Three small cash back opportunities

A couple interesting cash back opportunities have crossed my desk recently that I wanted to make sure readers are aware of.

Lemoney Turbo Cashback bounties

Lemoney is a relatively new cashback portal. In general it has earning rates in line with other cashback and loyalty shopping portals, but it’s distinguished by a ridiculously complicated referral system, extremely long delays in transactions becoming payable, and what they call “Turbo Cashback.”

In its current iteration, Turbo Cashback comes in the form of credits that can be strategically applied to purchases made through the portal to maximize your total cashback (and the total amount of time you waste on the site). For example, at GiftCardMall.com you can you earn 1.5% cashback, or apply between 1 and 5 Turbo Cashback credits to raise your rate to between 7% and 23% on the first $80 of your order.

Like I said, it’s complicated, and I don’t fully understand all the moving pieces myself.

However, what I recently noticed is that Lemoney has introduced offers to earn additional Turbo Cashback credits by referring people or by making purchases above a certain amount at certain merchants. For example, you if you spend $50 at Barnes & Noble, or $100 at GiftCards.com, you earn a credit you can then apply to a future purchase.

Strategically, you would want to store up these credits and use them on a particularly large purchase at a merchant with a particularly high cap on Turbo Cashback. That’s a bit of a unicorn, but if you’re already planning to shop somewhere like Blue Apron (37% back on up to $200) or Fitbit (21% back on up to $200) there’s no reason you couldn’t save some real money.

As I mentioned, Lemoney has a very elaborate referral scheme I can’t even begin to explain, and you can find my personal referral link on the Support the Site! page.

Bumped is a gimmicky new in-person rewards app

It seems like every few weeks a new one of these programs comes along (remember Drop?), and this season it’s “Bumped,” the gimmick of which is that you receive fractional shares of the participating companies you shop at when you shop there using linked credit and debit cards. Shop at Netflix, get Netflix stock, shop at Dunkin’ Donuts, get Dunkin’ Brands stock.

This strikes me as a fairly stupid conceit, but they’re wasting their investors’ money, not mine, so I’m not in any position to complain.

There are a few hoops to jump in while getting set up in the program. Besides linking your credit and debit cards, you also have to select one merchant within each merchant category where you want to receive your rewards. The list is pretty limited right now, and many categories only have a single merchant. You can also change your selection once every 30 days, up to 3 times per year (and an unlimited number of times during your first 5 days of enrollment).

Finally, they currently are enrolling people off a waiting list, and I don’t know of any way to skip the line, so sign up now with your favorite throwaway e-mail address.

I do not know if they use the same technology as Drop, Ebates, and other in-person cashback schemes, so I don’t know what the options are for double- or triple-dipping with this deal.

Ebates/Lyft Partnership

This is a weird one, but a no-brainer for anyone who prefers Lyft to Uber for ethical reasons, or who simply keeps an eye on the prices in both apps when deciding which to order a car from.

To take advantage of this deal, you have to download the Ebates app. Then, log in and search for Lyft. Click “lyft Get a ride” and you’ll be prompted to open the Lyft app. Then order your ride as usual and you’ll earn $1 in Ebates cashback. There don’t appear to be any limits on this, as long as it lasts.

This is a classic case of Lyft riders who don’t participate subsidizing riders who do (if everyone participated rides would all have to go up $1 in price), so make sure you’re one of the riders who does.

You can also find my personal Lyft and Ebates referral links on the Support the Site! page.

Do this now: register for 2018 fourth quarter bonus categories

With October 1 around the corner, it’s time to make sure you’ve activated your credit cards’ quarterly bonus earning categories.

Chase Freedom

In the fourth quarter of 2018, Chase Freedom cards earn 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent, up to $1,500, at department stores, wholesale clubs, and on purchases made using Chase Pay.

When I saw Chase Pay on the list I was briefly optimistic since I’ve started using Apple Pay for a lot of my purchases, but it turns out Chase Pay is a much more limited service that seems to only be accepted at fast-casual restaurants near me. The iPhone app functions terribly, so I may be missing an obvious opportunity here; do your own research if you’re interested in exploring this option.

Department stores is a good category for resellers and folks who actually shop at department stores, but the manufactured spend opportunities in my experience are typically limited and expensive.

