If you have the Discover It Cash Back and/or Chase Freedom Flex (or older Chase Freedom) then don’t forget to activate your quarterly categories in March, June, September, and December, before the next quarter begins. For Q1 categories (January 2024) you can activate both Chase and Discover cards as of today (December 15, 2023) or shortly afterwards.
Discover reveals their categories on the 1st of those months, whereas Chase allows activation on the 15th. So for example, if you want to activate Q4 categories for both cards at once, you’d have to wait until September 15th at the earliest.
- Q1 Jan-March: Restaurants & Drug Stores
- Q2 April-June: Gas, EV Charging, Home Improvement, Public Transit
- Q3 July-Sept: TBD (probably groceries)
- Q4 Oct-Dec: TBD (probably Amazon and retail/Target)
- Q1 Jan-March: Grocery Stores, Gym & Fitness, Spa Services & Self-Care
- Q2 April-June: Restaurants, Hotels, Amazon.com
- Q3 July-Sept: TBD (probably gas and entertainment)
- Q4 Oct-Dec: TBD (probably Paypal and retail/Walmart)
Chase’s Q1 2024 is broadly useful. Everyone uses grocery stores and most people should have a gym membership. Many people also buy gift cards at grocery stores to increase their effective cash back rates for non-grocery purchases. Discover’s Q1 is not quite as useful, especially when the Chase Freedom Flex already gets 3x points at restaurants and drug stores.
Remember that both cards can get more than 5% cash back, depending on how you redeem your points. Use Discover points for gift cards only, not cash or statement credits. Chase can also have discounts when redeeming points for gift cards, though the best use case is to transfer them to a Sapphire card like the Reserve to make use of the Chase Trifecta.
Other rotating-category cards include the Citi Dividend (unavailable for new sign-ups), Langley FCU Signature Cash Back Visa, Abound Credit Union Visa Platinum, and Nusenda card. You can choose your own categories with cards like the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards, U.S. Bank Cash+, Max Cash Preferred, and Huntington Voice. Cards like the Venmo Visa and Citi Custom Cash will automatically calculate your category.
This post will be updated as needed. For reference, here’s what the categories were for 2023, and the 2022 Discover categories are here.