The Freedom card from Chase will include Wholesale Clubs in their 5% rotating categories until the end of 2016.
The current quarter (Q2 2016) includes grocery stores and wholesale clubs, the next quarter (Q3 2016) will be restaurants and more, and the last quarter of 2016 will be holiday shopping.
Chase is now saying that they’ll be extending the Wholesale Clubs category for the rest of the year due to the upcoming change that Costco will be accepting Visa cards starting June 20.
With the Costco credit card acceptance changing to Visa on June 20, including those issued by Chase, Chase Freedom is announcing that it will continue to offer the 5% cash back category of Wholesale Clubs through the end of the year. Chase Freedom cardholders earn 5% cash back each quarter on up to $1,500 in combined purchases from Wholesale Clubs, including Costco®, BJ’s® and Sam’s Club®, and other additional rotating quarterly categories.
Wholesale Clubs will just be added to the list of options which get 5x in the last half of 2016. In the third quarter, you’ll get 5x on up to $1500 in restaurants and Wholesale Clubs combined. In the fourth quarter, you’ll get 5x on up to $1500 in holiday shopping and Wholesale Clubs combined. Presumably, the same limitations noted in the current quarter will apply for the rest of the year: “Does not include gas, fuel, wholesale club specialty service purchases such as travel, insurance, cell phone and home improvement.”
We haven’t yet found a direct link for this offer or an official press release from Chase, but the offer should show on the Chase website when they start activation for Q3 2016, which begins tomorrow, June 15.
Final Thoughts
Interesting that Chase mentions Costco in particular, seems they want to get people in the habit of using their Freedom card at Costco, with the hopes that they’ll continue doing so going forward.
Really a nice addition here from Chase. Many people love using up their quarterly categories by purchasing Costco Cash cards, for example, and using those for purchases the rest of the year. Will be interesting to see if they continue it further into 2017, but most like not.
Hat tip to Viewfromthewing and Credit.com and r/churning
Related Post: BofA Cash Rewards Increases Category Limit to $2500 & Adds Wholesale Clubs [Up to 3.5% at Costco, BJ’s, Sam’s]
