Q2 2018 5% Quarterly Categories: Activate, Offers & Suggestions (Freedom, Discover, Dividend, Cash+)

It’s now possible to activate/enroll your 5% credit cards for the second quarter of 2018 on Chase Freedom, Discover IT, Citi Dividend, and US Bank Cash+. In this post we’ll provide the activation link for each card and link to track your spend, along with strategies to help increase spend on these categories.

Dates: April 1, 2018 – June 30, 2018. Store purchases can usually be done until the last minute. Online purchases should be given a buffer zone of a day or two.

Chase Freedom – Paypal, Grocery Stores, Chase Pay

Activation Link / Our original post

Earn 5% back on Paypal, grocery stores, and Chase Pay during the months of April, May, and June, up to $1,500 maximum. All of these are useful categories:

• Paypal. This includes regular online Paypal payments as well as in-store app payments with Paypal (update in store has been discontinued). It even includes if you use the Send Money feature in Paypal, e.g. to pay back a friend (there is a fee to send money to friends via Paypal with a credit card).
• Grocery Stores. Includes all regular grocery stores, large and small; examples here. However, it does not include purchases made at Walmart, Target, discount stores, or warehouse clubs.
• Chase Pay. You can use Chase Pay at select merchants online and in-store, here’s a partial list of partners. This is less useful than the Q1 2018 category which included all mobile wallets like Samsung Pay and Apple Pay, but still many options available.

For me, Paypal will be the easiest to meet since most online retailers accept Paypal, including eBay.com, Walmart.com, Bestbuy.com, and thousands of smaller websites too. Chase Pay can be a useful option too, as can grocery stores. Remember that Discover is also offering the grocery stores category so you may want to try the Paypal or Chase Pay option with Freedom if you can.

Just beware that there may be some Paypal purchases, particularly airline purchases, which won’t code properly for the 5x since it shows the ‘PAYPAL’ name second; only when PAYPAL shows first on the credit card statement will it code for 5x.

Tip: Click this link to check how far you are along the $1,500.

Discover – Grocery Stores

Activation Link / Our original post

Earn 5% back at the grocery store during April, May, and June, up to $1,500 maximum. Note, this does not include grocery purchases made at convenience stores, gas stations, warehouse clubs, supercenters, or discount stores. Additionally, the terms state that purchases made using tap-and-pay, mobile or wireless card readers, virtual wallets or similar technology may not be eligible (though in reality my guess is that most of those will work to trigger the 5%). fbo

Most people do a nice amount of spend at the grocery store. Consider buying a gift card to your local grocery to max out the category if you won’t meet the $1,500 with regular shopping.

There are other cards which bonus the grocery store, such as 6% with Blue Cash Preferred, which makes the Q2 Discover category less useful.

Tip: Click this link to see you how far along the $1,500 you are.

Citi Dividend – Home Depot and Furnishing Stores

Activation Link | Our Original Post

Earn 5% back at Home Depot and home furnishing stores April, May, and June.

Citi is slightly different to the other cards in that you have a $6,000 annual cap rather than a quarterly cap. So you can get 5% back on up to $6,000 in this quarter, you can save the entire amount for a different quarter, or you can use part up each quarter. A lot of people will save their 5% bandwidth for the Best Buy and Department Store category during Q4 2018. 

Cash+ – Select your Categories

Activation link | Our Original Post

U.S. Bank Cash+ offers 5% cash back in two categories, up to $2,000 combined total per quarter. Here are the current options.

Keep in mind that the Bookstores category is being replaced with Home Utilities beginning April 1. Prepaying your gas and electric can help max this out.

• Home utilites
• Select clothing stores
• Cell phones
• Electronic Stores
• Car rentals
• Gyms/Fitness
• Fast food
• Ground Transportation
• Sporting goods
• Department Stores
• Furniture Stores
• Movie theaters

Tip: Login here, then scroll down and click on the Red “View Your Cash+ History” button.