Chase Freedom Flex Cardholders Can Earn Bonus Cash Back/Points with This “Top Spend Category” Offer

Chase Freedom Flex cardholders can earn bonus cash back – or Ultimate Rewards points if that’s your preference – with this Top Spend Category offer.

If you have a Freedom Flex card in your credit card arsenal, then you’re aware of its unique earning power.

The Freedom Flex provides:

• 3% cash back on dining (including takeout and delivery) and drugstore purchases
• 1% cash back on all other purchases

And

5% cash back on rotating quarterly bonus categories, which are currently (October 1 – December 31, 2021) PayPal and Walmart.com.

The Top Spend Category offer is in addition to those earning options, making the Freedom Flex a real earnings powerhouse through December 31, 2021.

Freedom Flex Top Spend Category Offer

Here’s how Chase describes the Top Spend Category offer:

“This offer is separate from your quarterly bonus category offer, but automatically added to your account when you activate your Q4 bonus categories. You’ll earn 5% cash back on up to $1500 in total spend in the eligible rewards category where you spend the most from October 1 – December 31, 2021. That’s 4% additional cash back on top of the 1% cash back per $1 USD spent that you earn on all purchases.”

The next question is, what are the eligible categories for this Top Spend Category offer?

The categories include:

• Travel (including Transit)
• Dining
• Home Improvement Stores
• Grocery Stores (not including Target and Walmart purchases)
• Drugstores
• Gas Stations
• Select Live Entertainment
• Select Streaming Services
• Fitness Clubs

You can view the Freedom Flex’s FAQs page at this link to get specifics associated with each category.

This offer is taking a page from the new Citi Custom Cash card’s earning playbook in that whichever category gets the most of your spend in a given quarter will earn the bonus cash back/points.

So, if the grocery stores category is where you spend the most during the October 1 – December 31 period, all the dollars spent at grocery stores will earn 5% cash back.

Unlike the regular, rotating quarterly bonus categories, you will not earn the cash back/points after your statement closes each month. Rather, the Top Spend Category earnings will be calculated and posted to your account after the promotional period ends on December 31, 2021.

There is no activation link for the Top Spend Category offer, simply activate your regular quarterly bonus categories and you’ll automatically have the TSC offer added to your account.

Bonus Bonus Earnings

There are a few overlapping bonus categories that will earn you extra cash back/points thanks to this Top Spend Category offer.

They include:

Dining and Drug Stores – Those categories regularly earn 3% cash back on the Freedom Flex. If either is your Top Spend Category, you’ll earn an extra 4%, making your total cash back earning rate 7%.

Travel Booked Through Ultimate Rewards Portal – Travel booked through the Ultimate Rewards portal earns 5% cash back on the Freedom Flex. If the Travel category is your Top Spend Category, you’ll earn an additional 4%, making your total cash back earning rate 9%.

Grocery Store Sign-Up Bonus – There has been a 5% cash back sign-up bonus offer on the Freedom cards, off and on, over the past year or so. If you have that grocery store sign-up bonus offer on your Freedom Flex, you’ll earn the sign-up bonus cash back amount plus 4% for the Top Spend Category, making your total cash back earning rate 9%! Now that’s a nice deal, especially with grocery prices skyrocketing thanks to higher inflation rates.

Grocery Stores – Some grocery store chains allow you to pay with PayPal – either when checking out online for order pickup or via the PayPal app in-store – which should trigger the quarterly bonus category of PayPal and the Top Spend Category of grocery stores (if that’s where you spend the most) for a total earning rate of 9%.

Wrap Up

Chase has introduced a really nice offer to incentivize your use of the Freedom Flex card this quarter.

Not only will you earn your typical 3% cash back on dining and in drug stores, as well as 5% on this quarter’s rotating bonus categories, but you’ll earn a bonus 5% on the one category (see list above) in which you spend the most October 1 – December 31, 2021.

And if played right, you can earn bonus amounts up to 9% in certain categories. Grocery Stores is the one that sticks out most to me.

So, if you value cash back or Chase Ultimate Rewards points, you definitely want to be using your Freedom Flex card for the remainder of the year.

And if you really value cash back or Ultimate Rewards points, scan the quarterly and Top Spend Category categories and strategically plan out your spending to maximize the cash back or points you’ll earn over the coming months.