It’s time to activate bonus categories for card that have quarterly bonuses for next quarter. All of these cards offer bonus points or cash back on up to $1500 in purchases during the quarter.
US Bank Cash+
If you’re not already getting 5x Ultimate Rewards points by using a Chase Ink card (and even if you are!) you may want to switch the card you’re using for payment for TV/Internet/Streaming Services and Cell Phones. You must register your card before September 15th to get the bonus cash-back in the categories you select. As a reminder, you choose two 5% categories and one 2% category. Effective November 2023 US Bank changed the way you select your categories. Now you’ll need to log into your account and go to the Rewards Center. I found it a little clunky but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. For more info, see this post from Travel with Grant. I’m choosing Home Utilities again as 5x categories and will select TV, Internet and Streaming as my second 5x category; since I dropped my Amex Platinum card this will be my best choice for streaming services. I’ll continue with Grocery Stores for 2x.
Discover Card
Discover’s Q3 categories are Gas Stations & EV Charging, Public Transit and Utilities. I’ll use this for gas but typically the only public transit I do is in foreign countries where I wouldn’t use this card since it charges foreign transactions fees and is not even widely accepted overseas. For simplicity’s sake I’ll just keep my utilities on my US Bank Cash+ card which also earns 5% cash back.
To activate the bonus, simply log into your Discover account and click on the Activate Now button or look for the email where you can register in one click.
Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex
The Chase Freedom card is celebrating its birthday all year long by adding a 4th bonus category each quarter. Fortunately this also applies to the Freedom Flex. This quarter’s extra bonus category is Instacart and the regular categories are Gas & EV Stations and select live entertainment. Sad that these overlap with Discover; I much prefer it when all the cards have different categories.
Activate these changes by visiting the Chase registration site by September 14.
In the end
Always register for the bonus categories even if you don’t think you’re going to use them. You’ll never know when they might come in handy!
2B Traveling 
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