Effective today (25 November) Discover added a new retailer to their 4th quarter bonus categories. You can now earn 5% cash back on up to $1500 in purchases at Best Buy as well as the previously announced retailers Amazon, Walmart.com and Target.com.
Make sure you register before using your Discover card.
HT: Frequent Miler
Beginning last year Discover decided to release its bonus categories a year in advance. I find this very helpful as it helps me plan which card I’ll use each quarter.
Today Discover released its 2021 calendar:
If you have a Discover card you can go ahead and activate the bonus categories for Q1 now. I try to activate these as soon as possible so I don’t forget about it later on.
I’ve added a new page containing referral links in case you want to sign up for credit cards. These are not commissioned links given by the credit card companies to some bloggers but are the normal referral links any card member has. That may mean that these links do not have the best available signup offers. Therefore before using any of these links I suggest you check Frequent Miler’s page of best available signup bonuses. Greg and his team do a great job of providing the best available link regardless of whether or not it earns them a commission, something I appreciate very much. A direct link to his page is available on our Credit Cards page. You’ll find a link to that in the upper right-hand corner of this page.
Unfortunately Citibank, US Bank and Barclays don’t offer refer-a-friend bonuses so I don’t have any links for those products.
Can you believe we’re almost three-quarters of the way through 2018? As we approach the end of the third quarter, that can only mean it’s time to register for fourth quarter credit card bonuses.
Discover’s Q4 categories are ones that are handy for the holiday season: Amazon and Wholesale Clubs. To register, just log into your Discover account online or visit this link to log in. Note that to receive the 5% cash back you must register first before making your purchase. You can earn 5% back on up to $1500 in purchases.
US Bank is offering the same categories as for Q3 though you can choose the ones that work best for you. Select 1 of the 2% categories and 2 of the 5% categories, based on your needs. For the 5% category you can earn the 5% on up to $2000 in purchases. To select your categories, visit the US Bank Cash+ website.
For the fourth quarter the Chase Freedom card will earn 5x points at Wholesale Clubs, Department Stores and for using Chase Pay. As in previous quarters this offer is good on up to $1500 in combined purchases for the quarter. I no longer have a warehouse club membership, don’t use mobile payments and can’t remember the last time I bought something at a department store so these categories don’t help me much, sadly. But be sure to register ASAP so you’ll earn your bonus points!
It’s time to activate your bonus categories for the cards that offer quarterly bonuses. All of these cards will give you bonus cash back (or points) for up to $1500 in spend during July, August and September.
For the Discover Card, restaurants will earn you 5% cash back. Remember that you must activate your Discover Card bonus BEFORE making any purchases or you won’t get the bonus cash back. To register your card, look for the email that should have been sent to you or visit this link.
With the US Bank Cash+ Visa you can select one of three 2% categories and two of twelve 5% categories. To me the home utilities category is a no-brainer as I know I’ll spend several hundred dollars there each quarter and I know of no other card that offers that category.
Though Chase markets this as a cash back card, in fact you’re earning Ultimate Rewards points. And you can redeem each point for a penny off your credit card bill. But if you’ve got one of Chase’s Ultimate Rewards-earning (UR) cards with an annual fee (like Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve or one of the Ink cards) you can combine the URs you earn via the Freedom card with the URs earned with the other cards and get more than one cent per point in value from those URs.
For the third quarter of 2018 the bonus categories are Lyft, Walgreens and gas stations. This doesn’t help me much as I very rarely use ride-sharing and have never used Lyft, the Vanilla pre-paid debit cards found at Walgreens cannot easily be turned into cash and the gas stations around here will not allow the purchase of pre-paid debit cards with a credit card and they often don’t have the $500 denomination anyway. You can activate your Chase Freedom card bonuses here.
So for me it looks like I’ll be using my Discover card at restaurants and my Freedom card at the gas pump in Q3.
