The Chase Freedom 2020 First Quarter Bonus Categories are Gas Stations, Streaming Services and Internet, Cable and Phone Services
The 2020 first quarter bonus categories for the Chase Freedom credit card are out and points/cash back earning for spend on those categories can be activated beginning today, December 15, 2019.
Bonus Categories
Freedom’s first quarter bonus categories include:
- Gas Stations
- Select Streaming Services
- Internet, Cable and Phone Services
All purchases made in these categories earn 5% cash back – or my favorite, 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent – on up to $1,500 in combined purchases.
Bonus earnings in the bonus categories will begin January 1, 2020, and run through March 31, 2020.
You can activate the first quarter categories here.
While there definitely are better categories, especially if you also hold the Chase Ink Cash card, gas stations typically hold promise for maxing out the $1,500 in quarterly spend when a little effort is put forth.
How to Play This Quarter
Gas Stations
Gas stations seem to be Chase’s go-to category for the Freedom bonus categories these days…we saw it twice in 2019.
No matter. The Plays are still the same. And with a little effort can be fairly lucrative when trying to max out this quarter’s $1,500 spend.
How lucrative the gas station bonus category can be really depends on your individual situation. If you commute long distances, you may be able to max out the $1,500 in quarterly spend just by filling up your vehicle’s gas tank. If you live in a major city and use mass transit, you may never even see a gas station, making this bonus category completely useless.
If your situation is the latter, or somewhere in between, there is a workaround. Many gas stations sell gift cards, too, making that another way to maximize the quarterly bonus categories.
Pick up gift cards to retailers from which you’ll be buying anyway (Target, Amazon, Petco/Petsmart, Macy’s, any number of restaurants, etc.) and earn the bonus points/cash back for that spend.
And, some grocery store gas facilities sell their own grocery gift cards, fee-free, making it easy to indirectly earn the 5x bonus on your grocery spend for the quarter.
Streaming Services
This category is pretty straight forward. You’re not going to earn a huge amount of cash back/Ultimate Rewards points paying your streaming bills, but with the proliferation of streaming services into the average household, most should be able to earn something.
Here are the streaming services Chase will count toward the 5%/5x earning this quarter:
- Netflix
- Hulu
- Sling
- Vudu
- Fubo TV
- Apple Music
- SiriusXM Radio
- Pandora
- Spotify
- YouTube
- ESPN+
If you subscribe to Netflix and Hulu, for example, your monthly bill for both is likely around $26.
Change your payment method for both to the Freedom card for January – March and you’ll save about $4 over that period, or earn about 390 Ultimate Rewards points. I’ll take the points, thank you.
As you can see, this category isn’t a huge earner, but it’s better than nothing.
Internet, Cable and Phone Services
I place this category in between gas stations and streaming services for its ability to earn cash back/points.
Pretty much every household spends on Internet and some form of phone service. And, typically, those costs will be over $100 per month…possibly well over that amount.
Just add the Freedom card as your payment method for these services and you should easily knock out $300 of the $1,500 quarterly maximum, earning yourself $15 in cash back or 1,500 Ultimate Rewards points.
And if we’re talking a family situation, the cell phone/Internet/cable bills could easily hit $350 per month. Doing the math shows just this category alone would hit 2/3 of the spend needed to max this quarter out.
A little streaming spend here and some gasoline purchases there and you’ve earned yourself the full $75 cash back or 7,500 Ultimate Rewards points!
You can see the merchant list for all these categories at this link.
The Chase Freedom Credit Card
The Chase Freedom credit card is a great way to earn Ultimate Rewards points which can, ultimately, be used to travel for free.
Or, if cash back is your thing, it really couldn’t get any easier to earn 5% cash back. Just use your Freedom card in the quarterly bonus categories and bam! some easy cash back.
If you don’t have a Freedom card, read our review for all the card’s details and ways to maximize the card for your benefit.
