We’ve reposted this because Chase has reached out with an official comment:
The Chase Freedom Unlimited card is not replacing Chase Freedom. Chase Freedom, one of our most popular cards, will continue to be available and play an important role in our credit card growth strategy.
Rob Tacey I Chase Card Services I Communication and Public Affairs
Keep in mind these official corrections don’t always turn out to be correct.
There are some rumors going around that the Chase Freedom card will be discontinued at the end of the year. A reddit user posted that their Chase Private Client Banker stated that the
5% categories on the Chase Freedom would be going away at the end of the year and people would automatically product changed to the new Chase Freedom Unlimited card.
Another reader sent me the following e-mail:
I was just at a Chase branch, getting my brother set up with a checking account(with one of those bonus offer cards from eBay, thanks for the info and link), and we got to talking about the Chase Freedom/Â Freedom Unlimited cards.
The banker said that he had been in some of the meetings where Chase was deciding what perks to offer with their new Freedom Unlimited card. There were apparently 3-4 they had been considering before they decided to go with the 1.5% cashback, and this guy said he brought up during the meeting that 1.5% cash back wasn’t particularly good, as other banks were already providing similar or better rewards.
Apparently during these meetings they were discussing how a lot of people with the Freedom card never signed up for the bonus categories, so they wanted a simpler card that these people would like better.
Another thing he mentioned is that they’re phasing out the old Chase Freedom card. He said that he’s no longer able to offer that card at all at the branch, by direction of Chase corporate. Signups are still available online(and $50 referrals, if you want to get your friends/family one of these cards before they go away), but may not be for too much longer.He didn’t give any solid date for the online signups going away, but perhaps people who have been on the fence about getting one of these cards should make up their mind sooner rather than later.
The banker I spoke with is the main banker for the branch I went to, and he’s been there for quite a while. So, what he said could well be accurate.
I’ll leave this info with you to do with it as you see fit.
Have you gotten any tips from anyone else about the old Chase Freedom possibly going away soon?
Thanks to reader David_B
As far as I know it’s no longer possible to sign up for the Chase Freedom card in branch (somebody correct me if I’m wrong). I contacted my source at Chase and they said they hadn’t anything yet, but that they wouldn’t necessarily hear anything if this was the case. Another user on myFICO forums stated that the Chase Freedom was no longer on their bankers desk display and when asked about it said the card was going away.
At the moment I’d say that this is just a rumor, although it is interesting that three separate bankers have basically said the same thing. Because the Chase 5/24 rules out a new Chase Freedom application for most people (and the fact that most people already hold the card), the real question will be what happens to existing Chase Freedom cardholders? Will they be automatically product changed to the Chase Freedom Unlimited, or will it follow the path of the Citi Dividend where the card is not available for new sign ups but you can still do a product change to the card (and it still has it’s 5x categories)?
The Freedom is really valuable when you hold it with a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Ink Plus, allowing you to transfer your 5x Chase URs to Chase travel partners. If anybody has any other data points, please let me know in the comments below. Also let me know what you think will happen to the Chase Freedom card.
We wrote more on this in the post Internal Chase Memo: Freedom Card 5% is here to Stay.