Today is the start of the second quarter of 2018 so time to activate your bonus categories if you haven’t already done so. The Chase Freedom, Discover and US Bank Cash Plus cards all offer 5% bonus categories good for up to $1500 in spend. Both Discover and Chase Freedom have grocery stores as their category though with the Freedom card you can also use Chase Pay or Paypal to earn bonuses. The US Bank Cash Plus card allows you to pick your 5% category and new this quarter is home utilities. That’s a great category and I’m not aware of any other card offering that category so I hope it sticks around. I don’t know if it includes telephone and television services or not but if you don’t have a Chase Ink card to earn 5% on those categories it’s certainly worth testing out. 
More information on the categories and how to register can be found in this post. Don’t forget that to receive the Discover 5% cash back you must register before using your card.
Registration is now open for quarterly bonus categories for the Chase Freedom, Discover and US Bank Cash+ cards.
Starting today you can register your Chase Freedom card and in April you’ll receive 5x Ultimate Rewards points on purchases made at grocery stores, Paypal and on purchases made through the Chase Pay mobile payment system. You must activate by June 14, 2018 to earn 5x during this quarter but you don’t have to activate before you make your purchases. You can earn the 5x points for up to $1500 in purchases. After that you’ll earn the usual 1x points per dollar. Note that you won’t earn points at Wal-Mart or Target grocery stores unless you pay via Chase Pay or Paypal.
Discover has chosen to reveal their entire 2018 calendar and for the second quarter their 5% cash back category is Grocery Stores. To register, just log into your Discover account online or visit this link to log in. Note that to receive the 5% cash back you must register first before making your purchase. You can earn 5% back on up to $1500 in purchases.
US Bank is changing things up just a little by adding Home Utilities and removing Bookstores. Select 1 of the 2% categories and 2 of the 5% categories, based on your needs. For the 5% category you can earn the 5% on up to $2000 in purchases. To select your categories, visit the US Bank Cash+ website.
Today is the 15th of the third month of the quarter and that means it’s time to register your Discover Card and Chase Freedom card for the next quarter’s bonus categories. You can earn 5% back (Discover) or 5x points (Freedom) on purchases of up to $1500 on each card. And if you haven’t already registered for your US Bank Cash+ card, here’s a reminder to do that now.
Discover Cards
Discover’s bonus categories this quarter are Home Improvement stores and Wholesale Clubs. Home improvement stores often sell retail gift cards and perhaps in your area they sell Visa or MasterCard gift cards as well. While you can’t use Discover at Costco, I know it’s accepted at Sam’s Club and they often sell Visa/MC gift cards too. That would make it very easy to max out this quarter’s promo. To register, click on the link in the email you receive – it is tied to your account which makes it super easy – or go to the registration page and log into your account.
Note: You must register for this promo BEFORE any purchases will receive the bonus. So register now, before the quarter even starts.
Chase Freedom
For the Freedom card, this is one of my favorite quarters. It’s so easy to max out this promo at grocery stores and drug stores as they both sell Visa gift cards as well as other useful items. (Hey, ya gotta eat!) You must register for this promo by June 14th.
US Bank Cash+
US Bank opens up their registration much earlier that Discover or Freedom. Selection for Q2 bonus categories has been available since mid-February. As I mentioned in this post in February, the Charity category has gone away which was a great disappointment to me. These are the US Bank Cash+ categories for Q2:
To register just click on this link and log into your US Bank account and make your selections.
Today is the last day to get 5% bonuses by using the Chase Freedom card at Grocery Stores, Movie Theaters and Starbucks or by using one of the Discover Cards at Gas Stations and for Ground Transportation.
Starting tomorrow you can register for Q2 (April-June) bonuses for the Freedom card which includes bonuses on Restaurants. Registration for the Discover card is already open and it will give bonuses on Restaurants and Movies.
I loved the Freedom bonus at Grocery Stores and quickly maxed that out. In my area there aren’t many (any?) gas stations that will allow me to purchase gift cards with a credit card so I struggle with that category.
I eat out a lot so restaurants are a great category for me – but I’m really bummed that both cards are offering the bonus in the same quarter. I can’t even remember the last time I went to a movie theater so that doesn’t help me but I was surprised to see that both Netflix and RedBox count in the movie category for the Discover card.
Both of these cards limit the bonus to the first $1500 in purchases in all of the bonus categories. To sign up for these bonuses, log into your account at chase.com or discover.com and you’ll see the link for the promotion.
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