[Originally posted 6/15/17. Reposting 7/2/17 since categories are now live.]
It’s now possible to activate/enroll your 5% credit cards for the third quarter of 2017 on Chase Freedom, Discover IT, Citi Dividend, and US Bank Cash+. In this post we will provide the activation link for each card and link to track your spend, along with any strategies we suggest for helping to increase spend on that categories.
Dates: July 1, 2017 – September 30, 2017. In-store purchases can be done until the last minute. Online purchases should be given a buffer zone of a day or two.
Contents
Chase Freedom – Restaurants & Movie Theaters
Neither restaurants or movies are categories easy to manufacture spend, but a lot of people should have some real spend there, especially restaurants. Restaurants include both fast food and fine dining establishments. Movie Theaters include ordinary theaters and even drive-in theaters, but not streaming services like Netflix.
If you don’t max out this category organically, consider purchasing gift cards to restaurants you’d be eating at anyway. Keep in mind, however, that many restaurants can get nice discounts by purchasing gift cards on the second-hand exchanges so you’ll have to decide if it’s worth stocking up at 5x or using exchanges for bigger discounts.
Tip: Click this link to check how far you are along the $1,500.
Discover it – Restaurants [Targeted: Amazon]
The public Discover offer is for 5% at restaurants, same as Freedom. Discover states clearly that this includes both fast food and fine dining. If you usually use CSR for restaurants, you’ll have decide if you prefer 3x Ultimate Rewards or 5% cash back with Discover.
Discover also targeted select cardholders to get 5% back on up to $1,500 in Amazon purchases this quarter. As I understand, this $1,500 limit is counted separately from the $1,500 restaurant limit.
If you don’t make $1,500 in Amazon purchases organically, you can buy Amazon gift cards or reload your Amazon balance to lock in the 5% rate. (You can always get 5% on Amazon with some cards. See also other Amazon savings tips here.)
New Discover cardholders will also get that 5% cashback doubled at year’s end for a total of 10% back.
Tip: Click this link to see you how far along the $1,500 you are.
Citi Dividend – Airlines and Hilton
Citi is slightly different to the other cards in that you have a $6,000 annual cap rather than a quarterly cap. I’m sure a lot of you maxed out your $6,000 in annual Dividend spend at the drugstore during Q2 and won’t be eligible for more 5%.
If you still have room left, try using the card at airlines and Hilton or save your $6,000-spend for Q4 at department stores and Best Buy if that interests you. Keep in mind that Travel is a bonus category on a lot of cards (e.g. 3x CSR) so 5% isn’t all that amazing for airlines and Hilton.
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 (keep in mind that Charity was replaced with Ground Transportation):
- Select clothing stores
- Cell phones
- Electronic Stores
- Car rental
- Gyms/Fitness
- Bookstores
- Fastfood
- Ground Transportation
- Sports goods
- Department Stores
- Furniture Stores
- Movie theaters
Tip: Login here, then scroll down and click on the Red “View Your Cash+ History” button.
Have to figure out which you spend the most in. Just keep in mind that Freedom and Discover already have 5x on restaurants and Freedom has 5x on movies.
