Essentially the most fantastic time of the yr is upon us: It is the vacation season, and we’re checking off reward lists for family members. For reward card lovers, now can be the simplest time of the yr to earn 5 factors per greenback spent in your purchases.
Able to learn the way? Let’s dive into what choose Chase cardholders ought to know.
Earn bonus factors with PayPal in your Freedom card
For the month of December, PayPal is again as a bonus class on the legacy Chase Freedom* and the Chase Freedom Flex® (see charges and charges).
From now via Dec. 31, cardholders can earn 5% money again (as much as $1,500 in purchases) in one of many easiest-to-maximize classes of all time: PayPal (activation required).
When you carry a number of Chase playing cards, nonetheless — specifically the Chase Sapphire Most well-liked® Card (see charges and charges) or Chase Sapphire Reserve® (see charges and charges) — you are not restricted simply to money again, although. Chase lets holders of each a Freedom or Freedom Flex card and a Sapphire Most well-liked or Sapphire Reserve card flip the money again earned with their Freedom household card into transferable factors. So for the month of December, that 5% money again turns into a whopping 5 factors on the greenback.
*This card is not accessible to new candidates. The knowledge for the Chase Freedom has been collected independently by The Factors Man. The cardboard particulars on this web page haven’t been reviewed or offered by the cardboard issuer.
Associated: 4 explanation why I like to recommend the Chase Freedom Flex to freshmen
The place can you utilize PayPal?
It’s normal for PayPal to be a checkout possibility when purchasing on-line — even with main retailers that settle for bank cards instantly.
Whether or not you might be trying out on-line with Residence Depot, Nordstrom or Goal, or need to reload your Starbucks steadiness, PayPal is usually a cost possibility. Some bodily shops additionally now settle for PayPal as a cost type.
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As a simple instance, in case you place an order from Goal.com, choose the Edit Cost possibility, then select PayPal together with your linked Chase Freedom or Freedom Flex card. Then, so long as you activate the bonus by Dec. 14, you will earn 5% money again (or 5 factors per greenback spent).
Instance: Paying taxes with PayPal
TPG contributing editor for bank cards Matt Moffitt just lately used PayPal to pay his quarterly estimated taxes via Pay1040. He paid $1,474 in taxes together with his Freedom card with a further $26 processing price, totaling $1,500.
As a result of he additionally holds the Sapphire Reserve, the Freedom’s cash-back earnings convert into Final Rewards factors — on this case, 7,500 factors value $154 based mostly on TPG’s December 2025 valuations.
After subtracting the price, that is a internet achieve of roughly $128, making it a simple solution to max out the bonus in case you have unavoidable payments that settle for PayPal.
Are you able to earn bonus factors on person-to-person transfers with PayPal?
What about different PayPal choices, like sending cash to another person?
Particulars on Chase’s web site state that “Particular person-to-Particular person (P2P) transactions made together with your Chase Freedom card on PayPal will not be eligible for five%.”
Prior to now, these transactions generally counted as bonus-triggering occasions in our checks. Nonetheless, do not forget that — in contrast to when trying out by way of a retailer’s on-line web site — once you ship cash to a pal or related, you are sometimes the one paying the PayPal price.

When this bonus class appeared prior to now, I paid a pal again $120 by way of PayPal. There was an roughly $4 price to ship the cash, and I earned about 620 factors on that cost with my Freedom.
Since I even have the Sapphire Reserve, these 620 factors had been value about $13 based mostly on TPG’s December 2025 valuations — comfortably greater than the $4 price it price me to earn them.
If you do not have a premium Final Rewards card, factors earned on the Freedom are typically value 1 cent every, which might make these earnings value about $6.
That is nonetheless roughly $2 extra in rewards than the charges themselves. However even in case you needn’t ship cash to a pal, you may typically try with PayPal at tons of of on-line retailers, pay no extra charges and nonetheless earn 5% money again (or 5 factors per greenback spent).
Associated: The facility of the Chase Trifecta: Maximize your earnings with 3 playing cards
Backside line
The largest problem of the rotating Freedom bonus classes is solely maintaining with them, since they modify each three months. The PayPal class did not start till the beginning of this month. Nonetheless, it is nonetheless fairly straightforward to maximise.
You may set your eligible Freedom card because the default in your PayPal account after which try by way of that methodology when purchasing on-line via the tip of the yr.
When you try this and have heavy on-line purchasing patterns through the vacation season, it’s best to max out this quarter’s bonus class very quickly.
To study extra, learn our full evaluation of the Freedom Flex.
Apply right here: Chase Freedom Flex