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:

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:
    Chuck
  • On July 1, 2020, 13:43
Tags: bigchasechase sapphirechase sapphire preferredchase sapphire reservegasinstacartstreaming services

View Comments (172)

  • @will A DP: I paid for the Instacart monthly fees of $9.99 using my Chase Sapphire card (no annual fee card) on 28th Aug. I see that it has been credited back to my card. So this works on no annual fee card as well.

  • Has anyone not used up the $300 annual travel credit and signed up for an instacart subscription? I received a credit for a monthly subscription ($9.99); however, $9.99 was also deducted from my $300 annual travel credit. Seems like I'm kind of being cheated $9.99 from my $300 annual travel credit?

    • Did you reach out to Chase customer service ? and what did they say. I hope that was system glitch and Customer service would fix it

      • The first time I spoke with them, they said they would send it up to have it removed. I called back after a couple days to check again since I didn't see any changes online. I was told the ticket was "closed." I asked if there was a reason why it was closed, but was told there was none stated. This person said she would send it back up again and agreed it did not make sense. I'm thinking that it was deducted from the annual travel credit because it was categorized as "grocery." Hoping they reverse it! Had I known this would be an issue, I would have spent the $300 travel credit on groceries prior to signing up for instacart.

        • Same thing happened to me. I received the $9.99 credit as a"Instacart Express Credit". But the same amount has been counted against my $300 credit too.

          I called Chase to dispute this, but i realized something along the way.

          Here is my calculation.
          1. Let's say I owe 100$ to Chase.
          2. Now, i got Instacart subscription for $9.99, and it got immediately credited as part of promotion. So, the net cost for me is $0 and the amount i owe Chase is unchanged, it is still $100.

          Here is how i assumed Chase would have miscalculated, and called to dispute:
          3. I assumed Chase deprived me the privilege of using my $300 annual credit, as the $9.99 is subtracted from $300, bringing it down to $290.01, while the Amount i owe them is still $100.

          Here is how Chase calculated it:
          3. Chase subtracted $9.99 from my $300 allowance and also from the amount i owe them. So the new amount I owe is $100-$9.99 = $90.01 and my travel allowance now stands at $290.01.

          To summarize, this is just spending your money once and getting credited twice.
          I hope this helps with your scenario as well.

  • Anyone else see any 5x on restaurant purchases with CSR since July 1st? I think I have a few...

  • Any ideas on maximizing the streaming services benefit? I tried paying Hulu and Netflix a year in advance (not possible). Can I purchase gift cards directly from either? Other ideas?

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