It’s now possible to activate/enroll all 5% category credit cards for the second quarter of 2022, including the Chase Freedom, Chase Freedom Flex, Discover IT, Citi Dividend, US Bank Cash+ and a few others. In this post we’ll provide the activation link for each card and links to track your spend, along with strategies to help increase spend in these categories.
Dates: April 1st – June 30, 2021. Store purchases can usually be done until the last minute while online purchases should be given a buffer zone of a day or two.
Contents
Chase Freedom – Amazon, Streaming
Activation Link / FAQ / Sample Stores & Exclusions / Our original post
With your Freedom and Freedom Flex cards, earn 5% back this quarter on up to $1,500 in spend on Amazon.com and at select streaming services.
- Amazon.com – always a useful category. Purchases made at Amazon.com including digital downloads, Amazon.com Gift Cards, Amazon.com Fresh orders, Amazon.com Prime subscriptions, and items sold by third party merchants through Amazon.com’s marketplace. (Does not include in-store Whole Foods purchases.)
- Amazon has a wide variety of gift cards (affiliate link) to places like Whole Foods, Best Buy, Visa, Lowe’s, Lyft, Southwest, Starbucks, Apple, Google, and dozens more. You can lock in the bonus for purchases elsewhere in that manner.
- Select streaming services – Only subscriptions paid for, or purchases made with the following select merchants will qualify for this category: Apple Music, Apple TV+, Disney+, ESPN+, Fubo TV, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Pandora, Paramount+, Peacock, Showtime, SiriusXM, Sling, Spotify, YouTube Premium, YouTube TV and Vudu.
Tip: Click this link (login required) to check how far you are along the $1,500.
Discover – Gas, Target
Activation Link / Our original post
With your Discover card, earn 5% back this quarter on up to $1,500 in purchases at Gas Stations and Target.
- Gas Stations – nice for gas, and there might be some convenience stores that are considered Gas Stations as well.
- Target – not too useful since most of us already earn 5% discount on Target with the Target REDcard. But it’s useful for Target gift cards purchased from Target which don’t get any discount with the Target REDcard.
Activate to earn 5% Cashback Bonus at Gas Stations (stand-alone) and Target from 4/1/22 (or the date on which you activate 5%, whichever is later) through 6/30/22, on up to $1,500 in purchases. Gas Station purchases include those made at merchants classified as places that sell automotive gasoline that can be bought at the pump or inside the station. Gas Stations affiliated with supermarkets, supercenters, and wholesale clubs may not be eligible. Target purchases include those made at Target.com, through the Target app, or in-store at Target. Purchases from individual merchants and stand-alone stores within physical Target locations may not be eligible for this promotion. Purchases made online or through the Target app from Target affiliates, individual merchants or stand-alone stores may not be eligible for this promotion, including, but not limited to, targetoptical.com and targetphoto.com. Target and the Bullseye Design are registered trademarks of Target Brands, Inc. Listed merchants are in no way sponsoring or affiliated with this program.
Citi Dividend – Grocery, Drugstores
Landing Page | Our Original Post
With your Dividend card, earn 5% back this quarter at Grocery Stores and Drugstores. Citi is different than the other cards in that you have a $6,000 annual cap rather than a $1,500 quarterly cap. Thus, 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.
- Grocery Stores – always a useful category; grocery stores also carry a wide variety of gift cards
- Drugstores – they carry a wide variety of gift cards
A lot of people will want to max out their Dividend cards for the year with $6,000 in purchases this quarter given how easy it is to use the Grocery category or to buy gift cards from the drugstore and grocery store.
US Bank Cash+/Elan – Select your Categories
Activation link | Merchant List | Our Original Post
U.S. Bank Cash+ and Elan Max offer 5% cash back in two categories, up to $2,000 combined total per quarter. Keep in mind that Car Rentals was recently replaced with TV, Internet, and Streaming Services.
Here are the current options:
- TV, Internet, and Streaming Services
- Home utilities
- Select clothing stores
- Cell phone providers
- Electronic Stores
- 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.
