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January 13, 2025: The sign-up bonus of the Chase Freedom Flex® is a bit more interesting now that we know that the Q1 2025 rotating category bonus includes groceries. Unfortunately, there’s no in-branch offer that can be stacked with this bonus category this time around.
Here are the best welcome bonus offers currently available on the Chase Freedom Flex®:
Best bonus offer online: $200 cash back after spending $500 in January 2025
Annual fee: $0
The Chase Freedom Flex® offers different sign-up bonuses based on the channel you’re applying through
Best bonus online: Earn a $200 bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. Learn how to apply.
The Freedom Flex sometimes offers a better welcome bonus in-branch. We’ll publish any in-branch offers we find in our coverage of the best Chase Freedom Flex sign-up bonuses.
These bonuses are marketed as cash back, but earned as Chase Ultimate Rewards® points.
Our take: Not as good as the 5% gas and grocery offer, but no guarantee that’s coming back
The $200 after $500 offer on the Chase Freedom Flex® is the card’s standard offer. Chase has offered a better bonus on this in the past—essentially adding a 5% gas and grocery bonus on top of the standard offer—in-branch. The bank has also experimented with lesser offers on the card—some as low as $100.
Will the 5% gas and grocery offer come back? Your guess is as good a ours—we can’t discern a pattern from our tracking data of this bonus.
If you’re looking for a bonus that earns Ultimate Rewards points, there are better bonuses for that. If you’re wondering whether to get the Freedom Flex now or wait? We’d recommend getting it if it’s convenient, but definitely check for in-branch offers before applying.
In-branch offer: Same as the online bonus
On January 13, 2025, we went to a Chase branch to get an updated in-branch offer. At the time we visited, the in-branch offer was the same as the online and referral offers. Here’s what the welcome offer is in branch:
Earn a $200 bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
In-branch welcome offers change from time to time and this information is accurate as of our last check. The in-branch offer may be different or may no longer be available.
Referral welcome offer: $200 after $500 + $50 for your friend
Chase offers the same bonus through referral links as it does through its website, but if you apply through a referral link, you can earn $50 for a friend whose link you use.
Here’s the offer: Earn a $200 bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Insights and analysis: If you’re applying online, try to use a friend’s referral link to help them earn some bonus rewards.
Other interesting bonuses we’ve seen before (these are no longer available)
The offers in this section are not currently available.
In early 2024, Chase seemed to be testing several different Chase Freedom Flex welcome bonus offers on its website. When we went to the Chase website in Incognito mode on Chrome and Private Browsing mode on Safari, here’s are the offers we saw:
- Lower $150 bonus plus $5 grocery offer: Earn a $150 bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. Plus, earn 5% cash back on grocery store purchases (excluding Target® and Walmart®) on up to $12,000 spent in the first year. (Incognito on Chrome)
- Lower $100 bonus, plus 5% grocery offer: Earn a $100 bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. Plus, earn 5% cash back on grocery store purchases (excluding Target® and Walmart®) on up to $12,000 spent in the first year. (Private Browsing on Safari)
- 5% grocery store offer with no cash welcome bonus: Earn 5% cash back on grocery store purchases (excluding Target® and Walmart®) on up to $12,000 spent in the first year
- Standard $200 online bonus: Earn a $200 bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
- 10% grocery store offer with no cash welcome bonus: Earn 10% cash back on grocery store purchases (excluding Target® and Walmart®) on up to $12,000 spent in the first year.
What we found particularly interesting about the 10% offer is that, like the 5% gas and grocery offer you can get in-branch, it stacks with the card’s quarterly bonus categories. That means you could get a whopping 14% on groceries in the highest cash back stack we’ve ever seen on a card.
Are you eligible to earn the sign-up bonus?
You are typically eligible to receive a sign-up bonus on the Chase Freedom Flex card if you don’t currently have the card and it’s been more than 2 years since you’ve gotten a bonus on this card. Here’s what you need to know:
- Current cardmembers cannot get the card. If you already have a Chase Freedom Flex® card, you cannot get a second card through a new card application. (It may be possible to get a second Chase Freedom Flex by converting a Sapphire-branded card, but this won’t earn you a sign-up bonus.
- You can not have received a new cardmember bonus for the Freedom Flex in the previous 24 months. The specific language in the bonus terms refers to the time you received the bonus, not the date you applied for the card.
Best way to use the Chase Freedom Flex℠ bonus points
The Chase Freedom Flex℠ is marketed as a cash back card, but earns Ultimate Rewards® points behind the scenes. Here are the best ways to use Ultimate Rewards points.
- Cash back. You can always use Ultimate Rewards® points for cash back redemptions. You’ll get 1 cent per point for cash back redemptions on any Ultimate Rewards credit card.
- Options available with premium cards. If you hold a premium Ultimate Rewards card, you can a few additional options for using your points. Premium Ultimate Rewards cards include the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve®, and Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. You can also use the points you earn on your no-annual-fee card for these premium redemption options if you first transfer your points to your premium card.
- Travel through Chase Travel℠. Premium Ultimate Rewards cards offer increased value when you use your points to book travel through Chase Travel℠. You get 25% more value for bookings through Chase Tavel with the Sapphire Preferred or Ink Preferred. And you’ll get 50% more value for bookings made through the Sapphire Reserve card.
- Transfers to airline and hotel partners. All of the Premium Ultimate Rewards cards offer point transfers to travel partners. Transfers to partners offer the opportunity to get outsized value for your points through luxury travel redemptions. Our favorite Ultimate Rewards® transfer partners include Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, British Airways Avios, United Mileage Plus, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, and World of Hyatt.
Bottom line: An easy bonus on a fun card, but probably not a priority
The current bonus offered on the Chase Freedom Flex® through all channels is the standard $200 after $500 bonus. For a card with no annual fee, this is definitely one of the easiest bonuses to earn. While the Freedom Flex is a fun addition to a wallet that earns Chase Ultimate Rewards®, it should probably be one of the last cards you add to your wallet.
Advertiser disclosure: Cards and Points has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Cards and Points and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers. Compensation may affect how and where card products appear on the site. The site does not include all card companies or all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. Terms apply to all credit card benefits.