If you have a wholesale club membership you should be able to buy $500 prepaid Visa or MasterCard debit cards and get good value even with relatively high liquidation costs. It’s a shame the current Plastiq fee-free promotion ends before the start of next quarter.

Register by December 14, 2018.

Discover it

In the fourth quarter Discover it (and legacy Discover More) cards offer 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in purchases at Amazon.com and wholesale clubs. It’s a marginal play, but Amazon now sells $200 Visa prepaid debit cards with a $6.95 purchase fee. Seven $200 cards would cost $48.65, plus liquidation fees, earning $72.43, for a total profit of a bit less than $23.78.

For wholesale club members the obvious solution, as above, is $500 prepaid debit cards.

Sign into your Discover account and register here before the start of the quarter, since Discover doesn’t award bonus cash back retroactively.

Citi Dividend

Citi has had a weak lineup of Dividend cash back bonuses all year (depending on how much you can spend at gas stations), but department stores and Best Buy are decent categories for actual spend or resellers.

Register for fourth quarter bonus categories here.

US Bank Cash+

I recently had my Cash+ account closed, not for abuse, but for inactivity, which I guess speaks to my overall opinion about the card’s value. Nevertheless, the card exists and if yours hasn’t been closed for inactivity, you should check out the current 5% bonus categories, on up to $2,000 in purchases during the fourth quarter of 2018:

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Home utilities is actually a decent option if you can both overpay your utility bills and ask for a refund of the overpayment. Otherwise, you’re probably best off either using the Cash+ for reselling purchases or leaving it in the sock drawer.

Select your fourth quarter bonus earning categories here.

Do this now: register for 2018 3rd quarter bonus categories

With July 1 right around the corner, it's time to make sure you're registered for quarterly bonus earnings on some popular no-annual-fee credit cards.

Chase Freedom

After a great first quarter (mobile payments) and second quarter (grocery stores), Chase is back with 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent at gas stations, on Lyft, and at Walgreens, on up to $1,500 in bonus spend per Freedom account, per quarter.

While you may still be able to find 7-Eleven store locations that code as gas stations and allow you to purchase PIN-enabled prepaid Visa debit cards, I imagine most folks will want to buy prepaid Visa debit cards from Walgreens this quarter. Those Vanilla-branded debit cards are difficult to liquidate at Walmart, but if you still have one or more working Serve accounts, you should be able to load those accounts with Vanilla cards at Family Dollar store locations, or by purchasing money orders at certain grocery stores.

Another option is liquidating prepaid MasterCard debit cards (also sold at Walgreens) by taking advantage of Plastiq's current fee-free promotion for payments under $250 made through MasterPass. That option does require having actual bills to pay. However, for folks with mortgages, student loans, car notes, tax obligations, or other large expenses, it can be a free way to liquidate prepaid MasterCard debit cards. If you don't have a Plastiq account yet, fee free to use my referral link on the Support the Site! page.

Activate bonus earning on each of your Chase Freedom cards separately here by September 14, 2018.

Discover it

In the third quarter of 2018 Discover it cards will earn 5% cash back at restaurants, on up to $1,500 in bonused spend. I don't generally love mixing actual spend with travel hacking, but if you're somebody who spends a lot at restaurants for other reasons, like reimbursed business meals, then you might want to consider directing those expenses to a Discover it card until you've reached $1,500 in charges.

Log into your Discover account and register for bonus earning here.

Citi Dividend

In another lackluster quarter for Citi Dividend cards, you can earn 5% cash back at airlines and movie theatres, up to $300 in annual cash back. The only conceivable reason I can think of to take advantage of this bonus category is if you're putting down a $6,000 deposit to reserve a theatre for the premiere of your independently-produced horror movie.

Register for your Citi Dividend bonus earnings here.

US Bank Cash+

US Bank Cash+ cards continue to underwhelm, with no changes in available bonus categories this quarter. As usual, I suspect for most folks the best bet is to earn 5% cash back on up to $2,000 spend on large electronics, cell phone, or furniture purchases you were planning to make anyway. Here are the available bonus categories for next quarter:

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Select your bonus earning categories for each of your Cash+ cards here.

A little Spring housekeeping

It's been a wild month or two in the world of manufactured spend, with free groceries at Giant/Stop&Shop/Martins, more free or cheap gas promotions (depending on your region), and both a Visa and a MasterCard promotion in quick succession at OfficeMax/Office Depot. Good times.

The blog fell a little bit behind, so I want to share a roundup of a few items I hadn't found the time to write up yet.

Do this now: register for 2018 2nd quarter bonus categories

A few easy opportunities to earn Ultimate Rewards points and cash back this quarter for folks holding these cards:

• Chase Freedom (register each card individually). 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent, up to $1,500, at grocery stores, through PayPal, and Chase Pay. Even folks without access to grocery store manufactured spend may want to send $1,500 and eat the credit card processing fee if they have a high-value use of Ultimate Rewards points in mind.
• Discover it. Another layup for folks with access to grocery store manufactured spend, where Discover it earns 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in spend this quarter.
• Citi Dividend. 5% cash back, capped at $300 per calendar year ($6,000 in spend), at The Home Depot and "Home Furnishing Stores." Furniture is expensive, so you may actually be able to crank out $6,000 in purchases, but from a manufactured spend perspective your best bet is likely to be Visa gift cards at Home Depot or Bed Bath & Beyond.
• US Bank Cash+. This quarter the Cash+ bonus categories were adjusted to add "Home Utilities", which is an expense many people have to pay, and can often pay in advance. If your electricity, water, or trash company accepts credit cards and allows you to pay more than the amount owed, you could hypothetically prepay up to $2,000 and get a $100 discount. Here's the complete set of current bonus categories:

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Do this now: register for current hotel promotions

A couple promotions have come up I included on my Hotel Promotions page but didn't get around to blogging about:

• Radisson Rewards. Between March 12 and June 30, 2018, earn bonus points after you stay 2, 5, 10, and 20 paid nights, and earn 500 additional bonus points for each booking made using the Radisson Rewards mobile app. Stays or nights paid for by using Points or Points + Cash are not eligible for the promotion. Register for the promotion here.
• World of Hyatt. Between February 20 and June 30, 2018, earn 1,000 American AAdvantage miles per qualifying stay at Hyatt Place and Hyatt House properties worldwide. Register for the promotion here by April 30, 2018.

Hot Take: Barclays Arrival Premier World Elite Mastercard

Thousands of gallons of digital ink have already been spilled over this card, so I will just point out a few things that popped out to me.

• The Arrival Premier is competing against the BankAmericard Travel Rewards credit card, which I have called the best single credit card, i.e., the best card to have if you could only carry a single card for some reason.
• The Arrival Premier offers a maximum of 3% cash back on exactly $25,000 in purchases, or $750 per year. The BankAmericard Travel Rewards offers a maximum of 2.625% cash back, or $656 on the same amount.
• The Arrival Premier has an annual fee of $150, compared to the BankAmericard Travel Rewards's $0 annual fee.
• Using the Arrival Premier instead of the BankAmericard Travel Rewards for $25,000 in purchases therefore has a net cost of $56.

What do you get for those $56?

• A $100 Global Entry statement credit every 5 years.
• The ability to "transfer" (i.e., buy) Japan Airlines miles for 1.7 cents or their other partner airline miles for 1.4 cents.
• Trip delay insurance. This is actually not advertised on the Barclays website but since the Arrival Plus card has it I assume their more-expensive premium travel card also offers it.

If you valued the Global Entry statement credit at the full $100 ($20 per year), that would mean paying $36 per year for trip delay insurance and the ability to opportunistically transfer Barclays miles to their partner programs.

I don't know if that's a good deal or a bad deal for you, because I don't know anything about you, but that's my best assessment of the realistic value proposition of the card.

Conclusion

Tomorrow when the details of the new Marriott Rewards program are announced we'll all have plenty more to talk about. See you then.

Two questions about the US Bank Flexperks Visa PyeongChang Bonus FlexPoints

Between February 5 and March 10, 2018, US Bank is again running an Olympics promotional signup bonus for the Flexperks Travel Rewards card, offering 25,000 bonus Flexpoints when you spend $2,000 within four months, and additional bonus points based on the final US medal count at the PyeongChang Olympics.

Are you eligible?

Historically, US Bank's policy was to not have a policy limiting signup bonuses. I signed up for a second Flexperks Travel Rewards card during the first Olympics promotion in 2012 just months after opening my first card, and had no problem receiving the signup bonus for both cards. On the other hand, US Bank has been notoriously reluctant to open accounts for folks with a lot of recent accounts, and they pull credit reports from some weird risk-management firms. 

