Here’s a reminder to activate your Chase Freedom card so that you can get 5x points (or 5% cash back) on select categories for the first quarter (January – March) of 2015. Q1 categories are: grocery stores, movie theaters and Starbucks. Note that Wal-Mart, Target and warehouse clubs such as Costco and Sam’s do NOT qualify for the bonus. You can get the 5x/5% bonus on up to $1500 in purchases.
The Freedom card is a favorite of mine because it has no annual fee and it earns Ultimate Rewards (UR) points. If you only have the Freedom card you can use URs like cash to buy airline tickets, hotel rooms and even merchandise (but please, don’t buy merchandise) at the rate of 1 UR = 1 cent. Or, if you have a premium Ultimate Rewards card like the Sapphire Preferred or one of the Ink cards, you can transfer URs to one of the associate frequent flyer or hotel programs get more than 1 cent per point in value.
Here are the current transfer partners:
Korean Air is not currently on the list but is rumored to be returning as a partner in the new year. When they do, that means the three major airline alliances will each have a representative airline. And Virgin Atlantic miles can be used on Virgin America and Virgin Australia too!
So be sure to activate your Freedom Q1 bonuses by March 14, 2015 to ensure you’re maxing out all the points you can.
Once again it’s the first Friday of the month and that means 3x points on dining when you use your Chase Sapphire Preferred to pay. But really, if you don’t have the Chase Freedom card that’s been earning 5x points on dining since April 1st, what are you waiting for? The Freedom is a no-annual-fee card that’s a terrific complement to the Sapphire Preferred. And if you don’t have either of these, the Discover cards are offering a 5% bonus on dining for the April-June time frame so that’s a better choice.
2B Traveling 
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