This Rewards Card Gives You 5 Percent Back on All Your Holiday Shopping

Holly Johnson

November 27, 2017  •  5 Minute Read

Credit Cards, Holidays

If you’re gearing up for the holiday shopping season and looking for new ways to save, it always helps to think outside the box. Of course you’ll scoop up bargains on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but your deal-seeking doesn’t have to end there. With the right rewards credit card (or credit cards), you could get 5 percent cash back – or a 5 percent discount on most of your holiday gift-giving this year. Believe it or not, you could also earn an additional $150 in free cash for Christmas gifts.

• Related: Best Cash-Back Credit Cards

The information related to The Chase Freedom® (Offer Expired) credit card has been collected by CreditSoup.com and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer of this card.

Here’s how it works: Spending bonus for the Chase Freedom® (OFFER EXPIRED) to take advantage of the card’s smart introductory offer. For a limited time, you’ll earn a $150 bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first 3 months of account opening.

Here are some other card details to be aware of:

• Earn a $150 Bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening
• Earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in combined purchases in bonus categories each quarter you activate. Enjoy new 5% categories each quarter!
• Unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases - it's automatic
• 0% Intro APR for 15 months from account opening on purchases and balance transfers, then a variable APR of 16.49 - 25.24%.
• 3% intro balance transfer fee when you transfer a balance during the first 60 days your account is open, with a minimum of $5.
• No annual fee
• Cash Back rewards do not expire as long as your account is open and there is no minimum to redeem for cash back.
• Free credit score, updated weekly with Credit Journey℠
  
  

How to Earn Cash Back on Holiday Spending

With the Chase Freedom® card (OFFER EXPIRED), earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in combined purchases in bonus categories each quarter you activate. Enjoy new 5% categories each quarter! From October through December 2019, enjoy the 5% cash back on purchases made at eligible department stores and purchance made using PayPayl or Chase Pay®. You will need to activate offer by December 14th, 2019 to take advantage.

While not all department stores are accepted for this promotion, a ton of popular options are. Not only can you get 5 percent back at Walmart, but you can save at these stores, too:

• JCPenney®

• Kohl's®

• Macy's®

• Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack

• Sears®

• Barney’s

• Baskins®

• Bealls

• Beiter’s

• Belk

• Bergdorf Goodman

• The Big Store

• Bloomingdale's

• Bon-Ton®, including

• Bergner's®

• Boston Store®

• Carson's®

• Elder-Beerman®

• Herbergers®

• PARISIAN

• Younkers®

• Boscov's

• Burke's®

• Cayman's®

• Cee & Cee Department Store

• Cook Brothers

• Dillard's

• Flemington Department Store

• Getz's®

• Gumps

• Jeffery

• Joe Brand

• Loehmann’s

• Lord & Taylor

• Magic Mart

• Neiman Marcus and NM Last Call

• RH Renny

• Saks Fifth Ave and Off 5th

• Shopko

• Von Maur®

• Weaver’s Store

Strategize your holiday shopping around Walmart and this selection of stores and you’ll be on your way to 5 percent back in no time.

Once you’ve racked up a reasonable amount of rewards, you can redeem in more than one way. For example, you can cash in your points for a statement credit that covers your purchases at a rate of one cent per point (10,000 points = $100), or you can redeem your points for high value gift cards at the same rate.

You can also redeem Chase points for travel and for purchases made through Amazon.com.

Keep in mind, however, that you have to “activate” your card to get the rewards flowing and earn the 5 percent back. You only have to activate once per quarter, however, and you can do it easily online on this page.

Other Benefits to Boost Your Holiday Shopping Experience

While rewards are the most obvious benefit the Chase Freedom® offers, there are plenty of other perks to be aware of. Most importantly, the card offers a wide range of consumer protections that can help you save money and, more importantly, avoid taking a loss this holiday season.

Some of the benefits include:

• Purchase Protection: Use your card for a purchase and this protection covers that purchase for 120 days against damage or theft up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account.

• Extended Warranty Protection: Buying appliances or electronics with a warranty? Use your card for the purchase and you’ll get a free extended warranty that extends the time period of the U.S. manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year (on eligible warranties of three years or less).

• Zero Liability Protection: If someone gets your credit card numbers or steals your card, you won’t be on the hook for covering fraudulent purchases. Most of the time, Chase will just cancel your card and send you a new one.

• Credit Journey^SM: Gives you unlimited access to your credit score and more. It's free, even if you are not a Chase customer. Checking your score does not affect your credit.
  
  

Another Holiday Offer to Consider: Discover it®

If the Chase Freedom® isn’t your thing or you want a way to earn even more rewards this holiday season, you can always consider signing up for the Discover it® Cash Back. This card works similarly to the Chase Freedom® in the fact it doesn’t charge an annual fee but still offers 5% cash back at different places each quarter like gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants, Amazon.com and more up to the quarterly maximum, each time you activate.

For the last quarter of the year (October – December), the Discover it® Cash Back is doling out 5 percent cash back on Amazon.com and at Target stores. These options align nicely with the holiday shopping season, obviously.

For January through March 2019, earn 5% Cashback Bonus at Grocery Stores, on up to $1,500 in purchases. Excludes purchases made at Walmart and Target.

The best part is, Discover® has even promised to double the amount of cash back you earn the first year, bringing your total rewards in bonus categories to an astounding 10 percent back. Of course, it’s important to note that, like the Chase Freedom® offer, you’ll only earn extra points on the first $1,500 you spend in bonus categories every quarter.

The Bottom Line

Before you dive into the holiday shopping season, make sure you have the right rewards and travel credit cards in your wallet. Instead of paying with cash or debit, you can use credit cards to rack up meaningful amounts of cash back. As long as you pay your bill in full and use your credit card like cash, this is the closest thing to “free money” you’ll ever mind.

Also remember that you can “stack” rewards with other offers, such as super discounts and loss leaders at stores like Walmart on Black Friday. While getting a good deal is something to celebrate, the real spoils of the holiday shopping season go to those who think long and hard about their plans and strategize as much as they can.