Chase Freedom Student Credit Card Review (Discontinued)

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.

Application Link

Benefits

  1. $50 offer: earn $50 cash back after one purchase in the first 3 months. 
  2. Earn 1% cash back on everything.
  3. 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.
  4. “Good Standing Rewards”: earn 2,000 UR points after each account anniversary year for the first 5 years.
  5. No annual fee.

Disadvantages

  1. It has foreign transaction fee, so it's not a good choice outside the US.

Introduction to UR Points

Recommended Application Time

  1. You can get approved even with no credit history at all! (SSN required)
  2. [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

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.

Historical Offers Chart

Application Link


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