Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available – View the current offers hereTPG Twitter follower Alexander is looking to take advantage of Chase Freedom’s 5% cash back bonus at select department stores in Q4 (The Chase Freedom is no longer open to new applicants):“Will the 5% cash back through Chase Freedom work on purchasing gift cards at Nordstrom?“Greetings from Madrid, everyone! I am currently at the Radisson Blu Hotel Prado, which is one of the new properties that I’ll be reviewing shortly, so stay tuned!Alexander is asking about one of the best overall benefits of the Chase Freedom card, the 5X points you earn at a rotating list of merchants or merchant categories each quarter up to a cap of $1,500.As a reminder, Freedom’s 5X spending bonuses are one of the best ways to rack up bonus Ultimate Rewards points using your Chase Freedom Visa or Freedom Mastercard. The only downside is the $1,500 quarterly cap ($6,000 annually). That’s still a potential total of 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points annually, which is pretty lucrative for a card with no annual fee. You can activate your Chase Freedom card category spending bonuses for the fourth quarter of 2013.Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.To earn even more points or miles, go through an online shopping portal.Whenever you make a purchase from one of these stores, the credit card company has no way of knowing exactly what you are buying, so as long as there is a purchase from one of the following department stores, you will get the 5X bonus points. To maximize your points earnings, you can even try to buy the gift cards online through one of the online shopping portals and earn even more bonus points that way. For example, right now, Nordstrom.com is offering 5 points per $1 through the Ultimate Rewards portal if you have a Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold or Ink Plus.So you could potentially earn a whopping 10 Ultimate Rewards points per $1 on your purchases. I value Ultimate Rewards points at 2 cents apiece, so in my estimation, that’s like getting 20% back on your spending. Sometimes shopping portals prohibit gift card purchases but some do allow it.I’d always recommend trying to buy gift cards through one of the online portals if you were going to get it in the store anyway. You might as well try to bank those extra portal points!List of major department stores included:JCPenneyKohl’sMacy’sNordstromSearsBloomingdale’sDillard’sLoehmann’sLord & TaylorNeiman MarcusSaks Fifth Ave and Off 5thList of Shopping Portals:Air Canada: Aeroplan EStoreAirTran: A+ Rewards MallAmerican: AAdvantageEshopping.comAmtrak: Amtrak Guest RewardsChase: Ultimate Rewards ShoppingChoice Rewards: Choice Privileges MallCiti: Thank You ShoppingDelta: Skymilesshopping.comDiscover: ShopDiscoverFrontier: Early Returns MallHawaiian Airlines: Hawaiian Airlines eMarketHilton HHonors: Hilton HHonors Shop to Earn MallMarriott Rewards: Shop My WayMastercard: Mastercard MarketplacePriority Club: Priority Club ShoppingSouthwest: Rapid Rewards ShoppingUnited: Mileageplusshopping.comUS Airways: Dividend Miles Shopping MallHappy shopping!
