Chase Freedom Rise® review: A great choice for new cardholders

Building credit is hardly an overnight endeavor, and the best strategy isn't always clear. Luckily, the Freedom Rise makes it easier by keeping things simple.

To start, Chase offers free access to your credit score, which is key to tracking your progress. The issuer will also review your account in as little as six months to see if you qualify for a credit limit increase based on responsible card use (like paying on time and keeping balances low). A higher credit limit can give you much-needed breathing room and make it easier to keep your credit utilization low.

Credit utilization is a key credit-scoring factor, accounting for 30 percent of your FICO score. That's why I request one any chance I get. Even if I don’t plan on using much of my increased credit limit, I feel more comfortable knowing I have more room to make purchases without exceeding 30 percent credit utilization (a good rule of thumb for keeping your credit score solid).

I think it's totally reasonable to expect that if you’re giving a bank your business, you should get something in return, even on a starter credit card. The Freedom Rise offers a healthy mix of rewards, perks, and credit-building features, making it well worth it if you're new to credit cards.

Rewards: A fair flat rate for all purchases

If you’re new to credit cards and credit card rewards it’s likely that tiered categories and boosted rates for specific purchases will confuse you — even just a little bit. The Freedom Rise keeps rewards simple with a slightly boosted flat-rate instead of tiered rewards. You don’t need to track spending categories or use the card for specific purchases to maximize your earnings. You’ll earn the same 1.5 percent back no matter where or on what you use your card.

When I look at a rate like this I wonder why I didn’t pick a flat-rate rewards card as my first credit card. I didn’t have focused spending categories or routine purchases when I started out. I was a college student who spent money mostly on food, concerts, drinks, books and video games. I didn’t really have any business holding the Prime Visa because only two of those purchase categories would earn my card’s best rewards rate (and that’s only if I used Amazon.com). If I had a good flat-rate card I could have earned much more cash back on all of the random, sporadic spending I did in my earliest years of financial independence.

The Freedom Rise should land on your radar if you want to earn rewards on your purchases, but don’t want to spend too much time thinking about how much you’ll earn.

Perks: Loyalty appreciation and credits

You’ll seldom find credit-building cards with perks and benefits outside of the standard free credit score insights and account reviews. The Freedom Rise edges ahead of its competitors with a quarterly up to $10 DoorDash credit for non-restaurant purchases and a complimentary 6-month subscription to DashPass.

Additionally—and this one is pretty important for anyone who is really new to credit or who is recovering from bad credit—Chase will boost your approval odds as long as you have an eligible checking or savings account (minimum $250 in qualifying funds required). It can be hard to get approved for a credit card when you don’t have a credit history to back you up. Sometimes your only option is to open a secured credit card, which isn’t an option that’s available to everyone given deposits typically start around $200. If you bank with Chase already and are looking for a credit-building card, the Freedom Rise will be a great choice because you may have an advantage when applying for the card, while other issuers might not give you the same consideration.

Rates: Decent ongoing APR

The current average credit card interest rate is just over 20 percent, which places this card’s APR on the high end, but it’s still lower than comparable cards’ APRs. Although a high APR is something you should expect on most credit-building cards, it’s nice to see this card’s rate fall in the middle between a low APR and a high APR. Most other credit-building cards have APRs over 27 percent. This is just over a percentage point higher, but when you start to think long term about how interest accumulates, you’ll want the lowest rates you can find.

There is a lot to love with the Chase Freedom Rise, but it falls short where other cards thrive. While competing options may not have generous rewards rates or perks, some have more favorable welcome offers and rates. Plus, you won’t have much of a say in your starting credit limit with this card, which can bode poorly if you need access to more than its minimum limit.

Welcome offer: Low value, low ceiling

This card’s welcome offer is easy to earn, but it’s not the staggering amount that you might find on other cards—especially if you already have fair or good credit. I consider welcome offers the card benefit that you should time your application around. I opened the U.S. Bank Cash+® Visa Signature® Card in November of 2024 as I was Black Friday shopping. It was instrumental in scooping up more savings on an expensive piece of furniture, which, in addition to a $250 welcome offer, I earned 5 percent back on. I probably would have felt less comfortable with a big purchase if I wasn’t earning a welcome offer to help offset my spending. It might sound like a lot of thinking just for buying a new chair, but timing a big purchase around a new card’s welcome offer gave me peace of mind and insulated my savings.

I would not consider this card’s welcome offer a worthwhile chunk of savings to offset a large purchase, but I understand why it’s so small — there’s no spending requirement. You only need to enroll in automatic payments, which is probably something you should do anyway. It’s a nice perk, but for savings worth bragging about you should consider a traditional welcome offer on another card.

Rates and fees: No intro APR offers

An often understated benefit of a new credit card is an introductory APR. I’m still carrying a balance on my U.S. Bank Cash+ Visa from my furniture purchase in November of 2024 because I’m in the middle of an intro APR offer. I’ve whittled my balance down quite a bit, but I haven’t stressed much about paying it off because I have a high credit limit and I’m not being charged interest. Plus, letting this balance sit for a while has freed up cash flow elsewhere in my budget.

It’s rare to find intro APRs on credit-building cards, but if you’re looking at this card and you have good credit there are definitely options available to you that have intro APR offers. Our experts list several great cards that offer an intro APR, one of which is the Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card. This card has the same base rewards rate as the Freedom Rise and a potentially lower ongoing APR (though your APR could also be much higher than the Freedom Rise’s). However, it might be a strong alternative if you want an introductory APR and a traditional welcome offer without losing the generous flat-rate the Freedom Rise offers.

Credit limit: Uncertain limit until approval

You won’t know your credit limit until you’re approved for the card, and you can fall under one of two tiers. The low tier is the Platinum tier, which gives you a credit limit of at least $500 and different card benefits. The Signature tier gives you at least a $5,000 credit limit and all of the card’s benefits.

When I first opened my Chase card I didn’t consider my credit limit of great importance, mostly because it was $6,000 and I knew I’d never use all of it. However, looking back through an expert perspective I’m grateful to have had access to such a high credit limit when I started out because it gave me the flexibility needed to build my score comfortably. Credit utilization is a key scoring metric when the credit bureaus calculate your score; the less you use, the better.

If you qualify for the $500 limit on this card, you’ll have very little room to spend money and still build credit. However, a $500 credit limit is still around the average credit limit for fair credit users getting their first card. Meanwhile, the $5,000 limit will give you plenty of breathing room, but the qualifications for that tier are unclear. In its terms, Chase writes that it will “review your credit report and the information you provide with your response to confirm that you meet the criteria for this offer.” They’ll decide on your tier after this review.

The Freedom Rise is a good card and serves its niche well, but it’s a niche that’s widely serviced by other cards offering various benefits and rewards that suit different types of spenders. The right card for you will complement your needs, so be sure to compare cards closely.

Here are some alternatives worth looking at:

Our proprietary card rating system takes into account a mix of factors when scoring credit cards for students and people building credit, including each card’s cost, APR, credit-building tools and more.

We analyzed over 50 of the most popular cards designed for students and people with no credit history, bad credit or a fair credit score and scored each based on where its key features stood in relation to others in its category. 

Here are some of the key factors that gave this card its score: