General
Credit Card Bonus Rewards Categories for December 2021
Note: Discover IT and Chase Freedom requires you to enroll each quarter before you start earning a quarterly bonus in these categories. The offers listed here are for existing credit cardholders. These offers usually require activation and could be targeted and may have an earning cap. See the issuers’ websites for all exclusions and terms.Discover IT: Earn 5% Cashback Bonus at Amazon.com, Walmart.com, and Target.com from October 1st, 2021 –December 31, 2021, on up to $1,500 in purchases .https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/cashback-bonus/cashback-calendar.HTML
Chase Freedom and Chase Freedom Flex: earn 5% cashback at Walmart and Paypal from October 1st, 2021 – December 31, 2021, on up to $1,500 in purchases. Must activate by December 14, 2021. Get Your Bonus (chasebonus.com)
Additional bonus on Chase Freedom: Earn 5% cashback on Lyft rides with your Chase Freedom and Chase Freedom flex card through March 2022.
Some targeted American Express offers: These are targeted offers and you have to see them on your online/mobile AmEx account and add them before using them. These offers are not available to everyone.
- Earn 5 more Membership Rewards points per eligible dollar spent at Amazon, up to 1,500 points – expires 12/26/21.
- Sams Clubs new membership: Spend $45 on new membership, get $25 back – ends 04/30/22.
- Tommy Hilfiger, Spend $75 or more and get $25 back – expires 1/31/22
- Godiva – online only – Spend $50 or more, get $10 back- expires 12/28/22.
- Turo – Spent $150 and get $30 back – Expires 12/31/21
- Under Armour – Spend $50 or more, get $10 back – Expires 12/31/21
- Levi’s – Spent $150 and get $30 back – Expires 02/15/22
- Walmart+ – Get 50% back on an annual membership, up to $49 back.
- HBO Max annual subscription – Spend $99.99 or more, get $25 back
Targeted Citi offers:
Citi Premier Card: Earn a total of 6X ThankYou Points per $1 spent on Hotel and Car Rental purchases booked through the ThankYou Travel Center between 9/1/21 – 12/31/21.
Earn a total of 5 ThankYou Points per $1 spent, up to 2,500 points, through 12/31/2021 on eligible purchases at Restaurants.
Maximizer Tips:
- Walmart.com offer includes purchases made using the Walmart app including grocery pick up and delivery.
- Don’t forget standard “always-on” rewards for other purchases https://www.cardquarterly.com/always-on-rewards/
- You could add Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex card in your PayPal and make payments whenever you don’t have to pay extra fee and earn that 5%.
- If you have AT&T Fiber internet, you may already have a complementary access to HBO Max.
Watch Out!!
- For Chase Freedom – If you use PayPal at Walmart, you will only get 5%, not 5% +5%.
Can you grow card rewards after redemption?
Increasing the value to rewards after redemption sounds strange. Well, it is possible and I have described how it is possible. I put almost all my spend on credit cards, so I earn a significant amount of rewards each month. Most of my rewards are in cashback. But I don’t often redeem those rewards because I am not that excited about redeeming cash back into my checking or savings account. I do redeem points that I earn on travel cards when booking hotels. I also redeem rewards from Costco’s credit card at Costco and points from Amazon’s card at Amazon because there are no other ways to spend those rewards. But other cashback rewards that I earn stay idle for a long time, doing nothing – until now!! What changed? you may ask.
Well, I signed up for the new credit card from SoFi. It is a Mastercard where I earn 2 points for every dollar I spend. If I redeem it as a statement credit, then I will get 0.5 cents for every point, which makes it a 1% cashback card. Nothing exciting since you can get 1% cashback on many cards. But if I redeem the points to their investment platform to invest, save or make a payment towards a SoFi loan, I will get 1c for every point, which makes it a 2% cashback card. There are a handful of cards that give you 2% cashback (e.g. Citi Double Cash). What makes the SoFi card potentially a better option than Citi Double Cash. When I redeem your SoFi rewards into their investment platform I am investing that cash back into stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc. Over time, these redemptions have the potential to grow into a significant investment portfolio. SoFi also allows you to buy a fraction of some stocks and funds (limited but good selection), which differentiate it from the credit card offered by Fidelity (similar 2% cashback if redeemed into an eligible Fidelity investment account).
Additional perks
In addition to these exciting rewards, the card comes with cell phone protection, which is not a common benefit. And, there are standard Mastercard benefits as well. In short, my rewards will continue to grow after I redeem them if I leave them there for some time. In the short term, it may lose its value. But I am here for the long haul. Check out the card at https://www.sofi.com/credit-card/
Interesting fact:
This card allows redemption into crypto. I am not sure whether this is a good thing or not and whether it will help grow the rewards after redemption.
As always you find out other card benefits here. https://www.cardquarterly.com/card-benefits/