Bank of America Cash Rewards
The Cash Rewards card from Bank of America offers 3% back on one selected category, up to $2,500 per quarter. If you don’t select anything it defaults to gas. Once you selected a category for one quarter, that remains your category in the future unless you change it. Each calendar month you can change it if you’d like, but you’re always limited to $2,500 for the entire quarter.
- Gas (default)
- Online Shopping
- Dining
- Travel
- Drug Stores
- Home Improvement/Furnishings
This category is especially lucrative for those who have Preferred Rewards status with Bank of America which can get you 5.25% back on one of these categories at the higher relationship level.
Lots of useful categories here. Important note: the Cash Rewards card also offers 2% back at grocery stores and wholesale clubs up to $2,500 per quarter, and that $2,500 limit combines with the Category Selection limit. After spending $2,500, you’ll earn 1% back on everything.
Other Cards with 5% Category
ABOC – Discontinued
Since August 27, 2021, the ABOC Platinum rewards card has moved to a new rewards provider and no longer offers the quarterly 5x categories.
Nusenda FCU – Furnishings, Home Improvements, and Gardening
Landing Page | Our Original Post
- Earn 5% this quarter on up to $1,500 in purchases at Restaurants, Home Improvement stores, and on Movies.
This is on top of the regular 1% for a total earn of 6% back.
Affinity FCU – Gas, Supermarket, Home Improvement
Homepage (rotating banner) | Our Original Post
- Earn 5% this quarter on purchases on up to $3,500 in purchases for Gas, Supermarkets and Home Gardening.
The 5x is on top of regular earn for a total of 6x or 7x, depending on the card.
Abound CU – Travel
Landing page | Our Original Post
- Abound Credit Union Visa Platinum card offers 5% on up to $2,000 in purchases for Travel purchases.
5% off merchants classified as Airlines, Car Rental, Lodging, Cruise Lines, Air Carriers, Airport, airport terminals & flying fields, Travel Agencies & Tour Operators, Lodging Hotels, Motels, Resorts not elsewhere classified, Timeshares, Auto Rental Agency- not elsewhere classified, Motor Home & Recreational Vehicle Rental up to $100.00 in rewards earned per statement cycle. Offer valid April 1 – June 30, 2022. After $125 is reached in rewards you will continue to earn 1%.
Vantage West [AZ] – Select your Category
Landing Page | Our Original Post
Get 5x points on the category of your choice, up to $1,500 per quarter. Eligible categories:
- Travel
- Restaurants
- Utilities [water, cell, electric, etc.]
- In-Store Wholesale Purchases [Costco, Sam’s Club, etc.]
- Department Stores
- Hardware & Home Improvement Stores
- Charitable Organizations
- Pharmacies & Drug Stores
- Amazon.com
Reminder for anyone who has the Chase Freedom Flex/Ultimate first year 5x grocery benefit: Sometimes Amazon Fresh has Amazon gift cards, so you could lock in 9x for your upcoming Prime Day purchases.
Not sure if this is new or not, but I’ve recently started getting offers on the Cash+ similar to the Chase/Amex offers that are often posted. Separate from the cashback deals in the “offers” section of the app which seems to be mostly streaming app deals.
Offer in app on main page, spend $25 at a home improvement store get a $10 statement credit.
Offer via email, spend $250 and get a $25 statement credit.
Both required clicking a link to enroll, and give a timeframe of “within 2-3 billing cycles” for the payout, as opposed to the 7-10 days for the normal cashback deals in app.
My local RaceTrac gas station sells VGC up to $500. Verified that buying inside the convenience store counts for the Discover gas category by buying something small a few days earlier. Attempted to buy a $500 VGC along with a bottle of soda yesterday, but when I inserted my Discover card the cashier said the amount was restricted to just the bottle of soda, so left without the VGC. Bummer.
Some stations have 500 limit. Try buying vgc for 480 and it may go through.
So I’m using my CF to buy BBY GCs thru Amazon for the 5x. They are supposed to be delivered in 5 mins. Yesterday the email took 10 minutes. Today it took 1 hour and first I got a call from “likely spam” in st louis from a guy who could barely understand me to verify that I had purchased a GC from Amazon. I finally got it in email 5 mins after that.
Chase offer on my CFF and original CF – Earn 10% back on your Amazon Fresh purchase, with a $7.00 back maximum.
