Explain the need for Chase freedom cards. Are they visa or MasterCard? Neither?

[Anonymous]

Anyone have one? Where can Chase be used if it is not Visa or Mastercard?

[Anonymous]

My Chase freedom card has a VISA logo on it. My understanding is that it is another visa card.

[Anonymous]

Yup, mine is a Visa.

[Anonymous]

Mine is visa. Op, I fail to understand your confusion.

[Anonymous]

It's not a dumb question! OP, credit cards have three different categories to them:

1) the payment network they use. The payment network is the underlying technology used to allow payments to go over the wires between you, the store, and the card issuer. The two biggest networks are Visa and Mastercard. Your card will have a logo telling you which payment network it is on. Payment networks get a slice of the fees for each transaction (this is a huge can of worms I won't even get into here).

2) The issuer (usually a bank), which is Chase in this case. They are the ones lending you the money and collecting it, setting the interest rate, etc.

3) The brand name of the specific card, which is "Freedom" here. The issuer will put together card features, like interest rates and rewards programs, and targeted it to specific markets. It looks like the big selling point of "Freedom" has to do with the 5% cash-back rewards. It's called "Freedom" because I guess this is supposed to be a better and more flexible rewards program than other cards.

[Anonymous]

Chase Freedom did recently get rid of Mastercards.

[Anonymous]

Chase Freedom Visa.

[Anonymous]

It's just a type of VISA card. It gives you rewards for using the card. If you pay the whole balance off in full every month it can be an excellent deal. Similar cards include the Mastercard World Elite and the Amex Blue Cash Preferred.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not a dumb question! OP, credit cards have three different categories to them:

1) the payment network they use. The payment network is the underlying technology used to allow payments to go over the wires between you, the store, and the card issuer. The two biggest networks are Visa and Mastercard. Your card will have a logo telling you which payment network it is on. Payment networks get a slice of the fees for each transaction (this is a huge can of worms I won't even get into here).

2) The issuer (usually a bank), which is Chase in this case. They are the ones lending you the money and collecting it, setting the interest rate, etc.

3) The brand name of the specific card, which is "Freedom" here. The issuer will put together card features, like interest rates and rewards programs, and targeted it to specific markets. It looks like the big selling point of "Freedom" has to do with the 5% cash-back rewards. It's called "Freedom" because I guess this is supposed to be a better and more flexible rewards program than other cards.

NP here. Very helpful info--thanks!