Chase's Freedom Flex has long been a favourite starter rewards card in the US, and a recent refresh has made it more useful for anyone heading abroad. The big news: the card no longer charges foreign transaction fees, meaning it can finally earn its place in your wallet on an overseas trip rather than staying at home. Cardholders also now get access to Chase Points Boost offers, which can lift the value of points by up to 10% on select hotel bookings made through Chase Travel.
The card's headline feature remains its rotating quarterly bonus categories, which pay 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in combined spending each quarter — then drop to 1%. You have to activate each quarter's categories by the 14th of the final month in that quarter, and Chase is now announcing them roughly a quarter in advance, which makes planning ahead much easier. For Q4 2026, the categories are grocery stores (excluding Walmart and Target), dining and American Red Cross donations; because the card already earns 3% on dining, that effectively means 7% back on restaurant spending this quarter. Grocery stores stay at 5% into Q1 2027 — the first time a category has repeated in consecutive quarters — alongside select streaming services.
Elsewhere in the earn structure, you get 5% back on travel booked through Chase Travel, 3% on dining and drugstores, 2% on Lyft rides through September 2027, and 1% on everything else. There's a $250 intro bonus, no annual fee, and a 15-month introductory APR offer (then a variable 18.24%–27.74% APR). Perks are modest: six months of free DoorDash DashPass if activated by the end of 2027, plus $10 off non-restaurant DoorDash orders each quarter for active DashPass members. Cellphone protection has been removed as part of the refresh.
The catch for travel enthusiasts is redemption. On its own, the Freedom Flex is essentially a cash-back card — points are worth 1 cent each against cash back, statement credits, or Amazon and PayPal purchases, and up to 1.1 cents via Points Boost hotel deals. The real magic happens if you also hold a premium Chase Ultimate Rewards card like the Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve: you can pool your Freedom Flex points and transfer them to airline and hotel partners such as World of Hyatt, United MileagePlus and Air Canada Aeroplan. The Points Guy currently values those transferable points at 2.05 cents apiece — the reviewer recently used 28,000 of them for a three-night stay at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix.
So who is this card for? Anyone starting out with points and miles, or existing travel rewards collectors who want a no-fee card that racks up transferable points on groceries and dining. If you already have a card with no foreign transaction fees, the Flex's appeal narrows to its quarterly categories — but 5% back on everyday spending for $0 a year is hard to argue with. Just remember the activation deadline and the quarterly cap, or the bonus rate slips away.