Now, they've added the following language to the Flexperks Olympics promo application: "Existing and previous FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa accounts do not qualify for Bonus FlexPoints for a similar account type."

That's the kind of sloppy language that's typical of US Bank, but you get the general idea: they don't want to award points to anyone who has or has had a Flexperks account.

The question is whether that language is going to be enforced or not. My gut tells me no, simply because I don't believe US Bank has the technical wherewithal to enforce it. But it's certainly the case that if they refused to award the bonus points, they'd be well within their rights to do so.

Is it worth it?

On the one hand, the Flexperks Travel Rewards card has lost some of its luster recently, with a slight devaluation of Flexpoints from "up to" 2 cents each to a fixed 1.5 cents each, and the earning rate on charitable spending dropping from 3 Flexpoints per dollar to 2 Flexpoints per dollar.

Nonetheless, it's still a decent core travel card, earning 3% in travel rewards at gas stations or grocery stores each billing cycle, plus 12 Gogo inflight internet coupons per year and a $25 airline credit each time you book air travel with your Flexpoints (the credit can be used to buy gift cards for later use, or for fees or onboard food and drinks).

If the US Olympic team merely earns the same number of medals as they did in 2014, the signup bonus would be a total of 32,450 Flexpoints, worth $487 in airfare. That's an above-average signup bonus for any card, and it's made all the better if, like me, you think the card's worth carrying on an ongoing basis. With the absence of the Russian national team and reduced number of (hopefully drug-free!) Russian competitors, the US may end up doing far better than that.

In any case you can wait until the Games end on February 25 to decide whether or not to apply, once we know the final medal count.

Do this now: register for 2018 1st quarter bonus categories

It's that time again, your quarterly reminder to activate next quarter's bonus earning on all your credit cards offering rotating quarterly rewards.

Chase Freedom

In the first quarter of 2018, each Chase Freedom card you have will earn 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar on up to $1,500 spend in combined purchases at gas stations, internet/cable phone services, and through the Chase Pay, Android Pay, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay services.

For folks who actually use those mobile wallets you may find it easy to reach $1,500 in purchases during the quarter. Alternatively, you may have access to a gas station that, when the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars, is still willing to sell PIN-enabled prepaid debit cards.

Activate bonus earning on each of your Chase Freedom cards here.

Discover it

In the first quarter of 2018 Discover it (and legacy Discover More) cards will earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in purchases made at gas stations and wholesale clubs. Most wholesale clubs sell some form of PIN-enabled prepaid debit card, although if you haven't already, you may have to experiment to find cards that can be liquidated at your most convenient local merchants.

Log into your Discover account and activate your bonus earning here.

Citi Dividend

Citi Dividend cards are unique for allowing you to earn 5% cash back on up to $6,000 in purchases per calendar year, rather than $1,500 per quarter. In the first quarter of 2018, you can reach that threshold at gas stations and car rental agencies. Citi released the entire schedule of bonus categories for 2018 and nothing jumps out at me as easier or cheaper to manufacture than gas station spend, so if you have gas station options or are traveling to an area where gas station manufactured spend is possible, think about adding it to your shopping list.

Log into your Citi account and activate your bonus earning here.

US Bank Cash+

Finally, US Bank Cash+ cards allow you to choose one of three categories where you'll earn 2% cash back on an unlimited amount of spend, and two additional categories where you'll earn 5% cash back on up to $2,000 in quarterly spend. Recently the best bet with these cards is to either use them for big electronics purchases you were planning to make anyway, or prepaying recurring expenses like gym memberships. Let me know in the comments if you see anything more promising next quarter.

Select your bonus earning categories for each of your Cash+ cards here.

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Don't sleep on the American Airlines holiday bonus miles promotion

I don't normally find shopping portal promotions to be worth my time, which I assume is how this one slipped past me last month when Frequent Miler wrote about it: through December 31, American will award bonus miles based on the number of partner activities you complete. Some of them are expensive or inconvenient, like signing up for Sprint phone service, but others are easy to complete and may not even require doing anything special.

