Update 3/23/25: Tax payments with pay1040 & ACI have been working to count as part of the ‘Tax Prep’ category.
Original Post 3/2/25:
In the Chase app, there is showing a “birthday surprise category” on the Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex cards. In celebration of the 15th birthday of the Chase Freedom, the Freedom cards will earn 5%/5x on Insurance payments and on Tax Preparation Services during the month of March.
The fine print states that the regular quarterly $1,500 limit will apply to these March categories along with the other quarterly categories (Grocery, Fitness, Spa).
Personally, I’ll be maxing out my Freedom Flex card with Grocery since I have the 10x signup bonus for the first year at Grocery. On my other Freedom card, I’ll likely try using up the $1,500 limit in March 2025 on Insurance payments.
Hat tip to reader mangorunner
Update 12/18/24: A reader reached out to let us know that apparently there will be bonus categories each of the quarters in the coming year (2025), in honor of Chase Freedom 5% fifteenth birthday. We’ll find out later in the year what the bonus categories are for Q2, Q3, and Q4.
Is anyone else’s quarterly reward counter/tracker super off? I spent $1200 and $1500 on insurance payments, with P1 and P2 freedom cards respectively. Our counters are only showing approx $13 and $18 of earned rewards out of $75. Statements and 5x points have already posted for all the bonus spending so far. No refunds. Thoughts/similar experiences?
Where do you find the reward counter/tracker?
Can I pay my geico or famers bill in march then?
Just did pay1040 $1,500 payment on Freedom. Hoping for the best.
Please let us know 🤞
Can confirm both the payment and the service fee got 5%.
Did anyone get 5% bonus for Geico auto insurance payment?
Yes, the points are currently pending for me.
Yes. Can confirm 5% cash back on GEICO.
Insurance is a great category! so is self care. So was vet services. They are doing a great job making this a useful card. Q2 categories are less exciting so it’ll be interesting to see the bonus category.
June surprise category is internet, cable, and phone services.
BofA and Citi give $20 cash back for turbotax
DP on Reddit of the March tax prep 5% category working on tax payments at Pay1040. Really shocking to me if true.
Why? It’s capped to $75 for all of the quarterly + bonus categories combined.
Why do they make sure to exclude Walmart and Target from the groceries category?
Per card. Some people have multiple. Though it’s a little late in the game on getting tax overpayments back for 2024 tax year.
Useful if you have a balance due for 2024 that you haven’t paid yet, or need to make estimated tax payments for 2025.
I paid $1500 in taxes through freetaxUSA which uses ACI as the vendor and I got the 5% back. They charged a 2.5% fee for credit cards but with the 5%, it was still worth it. There are 2 separate charges on the statement, one for the fees, one for the payment itself. The payment earned 5x points, the fees earned 1x. I don’t know whether it works if you pay taxes directly through ACI on the IRS website, but that charges less in fees. I believe it is something like 1.85%.
Now we’re talking. Let’s go!
Any way to make more than 2 estimated payments?
You can do two IRS estimated payments per quarter.
Two per payment processor per quarter, and other data points indicate ACI Payments works as well, so four per quarter.
Do you know how long does it take for the payment to post to IRS (aka show in irs.gov)?
Generally a couple days to show up as pending, then several more days to fully post (assuming no IRS site maintenance).
Normal Q2 categories are live, has anyone been able to see the June surprise bonus category as well? (It didn’t show up for me last time and didn’t see anything this time either)
Mine isn’t even showing the Q2 categories yet, can you update me on what the categories are?
Amazon and
Select Streaming Services
June surprise category is internet, cable, and phone services.
Bummer. Got that covered with Ink Cash but could be helpful for some. Maybe Q3 will work better for me.
Nerd Wallet.
Does payment on IRS credit card processor site count as tax preparation?
Anecdotally, yes, but I haven’t tried
Anecdotally by whom?
https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/1jhfo14/chase_freedom_flex_5_cash_back_pay1040/
Has anyone received the 5% cashback for payments on geico (was Liberty) house insurance?
Insurance is such a hard one if you pay the 6-month or yearly payment in full and it is unlikely to fall during this one random month of the year. No prepayments that I know of for those either.
I pay State Farm monthly for budgeting and there’s no fee for credit card payments. Made a large prepayment for a bonus that exceeded the premium due for the rest of the policy period. Instead of paying the account forward, they sent me a refund check.
used the refund to pay the card off and kept the bonus points.
I have State Farm and don’t have a monthly payment option on either my homeowner’s insurance or auto insurance. I would be interested in doing this for the credit card/cashback flexibility.
What type of insurance(s) do you pay monthly?
Is that also the one(s) that you prepay?
Is the monthly payment structure something you set up with your local office? If not, how did you get that option, if you know?
Thanks,
Curmudgeon!
It’s a vehicle insurance policy. I have had it paid monthly for years so I have no idea how it was set up. Have you set up an account at statefarm.com? Maybe it can be done there.
I guess that overpayment option oversight was corrected. State Farm here in VA only allows three online options: 1. Pay in full; 2. Pay Half; 3. Auto enroll. This is why rumors or rumors until verified with facts.
Just logged into my State Farm account. On the “My bills” page there’s an option to “Pay in Advance.” click that and the policy info comes up with a button that says “make a payment.” From there, I get two options – pay the monthly installment, or pay (fill in the blank). Maybe it depends on the agent, the policy or the state you’re in.
If the pay in advance is available, there are more flexible options for payment. But it appears once the bill is issued, it becomes the full, half, autopay options. Just had that happen myself. Was going to pay in advance on a bill that usually is due March 15 but wanted to wait until the category kicked in. By that time, a bill had been issued.
Thanks for the replies. Following all of the comments above with great interest.
Yes, I am enrolled on State Farm’s website and have been paying my bills online for many years.
Am currently awaiting my annual homeowner’s insurance bill which should be issued tomorrow (if same date as last year). Have been logging in every day for past week to see if bill issued yet. I just checked again and I have no option to make payment in advance on this particular bill. There is a greyed-out button that says “No Payment Due”.
I have a feeling that policy, agent and state could all factor into the payment options.
I think most people understand what advance options mean, but I understand, there always has to be an unsolicited opinon that amounts to the same thing: NO. The State Farm website in VA has the three options I listed before and allows for no other adance payment other than the three I indicated: 1. Pay in full; 2. Pay Half; 3. Auto enroll. As another reviewer stated, maybe he/she is special.
Just to verify, I just checked again and paid for six months (22 days early), the three options I listed above are the options for State Farm in VA. Advance payment was not an option.
I haven’t tried but I don’t see any reason why Geico wouldn’t work. If you tried already, let me know. Delta Dental insurance, USAA, Blue Cross Blue Shield all worked for 5%.