U.S. Bank Cash+ is notifying customers that beginning Q2 2019, car rentals will be removed as a 5% category to be replaced with TV, Internet, and Streaming Services.
New! TV, Internet and Streaming Services will replace Car Rentals as a new 5% Cash+ Category starting April 1, 2019. This category includes merchants such as Netflix, Comcast, DIRECTV®, Hulu and Apple Music. Registration opens February 15 for the second quarter at usbank.com/cashplus. Remember to register for your 5% and 2% categories to get MORE CASH BACK!
If you have an INK card which earns 5x on some/all of these, this new category won’t be very useful. Otherwise, it could make be helpful for some people. The nice part about the Cash+ card is that they offer the same categories the entire year, so you can set your Cash+ as the default payment method for all internet, tv, and streaming services, and always earn 5% on those. Just be sure to register every 3 months.
The new list of 5% categories will be:
- 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
Hat tip to reader Kevin
does anyone know, how long will it take to see the rewards earned? or to see, whether a transaction is eligible for 5% cb?
DP: This might be a no-brainer for some, but I wanted to test it to see what would happen or how things would code since I couldn’t find data points when searching.
Whenever I’d pay my ATT cell phone bill, it would post as “AT&T” or AT&T*BILL PAYMENT”. Seeing as ATT also offers TV/Internet, I wanted to test if paying my cell phone bill would count towards that category since it posted with a generic description. It didn’t count. No big deal since my cell phone bill was the least compared to the other categories I had selected.
Utilities is always an interesting category, because IME a lot of Plastiq payments code as UTILITIES. $8,000 year annual cap isn’t ideal, but it could be worse.
Problem is USB is very MS-sensitive; if they shut Altitude Reserve cardholders down for buying retail GCs, I’m sure they’d shut down for Plastiq.
How reliable is the prequal page for USBank? (I know no guarantees, but some of the prequal pages are a much better indicator than others.)
They have always approved me when they said I’m pre qualified. I only have cash + and cash 365 that I should pc to second cash plus
“Cell phone providers”
My AT&T bill for whatever reason doesn’t quality for 5%, maybe because wireless account is combined with DirecTv
Contacted US Bank and they said has to be coded right way from merchant
Inclusion of TV might fix it 😀
Have you tried putting it on a CIC?
For internet and tv categories I have the CIC for that. Streaming services could be interesting, but I don’t have netflix, hulu, etc..
NETFLIX will code as 5x on CIC I’ve heard. Better bet is to bill through iTunes and purchase discounted iTunes GC.
No longer works for new subscribers. There was a DOC article about it dying a few days back.
This is the only card that has Home Utilities.
I think Huntington Bank has one too? But they aren’t in most states.
Can confirm, at least the business version of the Voice card does have Utilities as a 4x category you can select
Vantage West has Utilities as a selectable 5% category too: https://vantagewest.org/personal/credit-cards/connect-rewards-visa/
This for me makes it worth applying for this card. Maybe after applying I can get targeted for a bank bonus.
Think this largely depends on where you live. If you are in a footprint state, yes, maybe. I’m out of footprint (VA), and a couple years ago I did the nationwide checking. Since that time, I signed up for 3 credit cards with them, but now they have closed that nationwide checking door, at least for promos. Think I saw they are opening branches in DC, so I am hoping that they start bleeding over into VA.
How do you max out $2k/quarter on this category?
Electricity, water, natural gas, garbage collection
Hmm.. now I will have to choose between utilities, wireless and TV/streaming. Do they allow customers to have more than one of the same credit card type?
Yes. I have two Cash+ cards. Just applied for a new one while having one. No product change or any magic.
did you get a second bonus?
I have 2 Cash+ cards as well.
I recently downgraded Flexperks card to second Cash+
How recently? They didnt offer me any downgrade options
Which flavor of FlexPerks? I’ve got a visa that I was told had no downgrade option.
I was told the limit is 3 for the Cash+. The branch had an offer this week for the Cash+ to spend $500, get $150 so hopefully you can get that too
Thanks! They had the $150 offer online as well so I just applied for one. Decision got deferred but I assume they’ll approve it. They are welcome to take some CL from my other cards.
Good news, just logged on to US Bank and my 2nd Cash+ account was approved. They didn’t even take any CL away from my other 2 cards (which they really should, but I guess an extra $15k just reduces my overall usage percentage).
Interesting idea, but doing so would put me over 5/24 longer sigh!
I’ve long decided I will ALWAYS be 24 months from being under 5/24. Just not worth what I’d miss out on otherwise.
I’ve been avoiding applying for new cards recently and hadn’t gotten one in a year. I applied for a new (extra) BofA Cash Rewards card last month and now this one.
I have 3 Cash+ cards, all via PC from FlexPerks cards (Amex, Visa and Gold)