Here's the list of activities as handily reformatted by Frequent Miler and reranked based on my subjective assessment of ease:

• Hilton: Earn at least 1,000 miles with Hilton
• AAdvantage eShopping: Earn at least 3,000 miles with AAdvantage eShopping
• Miles for Opinions: Earn at least 300 miles with Miles for Opinions
• 1-800 Flowers: Earn at least 2,000 AAdvantage miles with 1-800-FLOWERS (Earn 30 miles per dollar with promo code A56)
• Vinesse: Earn at least 500 miles with Vinesse
• LifeLock: Earn at least 7,000 miles with Lifelock
• The AAdvantage Dining Program: Earn at least 500 miles with AAdvantage Dining
• Rocketmiles: Earn at least 5,000 miles with Rocketmiles
• Avis Budget Group: Earn at least 1,500 miles with Avis Budget Group
• Sprint: Earn at least 417 miles with Sprint

The first 6 items you can do without leaving the house, and triggering the AAdvantage dining points is almost as easy. Rocketmiles and Avis presumably requires you to make a reservation and possibly even check in, which might be expensive or inconvenient, and I think the last one requires you to sign up with Sprint. If you completed just the first 6 items you'd wind up with 14,000 bonus points, plus however many points you earn on the activities themselves. I suspect that would leave you paying around a cent per point, which you may or may not consider a good deal.

Whether or not you intend to chase these bonus points, register for the promotion now, before you forget.

Do this now: register for 2017 4th quarter bonus categories

It's that time again: time to register for quarterly bonus earnings on all your credit cards, including the ones you never use.

Chase Freedom

Continuing a pretty great streak of bonus earning categories, each Chase Freedom card you have will earn 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent at Walmart and department stores, up to $1,500 in combined purchases per card. Since Walmart stores carry a variety of PIN-enabled Visa and MasterCard prepaid debit cards, you shouldn't have any trouble maximizing your bonused earnings on each of your Chase Freedom cards this quarter.

Since it's the end of the year, this seems like as good a time as any to remind readers exactly why the Chase Freedom is so much better than the other personal Ultimate Rewards-earning credit cards. This year the first, second, and fourth quarters have respectively featured gas stations, grocery and drug stores, and Walmart as bonused earning categories, collectively representing 15,750 bonus Ultimate Rewards points over a Chase Freedom Unlimited (5 instead of 1.5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on $4,500 in purchases). The third quarter category of restaurants also represents 3,000 additional points over a Chase Sapphire Reserve and 4,500 additional points over a Chase Sapphire Preferred — with no annual fee.

I truly believe if Chase had an ounce of sense they would never make any travel, restaurant, or gas station merchant a Freedom bonus category in order to fundamentally distinguish the Freedom from the Sapphire and Ink cards. Hell, if they did that even I might re-up with a Sapphire Preferred. But failing that, you shouldn't use the bonused earning of a premium credit card as part of your decision to get or keep that card unless it doesn't have any overlap with the bonused earning of a free credit card, since each quarter that's the case eats into your supposed profit over the card's fixed annual fee.

Activate bonus earning on each of your Chase Freedom cards separately here by December 14, 2017.

Discover it

In the fourth quarter of 2017 Discover it cards will earn 5% cash back at Amazon.com and Target. If you do a lot of shopping at Amazon.com the obvious move is to load up on gift credit, especially if your cash back will be doubled at the end of your first year of card membership.

A 5% discount isn't enough for me to bother using my Discover it card for my regular shopping at Target, but if you source products for reselling there that's another excellent option.

Remember that Discover cash back balances can be redeemed for discounted gift cards at many merchants, so cash back is worth somewhat more than its face value if you shop at merchants like Bed Bath & Beyond, for instance.

Log into your Discover account and register for bonus earnings here.

Citi Dividend

If you didn't hit your $300 annual cash back limit in the second quarter of 2017 (drug stores), you have another opportunity in the fourth quarter, with purchases at Best Buy and department stores earning 5% cash back, up to $300 in total annual cash back.

Register for your Citi Dividend bonus earnings here.

US Bank Cash+

I haven't had too much luck taking advantage of US Bank Cash+ bonus categories lately, but that's my failure of imagination, not yours. If you have a Cash+ card, be sure to register for fourth quarter bonus earnings, with department stores, cell phones, and electronics stores again being the obvious categories, especially if you're able to stack them with airline, hotel, or cash back portal earnings.

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Select your Cash+ bonus categories here.

Bonus do this now: register for new hotel promotions

Reader Henry Fung pointed out in the comments to last week's post that Marriott has released their next MegaBonus promotion. I've updated my Hotel Promotions page with registration links for Marriott Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest, and also the current IHG Rewards Club promotion.

