Chase Freedom 5% Birthday Surprise
The year of 2025 is really the year of Chase Freedom. It did turn the ripe old age 15 this year you know. To celebrate, Chase has been rolling out additional categories for 5% earning with your Chase Freedom cards. This includes the Freedom Flex and the original Freedom varieties. The annoying part is that these birthday surprise categories are only good for the last month of the quarter, and they roll into the same $1,500 quarterly cap you normally get. Let's take a look at the details for the Chase Freedom 5% birthday surprise.
This Quarter's Categories
The Chase Freedom 5% birthday surprise has been announced for this quarter. It doesn't start until June 1st, but you can activate it now.
- You can now earn 5% cash back from 6/1/25 – 6/30/25 on up to $1,500 in combined purchases in this quarter’s categories, plus our June birthday surprise category:
- Internet
- Cable
- Phone Services
As stated above, these new surprise categories are just rolled into the standard quarterly bonus categories. There is no additional spending cap added, which is a bummer. If you already maximized your second quarter $1,500 spend then you can not take advantage of these new categories. The categories that were previously announced for this quarter are:
- Earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in combined purchases on
- Amazon
- Select Streaming Services
- Full breakdown here
Activation Link
Previous Birthday Surprise Categories
Here is what the birthday surprise categories have been in previous quarters:
- First Quarter (good from March 1st – March 31st)
- Tax Preparation
- Insurance
Chase Freedom 5% Birthday Surprise: ToP Thoughts
It is nice to see additional options to maximize your 5% earning during each quarter this year. Having said that, I wish they were available the entire quarter, or at least announced at the beginning of the quarter. That way you could know if it would be easier to just wait to work on your spend. It would have been nice to see Chase throw a proper birthday bash by giving these surprise categories additional spending cap. Since they didn't, it just feels like a hallow gesture / celebration. On the positive side of things, it will likely allow some to maximize quarters they wouldn't have otherwise.
Let me know what you think of this quarter's categories over in the ToP Facebook Group.
