It’s now possible to activate/enroll your 5% credit cards for first quarter of 2017. In this post we will provide the activation link for each card and also list what categories that card has along with any strategies we suggest for helping to increase spend on that category (without just making friviolous purchases).
Contents
Chase Freedom – Gas Stations, Local Commuter Transportation
Chase gives you a helpful list of merchant inclusions and exclusions here. Keep in mind that local commuter transportation includes things like Uber & Lyft. Some gas stations sell gift cards, but it’s hard to find ones that accept payment with a credit card. Most people will be stuck with day to day expenses for this quarter. Previous discussion here.
Tip: Click ‘See Details’ in your Chase Freedom login to see how far along the $1,500 you are.
Discover it – Gas Stations, Ground Transportation & Wholesale Clubs
Unfortunately there is a lot of overlap here with Chase Freedom categories. On the bright side Wholesale Clubs are included and they do sell gift cards of all varieties so using this up shouldn’t be too difficult for most people. New Discover cardholders will also get that 5% cashback doubled at year’s end for a total of 10% back. Previous discussion here.
Tip: Click this link to see you how far along the $1,500 you are.
Citi Dividend – Home Depot & Home Furnishing Stores
Citi is slightly different to the other cards in that you have a $6,000 annual cap rather than a quarterly cap. You can view the full calendar for next year here. Personally I don’t think Q1 categories are that exciting, so I’ll probably wait until Q2. Previous discussion here & here.
Citi give the following examples of home furnishing stores:
- Bed Bath & Beyond
- Crate & Barrel
- Empire Today
- Ethan Allen
- IKEA
- La-Z-Boy
- PC Richard & Son
- Pottery Barn
- West Elm
- Williams-Sonoma
- And many more
Cash+ – Select your Categories
U.S. Bank Cash+ offers 5% cash back in two categories, up to $2,000 combined total per quarter. Here are the current options:
- Select clothing stores
- Cell phones
- Electronic Stores
- Car rental
- Gyms/Fitness
- Bookstores
- Fastfood
- Charity
- Sports goods
- Department Stores
- Furniture Stores
- Movie theaters
This really varies person by person, gym & fitness can be useful if you pay for a full year in early 2017 (although obviously don’t do this unless your a gym rat and will actually need the full year membership).
Our Thoughts
These categories are all pretty bland in my opinion, best is probably Wholesale Clubs and I think a lot of people are getting sick of them.
Related: What Counts as Gas & Transportation for 5x with Freedom and Discover?
The links in this post for checking your progress on the 5% categories are really helpful. It might be nice to have these added to the “Knowledge Base” tab or in some other place. I’ve bookmarked it now, but I searched for it a couple times before I did.
One difference between Chase Freedom’s local commuter transportation and Discover’s ground transportation: Discover include rental cars, Chase doesn’t. Neither one seems to include tolls.
at which gas stations can you buy pin enabled gift cards?
Good luck finding gas stations that will let you use a credit card to purchase general purpose gift cards (Visa, MC, Amex).
I think the only people getting sick of wholesale clubs are those who never shop at them anyways.
I could be off but I’m willing to bet that those of us who shop at WC would be happy to have overlapping bonus spend indefinitely. I’ll be a happy Costco shopper on my first 1.5k spend due to the DCB promo.
I’m trying to max out my Q4 Discover 5X category (Amazon, department stores, Sam’s). I’m in my first year, so it’s actually 10X. I’ve got a hefty credit balance at Amazon from last year’s Freedom 10X deal and there are no Sam’s Clubs anywhere near me. My best hope was buying VGCs at Sears, but my local Sears won’t accept credit cards for them. Any other department stores sell VGCs or the like?
Does US Bank allows people to convert other card (e.g. US Bank ClubCarlson Visa Signature) to the Cash+ Visa Signature?
Yes: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/best-downgrade-options-rules-for-each-card-issuer-rules/#US_Bank
Bed Bath and Beyond sells $200 Visa Gift Cards that can be liquidated at a Walmart. This becomes compelling when you stack the 5% back and the Ebates in-store cash back (currently 8%, but usually 4%)
I don’t have my card with me so I couldn’t check but isn’t the Citi Dividend a MC? If so, you won’t be able to stack the Ebates offer as they only allow Visa & Amex currently.
in store CB doesn’t work on Visa GC
I am a counter DP from the Visa Gift Card rebate that BB&B ran for Black Friday. I got the got the cash back. Eric brings up a good point. I think the dividends are all MCs now.
Another good idea on how to utilize the USBank Cash+ categories is pick Cell phone as a 5% category, prepay your bill as much as you’re comfortable with (or that the category limit will allow), and that frees up a category in the next quarter.
> that frees up a category in the next quarter
and here I’ve been waiting for it not to be a category before I prepaid. thanks for the tip!
Thanks for the link to check your progress on Discover. I called and asked them if that exact feature existed and was told ‘no’. Clowns.
It’s newish so I’m not that surprised they don’t know
+1. Thanks for the sharing the link. I had this overview on my Account on my Account for like 2 days back in September and then it disappeared again. Obviously, I wasn’t smart enough to save the deep link. Thanks for sharing.
Does costco.com get 5x on Discover?
I believe it does. I’m going to test it on something small first and then max it out on costco cash.
It did last time Discover had a similar warehouse offer. Like AB, I’ll do a small purchase and wait to see the results. I’ll have enough cash cards left from Freedom 5%.