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It’s April, which means that you can now start earning rewards in this quarter’s bonus categories on the Chase Freedom and Chase Freedom Flex℠. In Q2 2024, you can earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in combined purchases at Amazon.com, Hotels, and Restaurants.
Quick link: Activate your Chase Freedom Q1 2024 category bonus.
Amazon.com, hotels, and restaurants are great categories. This simultaneously makes this one of the best cards to use at Amazon.com and one of the best cards to use at restaurants this quarter. It is also a great option to use at hotels, provided you don’t have that hotel’s branded credit card.
Activation is currently available at https://www.chasebonus.com/. If you’re a cardmember, you should also receive an email that lets you activate your categories with one click. While Chase will allow you activate your bonus categories until March 14 and earn your bonus cash back retroactively, there’s little reason to wait on activating your category bonuses.
Chase Freedom Flex℠ welcome bonus:
Before you apply through the link below, be sure to see our coverage of the best welcome bonus on this card. There may be a better offer in-branch.
Earn a $200 bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Click here to learn more and apply for the Chase Freedom Flex℠.
Our take on the welcome bonus: $200 after $500 is the standard welcome bonus on this card.
The link above is a referral link. Someone on our team may earn points if you apply and are approved to the link above. We always show you the best offer, and this is the best offer we know about on this card.
Chase Freedom Flex℠ at a glance:
Annual fee: $0
Rewards: 5% in rotating categories (up to $1,500 in combined purchases per quarter). 5% travel through Chase. 3% dining. 3% drugstores. 1% other purchases.
Benefits: Extended warranty. Purchase protection. Cell phone protection.
About the Chase Freedom and Chase Freedom Flex℠ category rewards
Here is everything you need to know about the rotating category rewards on the Chase Freedom and Chase Freedom Flex℠ cards.
2024 Chase Freedom cash back category overview
| Q1 2024 January – March | Q2 2024 April – June | Q3 2024 July – September | Q4 2024 October – December |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grocery Stores (excluding Walmart and Target), Fitness Clubs & Gym Memberships, and Self-Care & Spa Services | Amazon.com, Hotels, and Restaurants | Not yet announced | Not yet announced |
More on the second quarter, 2024 category bonuses
The second quarter 2024 categories for the Chase Freedom and Chase Freedom Flex℠ are Amazon.com, Hotels, and Restaurants.
Chase has not yet published details about the quarterly categories, but we’ll update this post when they release the specific details about these categories.
More on the first quarter, 2024 category bonuses
The first quarter 2024 categories for the Chase Freedom and Chase Freedom Flex℠ include Grocery Stores, Fitness Clubs & Gym Memberships, and Self-Care & Spa Services. Here’s a bit more on what these categories include.
Grocery stores includes supermarkets, full-service grocery stores, and smaller grocery stores. Merchants that sell a wide variety of goods or sell incidental groceries, such as warehouse clubs, discount stores, drugstores, and gas stations are not included. Delivery services are included if they classify transactions as a grocery store. Walmart and Target are excluded.
Fitness clubs & gym memberships includes health clubs, exercise, or athletic facilities requiring membership and offering access to services related to physical fitness. This includes fitness clubs, fitness centers, fitness studios, gyms, aerobics, cardio fitness and other services such as yoga and cross fit training. Massage therapy, dietary and weight management counseling and personal training are not included. Merchants that sell primarily athletic apparel, sporting goods, dietary food, health food or similar supplements are also not included. Lodging, hotel, motel, resort and central reservation services offering access to third party facilities that include fitness clubs or gyms are not included in this category unless they classify as a fitness club or gym membership merchant.
Self-Care & Spa Services includes self-care and spa services, such as massages, spa treatments, manicures, tanning, and barber and salon services. A merchant must classify credit card charges as self-care or spa services to be included. Spa services purchased at hotels may not qualify for 5% cash back.
How to activate Chase Freedom cash back categories
You can activate your Chase Freedom cash back bonus categories without even logging into the Chase website. All you need is the primary cardmember’s last name, the last 4 digits of the Chase Freedom credit card and the billing zip code. Simply head to chasebonus.com to activate once categories are announced.
You may also receive an email with a one-click link to activate your cash back categories.
Once you have activated your Chase Freedom Flex categories, you’ll receive a confirmation email letting you know that you have activated your categories.
If you want more details on the specifics of the categories, the confirmation email you receive contains a link to the “Merchant List.” At this link, you’ll find details about what each bonus category includes. For categories that include “select” merchants, you’ll find a list of merchants participating in the quarterly category promotions.
Activate with one click from your email
If you’re a Chase Freedom Flex℠ or Chase Freedom cardholder, you should receive an email from Chase with a link to activate your quarterly category bonuses. This email is by far the easiest way to make sure that your category bonuses are activated. Simply click “Activate with 1 click” in the email and your bonus categories will be active.
When do I need to activate?
Typically, Chase allows you to activate your bonus categories on your Chase Freedom card from two weeks before the cash back quarter begins until two weeks before it ends.
Even if you forget to activate your cash back categories until late in the quarter, as long as you activate your categories before the activation deadline, you will earn 5% cash back for all eligible purchases (up to $1,500) that you made during the quarter.
Historical cash back categories
There is no guarantee that Chase will offer any particular bonus category until it is announced, but knowing what Chase has historically offered can give you an idea of what might be coming in the future.
Here are the previous 5% categories for both the Chase Freedom Flex card and original chase Freedom card.
Chase Freedom cash back calendar for 2023
- January-March: Grocery Stores, Target, Fitness Clubs & Gym Memberships
- April-June: Lowe’s, and Amazon.com
- July-September: Gas stations, EV charging, and select live entertainment
- October-December: PayPal, Wholesale Clubs, and Select Charities
Chase Freedom cash back calendar for 2022
- January-March: Grocery stores (excluding Walmart and Target purchases)
- April-June: Amazon.com and select streaming services
- July-September: Gas stations, car rentals, movie theaters and select live entertainment
- October-December: Walmart and PayPal
Chase Freedom cash back calendar for 2021
- January-March: Wholesale clubs, select streaming services, phone, cable and internet services
- April-June: Gas stations and home improvement stores
- July-September: Grocery stores (excluding Walmart and Target purchases) and select streaming services
- October-December: Walmart and PayPal
Chase Freedom cash back calendar for 2020
- January-March: Gas stations, Internet, cable and phone services and select streaming services
- April-June: Grocery stores, fitness club and gym memberships, select streaming services
- July-September: Amazon.com, Whole Foods Market
- October-December: Walmart and PayPal
Chase Freedom cash back calendar for 2019
- January-March: Gas stations, tolls and drugstores
- April-June: Grocery stores and home improvement stores
- July-September: Gas stations and select streaming services
- October-December: Department stores, PayPal and Chase Pay
Frequently asked questions
You can activate your quarterly categories at any time after they are published and before the next quarter’s categories are published. If you activate your quarterly categories before the end of the quarter, you will retroactively earn cash back rewards for eligible purchases.
The Q2 categories for the Chase Freedom and Chase Freedom Flex℠ cards are Amazon.com, hotels, and restaurants.
Chase periodically runs a welcome bonus on the Chase Freedom Flex℠ that gives new cardmembers 5% on up to $12,000 of gas and groceries in the first year. This bonus stacks with quarterly categories. If you opened a new card with this welcome bonus, and gas or groceries is a quarterly category, you can get 9% cash back in groceries broken down as follows: 1% base rewards, 4% bonus rewards from the quarterly bonus category, 4% bonus rewards from the welcome bonus category.
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.