Chase Freedom Student Review
2023.6 Update: This card is now discontinued. It is replaced by Chase Freedom Rise.
2020.4 Update: This card used to require you to apply in local branch, and now it is finally available online. HT: DoC.
2019.6 Update: This is a new card designed for student by Chase. The banker said this card will be very easy to get approved, and even people with no credit history at all can also possibly get approved.
Contents
Application Link
Benefits
- $50 offer: earn $50 cash back after one purchase in the first 3 months.
- Earn 1% cash back on everything.
- Although this card is advertised as a cash back card, it actually earns Ultimate Rewards (UR) points. We estimate that Ultimate Rewards (UR) points are worth about 1.6 cents/point, see below for a brief introduction. So the 5k sign-up bonus could be worth about $80.
- “Good Standing Rewards”: earn 2,000 UR points after each account anniversary year for the first 5 years.
- No annual fee.
Disadvantages
- It has foreign transaction fee, so it's not a good choice outside the US.
Introduction to UR Points
- You can earn UR points with Chase Freedom Student, Chase Freedom, Chase Freedom Unlimited (CFU), Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP), Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR), Chase Ink Cash (Business), Chase Ink Unlimited (Business), Chase Ink Preferred (Business), etc.
- You can move your UR points from one UR card to another at any time.
- UR points never expire. You will lose the UR points on one card if you close the account, but you can prevent losing your UR points by moving the points to another UR card beforehand.
- If you have Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP), Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR), or Chase Ink Preferred (Business), UR points can be transferred to some hotel points. One of the best way to use UR points is to 1:1 transfer to Hyatt points. UR points can also be transferred to some airline miles. One of the most common and best way to use UR points is to 1:1 transfer them to United Airlines (UA) miles (Star Alliance), and combine them with the UA miles earned from the UA card. Other good options are: Southwest (WN) (Non-alliance), British Airways (BA) (Oneworld), Virgin Atlantic (VS) (Non-alliance), etc. If you use UR points in this way, the value is about 1.6 cents/point.
- If you have Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR), you can redeem your UR points at a fixed rate 1.5 cents/point towards air tickets or hotels on UR travel portal; if you have Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP) or Chase Ink Preferred (Business), you can redeem your UR at a fixed rate 1.25 cents/point towards air tickets or hotels on UR travel portal.
- If you have any of the UR cards, you can redeem your UR points at a fixed rate 1 cent/point towards cash.
- In summary, we estimate that UR points are worth about 1.6 cents/point.
- For more information about UR points, see Maximize the Credit Card Points Values (overview), and Introduction to UR: How to Earn and Introduction to UR: How to Use (very detailed).
Recommended Application Time
- You can get approved even with no credit history at all! (SSN required)
- [5/24 Rule] If you have 5 or more new accounts opened in the past 24 months, Chase will not approve your application on this card, no matter how high your credit score is. The number of new accounts includes all credit card accounts, not only Chase accounts. See this post for details about how to possibly bypass this rule.
Summary
This is a card designed for student by Chase. The banker said this card will be very easy to get approved, and even people with no credit history at all can also possibly get approved. Although neither the sign-up bonus nor the earning rate is great, I guess Chase will allow you convert this card to better cards (e.g. Chase Freedom or Chase Freedom Unlimited (CFU)). Therefore this card is very recommended as your first credit card.
Related Credit Cards
- Chase Freedom Student (this post)
- Chase Freedom Flex (CFF)
- Chase Freedom Unlimited (CFU)
- Old Chase Freedom
After Applying
- Call 800-436-7927 to check Chase application status. This is an automated telephone line, and the information has the following meanings: Receive decision in 2 weeks means your application is probably approved; Receive decision in 7-10 days means your application is probably rejected; Receive decision in 30 days simply means your application requires further review and there’s nothing to tell you for now.
- Chase reconsideration backdoor number: 888-270-2127 or 888-609-7805. Call it if you didn’t get approve immediately. Your personal information will be acquired and they will then review it. You seldom answer questions, instead, just enjoy the music and then you get approved or rejected, or further information is needed to be hand in to the branch or faxed.