Chase Adds Temporary Categories & Benefits To Sapphire Reserve, Preferred Cards (Gas, Streaming, Instacart)

Update 7/3/20: Chase Sapphire Reserve Unofficially Earning 5x On Restaurant Purchases

Update 7/1/20: Two Instacart updates:

• Apparently you can get Instacart membership for $79 instead of $99 now; final cost will be $30 after Chase credit. I’m not positive how to get this to show, but worth poking around.
• Be sure to use a referral when signing up to get $10 off your first order. 

Original Post:

Chase is adding gas, streaming, and Instacart as bonus categories to the Sapphire Preferred and Reserve cards for the time period of July 1 – September 30. Plus a credit toward Instacart membership.

The Offer

Sapphire Reserve | Sapphire Preferred | Instacart Offer link

Gas Stations:

• 5x on Sapphire Reserve
• 3x on Sapphire Preferred

Limit $1,500 which is combined for the entire 3 month period.

Select Streaming Services:

• 10x on Sapphire Reserve
• 5x on Sapphire Preferred

Limit $1,500 which is combined for the entire 3 month period.

Only subscriptions paid for or purchases made with the following select merchants will qualify for this offer: Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, Netflix, Sling, Vudu, Fubo TV, Apple Music, SiriusXM, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube TV.

Instacart Grocery Delivery and Pickup:

• 5x on Sapphire Reserve
• 3x on Sapphire Preferred

Limit $3,000 which is combined for the entire 3 month period.

You can also get one a $50 statement credit to offset the Instacart membership cost. That leaves two options:

• Buy annual Instacart membership for $99 with your Sapphire Reserve/Preferred card during July – September and get an automatic $50 statement credit.
• Signup for the monthly membership plan which costs $9.99 per month and get statement credits from Chase of up to $50 to offset the membership cost. If you sign up during July and continue membership for 3 months, you’ll get three $9.99 statement credits.

When choosing the monthly option, the charge for October will not be offset since it’s after the promotion period. So essentially your two options are either to get $50 back on the $99 annual membership (full $50 benefit) or three months free with the monthly option ($29.97 benefit). Be sure to cancel when  you no longer want the service.

The Fine Print

• No activation required.
• Valid July 1 – September 30, 2020

Our Verdict

The free 3 months on Instacart makes it a good opportunity to try them out, plus you’ll earn 3x/5x on the actual spend. Instacart can be a pretty useful service for someone who does not like shopping in person; they’ll deliver your groceries/purchases from many major grocery and wholesale chains.

Various data points suggest that Instacart purchases code as grocery, so you’ll be able to offset your Instacart purchases with statement credits at 1.5 cents per point, as well as earn the 5x bonus. You can also get a $10 credit on your first Instacart order by using a referral link – find and share referrals in this dedicated post.

The 3x/5x on gas is pretty nice. You might even find someplace that codes as gas which sells gift cards too.

The 5x/10x on streaming services is sweet little bonus too. While most people don’t spend a ton on streaming, it adds up. Amazon streaming is not an option here, unfortunately, (would have been useful), but many streaming services are included in the above list. We’ve added that to our list of best cards for Streaming.

We saw Chase add groceries as a grocery bonus category on many cards, including the Sapphire cards. This time we’re only hearing about a bonus category on Sapphire cards; no news on other cards at this time.

Related:

• Chase Announces Major Temporary Benefits On Sapphire Reserve/ Preferred ‘Pay Yourself Back’ (1.5 Cents Cashout; Easy Travel Credit; $450 Renewal)
• Chase Automatically Extending Minimum Spend Period For Cards Opened January 1st – March 31st
• Redeem United Miles For 1.5¢ Towards Chase United Card Annual Fees
• $120 in DoorDash credits ($60 in 2020, $60 in 2021)
• Complimentary Lyft Pink membership