FYI The 10% with $10 back is for in store, the offer with $7 back is online only. For mine at least.
The linked data point added today indicates that a Whole Foods online purchase on Amazon.com (for in-store pickup) qualifies for the Freedom quarterly Amazon category.
However, it does not indicate one way or the other whether an in store purchase would qualify.
In many Whole Foods locations, it’s possible to pay for in store purchases with a credit card linked to one’s Amazon account. The data point also doesn’t indicate whether these types of purchases would qualify.
Ohh, I misread that, will update, thanks
If it works similar to Amazon Fresh then I think the in person DP is valid — I buy groceries nearly exclusively from Amazon Fresh, which is cashierless and also uses Amazon account on file payment methods. This past quarter I have been using my CF, which is linked to my amazon account, as the method of payment when I enter the store and it received the 5% all through Q1. At the start of Q2 I forgot to change the method of payment back to my Amazon Visa yet my latest in-person purchase from Fresh over the weekend still counted as 5% amazon on the CF.
@chuck I will also add a DP that Amazon Fresh (grocery store) is also coding as 5% Amazon — so effectively a continuation of 5% grocery for another quarter for those of us who shop at Amazon Fresh grocery stores
Does amazon fresh or whole foods sell VGC?
The Whole Foods where we shop sells $25, $50, $100 VISA gift cards.
No $500 ones.
WF used to but not sure if they do anymore. Amazon Fresh does not
I’m stuck in an infinite loop of logging in and “click here to activate” for Citi Dividend…..any tips?
Citi usually sends an email. Log out and try going through the link in the email.
Any DPs on using Amazon Pay??
My guess is that it does not code as Amazon. When I tried using Amazon Prime Visa for Amazon pay, it only gave me 1% back.
Confirmed that It does not work. Found it the hard way today. I thought it used to work at least for Discover in the past. However my purchase at Woot through Amazon Pay from last week posted today with no bonus points.
If you’re a Target Circle member, one upside to using Discover is you get an additional 1% cashback, whereas if you use your RedCard the terms specifically say you forfeit that 1%. Not a huge deal to most, but thought I’d point it out (and I’ll be using my Discover for Q2)
I never thought of that point. My first thoughts go straight to the 5% savings from using the Red Card versus the 5% for the Discover card cashback thinking is just a wash with the same 5%. Also, I wonder, and I never noticed if the Target 5% savings from the RedCard is only on the subtotal and the Discover/Chase 5% cashback on the overall total including tax and subtotal etc.? Because if so it makes a difference.
Otherwise, some interesting places code as gas stations, not realizing it thinking it’s something else. Some 7-Eleven convenience stores code as gas stations. As usual, Costco by me has the best prices for gas so I fill up there and of course, they don’t take Discover cards and it’s still cheaper there than using my Discover card at another regular station even with the 5% cash back.
It doesn’t matter if the Red card’s discount is pre-tax or after-tax, or if that it’s a discount not rewards:
$100 stuff plus 10% sales tax (for simplicity) minus 5% discount = $100*1.1*0.95 = $104.50 payment
$100 stuff minus 5% discount plus 10% sales tax = $100*0.95*1.1 = $104.50 payment
Normal credit cards however give a reward on the total amount:
$100 stuff plus 10% sales tax = $110 payment, where an 5% card gives you $5.50 in rewards. If you apply that as statement credit, you have to pay $104.50 on the credit card bill.
Well, I guess except for flat taxes; the Red card doesn’t give discount on taxes, including CRV, bottle tax, etc, but we’re talking about 1/10th of cents differences..
I prefer Discover over RED card when it involves gift cards with purchase. If you buy $50 worth of stuff and get a $10 gift card, the RED card treats the $10 as a discount, so you’d only get $2 off whereas Discover gives you $2.50.
Yeah, the Red card is just a 4% card effectively.
Would an additional benefit of using Discover over RedCard be that on the redemption side, Discover allows you to opt for gift cards that may represent a little added value?
Five percent of the total back, plus 1% Target Circle earnings, plus any bonus value on gift cards that might be handy anyway (Discover) versus a plain 5% off (RedCard)?