Roundup of some current deals

I hope everyone had a glorious Labor Day and marched in solidarity with our worker brothers and sisters around the country and around the world. There are quite a few minor deals I haven't bothered to post about yet so I thought I'd post a roundup of all the opportunities that have crossed my desk in the last few weeks.

Hotel Promotions

I've updated my Hotel Promotions page with all the deals that I know about which are currently available for registration. There's nothing too exciting there, although if you have the Chase World of Hyatt credit card you'll want to register for the accelerated status promotion in case you find yourself in Hyatt hotels for 20 nights in the next few months, and some Starwood Preferred Guest members have been targeted for promotions including accelerated elite status and bonus points, so check if you're eligible here. There's also a Club Carlson promotion running until the end of September, and a Hilton Honors promotion running until the end of December.

Finally, I found this to be a comprehensive post about the current transfer bonus from Starwood Preferred Guest and American AAdvantage, and a potentially superior alternative.

Visa Local Offers for Uber

It's been widely reported that in many metropolitan areas served by Uber, you have the option of enabling "Visa Local Offers," which will generate credit towards future Uber rides when you make purchases at local merchants with a Visa card linked to your Uber account.

The number of merchants participating in my metropolitan area is truly staggering, including extremely small family-owned restaurants, which makes me think this is part of a big marketing push by both Visa and Uber. Some of the participating merchants sell PIN-enabled prepaid debit cards, although the fine print for Whole Foods Market, Walgreens, and Staples all exclude gift cards. Whether or not consistently effective workarounds exist isn't publicly known.

Stop&Shop/Giant/Martin's gas discounts

If you have a friendly grocery store in this chain, you can credit purchases of MasterCard prepaid debit cards to your gas rewards account and earn 4 gas points per dollar through September 7. If you drive and pay for your own gas, promotions like this can spin off remarkably large discounts on purchases you'd otherwise pay for out of pocket. If you don't drive, you might consider donating the savings to a worthy (or unworthy!) cause.

Staples gift card rebate

I stopped participating in these promotions a long time ago, but since bloggers still faithfully report on them every time they come around, I feel compelled to mention that Staples is running another one of their rebate promotions on Visa and MasterCard gift card purchases of $300 or more, through September 9, 2017.

Conclusion

Those are the hottest promotions which have come across my desk lately. I don't think I'll be participating in any of them, but if you are, be sure to let me know why I'm wrong in the comments.

Do this now: register for 2017 third quarter bonus earning

July 1 marks the beginning of the third quarter of 2017, which means if you have credit cards with quarterly earning bonuses, it's time to register.

Chase Freedom

In the third quarter of 2017 Chase Freedom cards will earn 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent at restaurants and movie theaters, on up to $1,500 per Freedom account. Not too exciting from a manufactured spend standpoint, but I'll happily keep a Freedom in my wallet and pay with it when eating out or going to the movies.

Activate bonus earning on each of your Chase Freedom cards separately here.

Discover it

The Discover it 5% cashback category is restaurants, which is fine if you don't have a Chase Freedom card or spend more than $1,500 at restaurants per Chase Freedom account you have.

Log into your Discover account to activate next quarter's bonus category here.

Citi Dividend

Citi Dividend cards limit total cashback to $300 per calendar year, but don't impose quarterly limits. That means you were best off maximizing your Citi Dividend cashback last quarter, at drug stores. If you missed that opportunity, you can still earn 5% cash back at Hilton properties and on airline purchases in the third quarter of 2017.

Activate your bonus earning here.

US Bank Cash+

Unlike the other cards here, US Bank allows you to pick 2 categories in which to earn 5% cash back on up to $2,000 in total spend. In the third quarter of 2017, your options are:

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There are few options for manufactured spend here, but some high-value categories persist: if you are planning to make a big cell phone or laptop purchase, you can stack portal cashback with a Cash+ card for a significant discount on those big-ticket items. Likewise even mid-range furniture can be obscenely expensive, making it easy to max out the $2,000 cap on 5% bonus earning.

Select your bonus categories here.

Reminder: register for hotel promotions

As I mentioned on Monday, the last thing you want to do is realize you were eligible for a hotel bonus after you've already checked out. Don't let that happen to! Register for all the currently available hotel promotions now, before you forget.