The Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex categories for the second quarter of 2025 can now be activated:
- Earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in combined purchases on Amazon and Select Streaming Services from 4/1/2025 – 6/30/2025.
Some people will find Amazon useful. Personally I have a big Amazon gift card balance and probably won’t use that.
You can also buy third-party gift cards on Amazon (affiliate link), such as Visa, Best Buy, Starbucks, Lowe’s, Safeway and dozens more. Even someone with a large Amazon gift card balance might find this Chase Freedom category useful for Amazon or third-party gift cards purchases since gift card bought on Amazon can not be paid for with an Amazon balance.
Streaming is inherently limited and not too exciting. I can’t yet find the link with the details on which streaming services count. (It might be possible to load up your Apple or Google Play balances with this category; let us know if you see anything like this work.)
You can activate the 5% categories at this link. Personally I always wait for the email and activate it through the link in the email.
P1 received email for Freedom birthday surprise June 2025 category 5% on Internet, Cable, & Phone Services.If you’ve already activated, you can automatically start earning on qualifying purchases.
However P2 didn’t receive any such email, but regular Q2 5% categories already activated.
is this surprise offer targeted we think ?
Or anyone who has activated Chase Freedom Q2 5% will be eligible for these new categories regardless whether they received email or not ?
hm.. can I buy netflix GC on amazon so I can ‘pre-pay’ my year of netflix and max out the 5x UR bonus points?
I don’t see why not.
And, now, today, a few days short of a full month after it normally happens, and half a month into this quarter, I finally got the emails from Chase to activate my 2nd quarter offers for both Freedom and Freedom Flex account.
In past months at the end of each quarter, I’ve gotten emails from Chase asking me to select a category for the next quarter around the 20th of the month.
Well, now it’s the 25th of the month and I still haven’t gotten such an email.
So apparently Chase is indeed having issues with it.
Just because some people (including anyone who read the post by lochquel below) know about a site to go directly to where they can set the next quarter’s category, that doesn’t solve it for people who don’t know that until Chase truly fixes it.
Luckily, in my case, I don’t care about signing up, since I have no need for these categories, since I don’t use streaming other than through Amazon Prime, and I have an Amazon Prime card already. So I can just wait until they send me those emails to sign up, however long that does end up taking.
And now it’s the 30th of the month, 10 days after I usually get those emails from Chase each quarter, I still haven’t gotten one of those emails.
I stocked up on Amazon gift cards from Pepper when they were 14% off (unfortunately, they’re no longer available). I have both the Freedom and Freedom Flex, but I don’t use any streaming services. I was really hoping for 5X on PayPal this quarter to cover my taxes…
There is No Q2 categoty for Chase Freedom showing yet to activate !
So it is too early, don’t log in expecting to see it to activate ,
No such a thing yet, FYI
Try this until they fix it proper, comrade:
https://www.chasebonus.com/
Q1 2025 had grocery category which I almost maximized. I got my haircut for self care. I did not fitness clubs, spa services, Norwegian cruise lines, or tax preparation services. I might use tax preparation services before the deadline this month. I assume Q2 2025 Chase customers will use Amazon for Whole Foods grocery stores and Amazon gift cards. Another possibility of prepaying the entire year of streaming services. If you spend $1500 in three months on streaming services then you need to cancel them all and get a public library card.
Anyone with insider knowledge? Who funds the 5% here?
Interchange is usually around 2%, so 5% means someone is taking a 3% hit here.
The only comparable data point for how much a giant retailer would pay a giant bank, is Costco, which pays 0.4% as per this article.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/costco-only-takes-visa-means-140013491.html?guccounter=1
My guess is the merchant likely eats it. A thought I often have is: how many times do customers either lose or simply forget about their gift cards? A quick query to GPT 4.5 says roughly 10-20% goes unclaimed, so it’s a guaranteed win for any merchant that can to sell as many as possible.
Maybe when there is 1 specific merchant mentioned (ie Amazon). However, when Chase offers a general category (ie gas, grocery, etc), it’s almost certainly Chase that “eats it”.
Correct.
Apologies for the low quality comment, and thanks for not flaming me 🙂 I was thinking strictly GCs. Agree with you that the bank is likely “eating it”, and they likely make up the difference through a commission of sorts through their partner relationships (e.g. UR transfer partners, online travel agencies, etc). I’ll still self proclaim this low quality as OP was looking for folks with insider knowledge, and I’m speculating.
Its 3% of $1500. I don’t think chase is going to negotiate per quarter rate with Amazon if I have to make a guess. Why many keep this card essentially for the 5% and chase gets active customer base.
I now run all extended warranty through CFU as the next closest we have in free tier is Citi DC.
And interchange is never flat 2%, it varies by industry and type of card signature visa vs others.
Will Whole Foods count for Amazon like last year?
It does on the Amazon credit card, so who knows
Also very interested in this
I can confirm that Whole Foods earns 5X
Personally, I have a sizeable Amazon gift card balance (like
Chuck mentioned above he has), plus I have an Amazon Prime card (which I mostly use Whole Foods, but sometimes for Amazon at 5x).
And I don’t use streaming services other than Amazon Prime, and I doubt I’ll start any paid ones this next quarter (I have some free streaming offers still to take advantage of), so this quarter’s Chase benefits are pretty useless to me.
I think Chase should factor in that more and more people are getting the Amazon Prime card, which makes an Amazon bonus on Freedom cards less useful.
They should at least have two other categories when they have Amazon as a Freedom cards category.
Streaming is just one category.
Personally I use 5.25% BofA CR cards for anything Online. That includes Amazon, Target, Costco so every time someone mentions retailer specific card giving less than 5.25% cashback is kind of funny.
But you have to tie up 100k at the worst bank in business.
I’m just holding 400 VTI in Merrill Edge. I periodically churn brokerage bonuses too, including Merrill Edge.
I don’t care about people’s opinion on what’s the worst bank in business. 15 years ago someone’s grandma had the same opinion and recommended Wells Fargo to me as the best bank. We all know how that turned out. What a joke.
Yes, but they’re not 5.25% cashback for many ordinary people who don’t have big sums of cash to deposit at BofA.
Having $100K+ in investments with Merrill also does the trick.
Any kind of investments? Ie, does a 401k/rollover IRA count?
I don’t see why it wouldn’t count. Call Bac to find out.
Time to give the Freedoms a much deserved 3 month break. Mine are literally puffing, and and sweating from all the workout they have been getting for the past 6 or so months.