How To Unlock Your Chase Freedom Points For Full Value

This is one of those things that many of us, who have been heavily involved in the miles and points game for a while, know all too well. However, it is easy for us to sometimes miss that there are some things that may be very simple to do but the company (in this case, Chase) does not make it easy to know about it. I have been receiving some questions about this lately so I thought it would be good to share here in case there are more that are wondering.

How To Unlock Your Chase Freedom Points For Full Value

The Chase Freedom card came around last year with its somewhat annual bump in the bonus – $200 statement credit for $500 in spending. That is a fantastic deal since it is normally only $100 statement credit. But, what makes it even better is that the $200 statement credit can actually be used as 20,000 Ultimate Reward points instead.

That means that instead of only getting $200 in your pocket, you can transfer them to any one of Chase’s multiple partners (like Southwest, Hyatt, United, Singapore Airlines) at a 1:1 ratio. If you transferred to Southwest, you would get, on average, about $334 worth of airfare on Southwest! That makes the bonus go much further than just $200 in cash.

It also means that, instead of only getting 1 cent per point value when redeeming for travel through Chase, you can get 1.25 cents per point on that same travel! This causes your $200 worth of points to be worth $250 – an extra $50 in travel value!

Unlocking Your Chase Freedom Points

In addition to having a Chase Freedom card, you need to have one more thing. That one more thing is one of these cards: Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Ink Plus, or the Chase Ink Bold (which is no longer issued). The reason for that is that they are full Ultimate Rewards earning cards and you need to have one of them to transfer your Chase Freedom points to.

It is simple yet confusing – when you login to your Ultimate Rewards account, you will see whatever Ultimate Reward cards you have synced to that account. You need to click one of them to enter the site using that particular card and whatever redemption restrictions come with it. If you have the 20,000 points in your Chase Freedom card account and click that card, you will not be able to transfer those points to any program or use for more than 1 cent per point.

The simple part is this – just transfer the points from the Chase Freedom card to your other Ultimate Rewards card. Once those points are in the other card’s account, you will have full transfer options and point redemption availability toward travel. And, it is very easy to do.

Step 1 – Login To Ultimate Rewards

To start, head over here and login with your Chase password for your credit card accounts – Ultimate Rewards Link

Step 2 – Select Chase Freedom Account

Select your Chase Freedom card to move the points from

Step 3 – Select To Combine Points

Select to combine points to move them from the Chase Freedom to a full Ultimate Rewards card

Step 4 – Select The Card You Wish To Transfer To

If you want to transfer to a card (Sapphire Preferred, Ink Plus, Ink Bold) that is already tied to your same Chase account, simply select it now. If you want to transfer to a card that is not in this account, you can add card at this point to transfer to. Chase does make you agree that if you transfer to someone other than you, your spouse, or your domestic partner, you could face suspension and loss of your points.

This does mean that you could transfer to a spouse’s card account if you do not have a Sapphire Preferred, Ink Plus, or Ink Bold. So, that does help with some flexibility.

Select the account you wish to transfer to.

Step 5 – Select How Many Points You Would Like To Transfer

To gain full Ultimate Rewards transfer power on those Chase Freedom points, you will need to transfer them all. You do not have to do it at once but the points will not have full transfer power until the transfer is made.

Step 6 – Confirm And Use!

Summary

I realize this may be basic for most, but I know there are many readers out there that have earned the points from this awesome card and have not been able to use them to their fullest extent. Hopefully, this helps you with that. If you do not have a Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Ink Plus, or Chase Ink Bold, you could apply for one of them (not the Ink Bold) and earn even more points while being able to unlock your Chase Freedom points. Here is a link to Frequent Miler’s links where you could help out a great blogger and get yourself a new card and points!