit on quarterly bonus rewards the
[743]
freedom unlimited is going
[744]
to be more and more effective as your
[746]
spending goes up compared to the freedom
[747]
flex
[748]
so if you're spending in the bonus
[749]
categories is under fifteen hundred
[751]
dollars per quarter
[752]
your rewards on those purchases will be
[754]
five percent but if you're planning to
[755]
spend say six thousand dollars in the
[756]
bonus categories in each quarter
[758]
then you're gonna get seventy five
[759]
dollars on the first fifteen hundred
[760]
dollars on purchases and only forty five
[762]
dollars on the remo
[763]
or on the remaining forty five hundred
[765]
that adds up to one hundred twenty
[766]
dollars which means you're only getting
[767]
an effective cash back rate of two
[769]
percent
[769]
which is barely better than what you
[771]
would have had with the freedom
[772]
unlimited
[773]
and the more you spend in the bonus
[774]
categories beyond the limit
[776]
the less that initial five percent is
[778]
going to matter since it only applies to
[780]
your first fifteen hundred dollars per
[781]
quarter and obviously
[783]
if you're spending that much of the
[784]
bonus categories then you're probably
[786]
also putting a lot of money into the
[788]
non-bonus categories which is going to
[791]
make the freedom unlimited 0.5
[793]
percentage point advantage
[794]
over the freedom flex on non-bonus
[796]
spending
[797]
even more important so if summary if you
[800]
want to start a cart
[801]
to put all your spending on right maybe
[804]
you don't want to worry too much about
[805]
bonus categories and tracking
[807]
you know the categories per quarter then
[809]
the freedom unlimited might make more
[811]
sense for that situation the freedom
[812]
flex on the other hand requires a little
[813]
more attention to detail
[815]
you'll need to activate your bonus
[816]
categories every quarter and you have to
[818]
keep track of those
[819]
in order to remember where to use that
[821]
card in each new quarter
[823]
if you want to have a simple credit card
[824]
set up you don't want to spend much time
[826]
tracking categories
[828]
or optimizing rewards the freedom
[830]
unlimited is going to be an
[831]
easier option in terms of passively
[834]
generating
[835]
cash back now at this point you're still
[836]
considering getting one of these cards
[838]
and possibly combining them with one of
[840]
the sapphire cards i want to highlight
[842]
that these cards are governed by the
[843]
chase 524 rule
[845]
which means that your application will
[847]
automatically be denied if you've
[848]
already opened five or more credit cards
[851]
in the last 24 months this is a strict
[853]
rule you won't get an exception for
[854]
having good credit or something like
[856]
that so if you're in that situation
[858]
then you'll need to wait until some of
[860]
those cards have been open
[861]
for more than 24 months so hopefully
[863]
this gives you an idea of the
[864]
differences between these two cards from
[867]
the chase freedom line
[868]
they have a lot of similarities as you
[870]
see in this video but that trade-off
[872]
right between the bonus categories on
[874]
the freedom flex and the higher general
[876]
rewards rate on the freedom unlimited
[878]
can make this a tough decision as always
[881]
i want to thank you for watching to the
[882]
end i really do appreciate your support
[884]
and i'll see you next time bye
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