We’ve already entered the fourth and final quarter of the year, and with the Thanksgiving shopping season here, buying is naturally a major topic. Let’s take a look at the 5x bonus categories on various credit cards.
Chase Freedom
Activate here
For Q4, the 5x categories on Chase Freedom are all Chase Pay purchases, Wholesale Clubs, and Department Stores. Wholesale Clubs include purchases at Costco, Sam's Club, and BJ's. However, based on the author’s own testing and online reports, purchases made with Freedom at costco.com were recoded, causing them not to earn 5x points. In those cases, you can send Chase customer service a Secured Message to request the missing 4x bonus points. In-store purchases do not have this issue. Also, purchases at Costco gas stations are not included. If you need gas, you can buy a Costco Cash Card in-store or online as a workaround to effectively earn 5x points. There’s not much else to say about department stores, but Chase Pay’s 5x this quarter is actually quite interesting, because Samsung Pay can now transact through Chase Pay. As long as you install the Chase Pay app on a phone that supports Samsung Pay, then open the Chase Pay app and select your Freedom card for the Samsung Pay transaction, you can also earn 5x points. That means you can earn 5x UR points at almost any store, as long as it accepts Samsung Pay!
Discover it
Activate here
In Q4, the Discover it card offers 5% cash back on Amazon purchases and at Wholesale Clubs, overlapping slightly with the Freedom card.
Citi Dividend
Activate here Citi Dividend’s Q4 categories are Best Buy and department stores. Department stores overlap with Freedom, and Best Buy stores accept Chase Pay, so in practice this category overlaps with Freedom as well. Keep in mind that Dividend’s 5% is capped at $6,000 in purchases per year, rather than $1,500 per quarter. The upside is that the cap is fairly generous, so it can be useful if you have planned spending. Are you ready for the new year’s credit card bonus categories?