This card is certainly interesting but it’s a little more involved than the other two so we usually tell people to get this card last. At only 1x for non-bonus spend, it’s not a good everyday card but it makes up for that with 5x up to $1500 per quarter on rotating categories. You also have to activate these categories and stay on top of what they are so it does involve a little more work. For example, the first quarter might by gas so for any purchases you make at a gas station you’ll get 5x up to $1500 worth of spend. The second quarter might be a Lowes and Amazon. Easy if you are doing home improvement or if you buy a lot of stuff on Amazon. So per year, you can earn 5x on $6000 if you max out each category which you should definitely try to do.
There’s a number of ways to meet category spend if you’re having trouble. One way is to front load purchases which means that you overbuy things now that you’ll need later. An easier way is to buy gift cards. So for example, if the category is Lowes and you don’t need to buy anything there, you can buy a gift card there to another store where you need to make a purchase. Before you go crazy, we suggest buying a gift card in a small amount as a test to make sure that it codes properly. I’ve never seen an issue but that doesn’t mean that this won’t change at some point. Either way, if you do it right you’ll earn 30,000 points per year.
Besides the 5x rotating categories, you’ll also earn 3x at restaurants and drug stores. Like the Chase Freedom Unlimited, there’s no annual fee. I personally find it easier to only use this card for the bonus category spend instead of mixing and matching. Just makes it easier to track the spending in the bonus categories but that’s just me. You’ll also earn 5x back on Lyft rides.
The sign up bonus can vary but right now it is 20,000 bonus miles after spending $500 within 3 months. So for no annual fee, this is a nice specialty card.
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