The Offer
Check your emails for the following offer on U.S. Bank or Elan cards:
- Earn $15 cash back when you pay two or more electric, gas, water or sanitation bills with your card by October 23, 2024.
- Others got $25.
The Fine Print
- This offer runs July 23 – October 23, 2024 (promotion period), and you need to enroll by August 30, 2024.
- To be eligible for the offer, you must pay two electric, gas, water or sanitation bills either with the same provider twice or two different providers by October 23, 2024.
- If you qualify, the $15 cash back award will be applied to your account 2-3 billing cycles after the end of the promotion period.
- The maximum number of cash back awards is one. This offer is not transferable. Your account must remain open and be in good standing (not past due or overlimit) to qualify. This offer may not apply if your credit card has changed to a different type of card within the last 12 weeks or changes before the cash back award is applied. U.S. Bank cannot control how merchants choose to identify their business and/or classify purchases and reserves the right to determine which purchases qualify.
Our Verdict
Easy $15 moneymaker for those targeted.
Hat tip to readers Joseph and private
Found something that may work if you can’t do it organically. A few of these companies have their own donation funds, many of which are hosted on other websites, but at least some of them seem to be processed directly by the company.
I’m trying this one for example https://www.entergy.com/care/ I did a test donation on my Upgrade card and it had a Visa merchant category code of 4900, which based on a manual I found online seems to be the code they’re looking for: “Utilities–Electric, Gas, Heating Oil, Sanitary, Water”
New Round, until October 1
15% on Groceries up to $20 (Grocery delivery merchants MAY qualify if they code as grocery)
15% on Dining up to $20 (Eat in restaurants, fast food)
Remember these are for US Bank customers who have a Smartly account.
Also seeing a more general offer for up to 20% more cash back up to $20 when you make $50 or more in purchases to your card by by September 30. (Bump of 0.2% in cash back per dollar spent)
Received two different offers. “Earn up to 20% more cash back up to $20 on purchases after your business spends X…eligible purchase made from Aug 1- Sept 30.” One card it was $50 spend, another card was $2100 spend.
I’ve had the same experience as others with Elan not crediting promotional spend bonuses automatically.
Got it on mine, USB+ and P2 USGA. Made two small $2 payments on P2 card. Let’s see. I don’t see anything about a certain amount.
Are these handled different somehow? I got the ones for Gas and Home Improvement last month immediately. The double came in earlier than expected.
Got this email for the 2nd time this year on my Fidelity card that I never use! Worked out last time.
Not the best timing while I’m working on 2 other bonuses, and you need $25 in rewards to cash out. I’ll make some small payments and come back for some organic spend later if the bonus posts.
You know, I believe if you connect the card and rewards to either Paypal or Amazon you can use less than $25 rewards points needed to otherwise cash out. I have not done it yet but I see the option, so if anyone can confirm that would be great.
I have yet to get the $10 bonus for ‘Shop online and earn $10′ promo from Fidelity Card offer, which I signed up in 02/2024 and completed the activities in 03/2024. Anyone got it?
I signed this offer in 05/2024 and completed by 06/2024 statement, not got it either
In the past, I’ve had to chase after U.S. Bank to get properly credited for targeted offers like these. Their tech systems seem to be inconsistent and glitchy for other things as well. As a result, I tend to think twice before trying any of their offers.
But I did recently try a few targeted offers again and am awaiting credit. It’s too early to tell if they will credit automatically or I’ll have to chase them down again.
Yes, they’re a lousy bank.
From my experience, about half trigger automatically and half I need to follow up to get credit. That is a terrible rate but I’ve found that their reps are mostly easy to deal with.
I’ve found that the “rewards” offers seem to work automatically more often than the statement credit offers. Have you found the same?
Yeah, I’ve had to spend a while reviewing all the details and making my case with the rep. I was impressed that the rep went through that and was able to follow everything and take action, but not impressed that I had to do it in the first place.
I’ve never had an issue with the “Cash Back Deals” (card-linked shopping offers) tracking and posting. The issues I’ve had were with the targeted promotions that are either emailed to me or displayed as a banner on online/mobile banking.
My problem with these offers is that you have no way of knowing if you qualified for the offer until it post or not post; however, we invest in the offer believing we qualified. The online purchase offers are the worst.