As reported by View from the Wing this morning, Chase has added grocery bonus categories on most of its consumer cards that carry annual fees from May 1, 2020 to June 30, 2020. This includes both both co-branded cards and Chase Ultimate Rewards cards and is automatic (no registration / activation required). We reported yesterday that the Marriott Bonvoy cards were adding groceries as a bonus category today and just this morning Amex announced a huge overhaul focusing on rewarding spend and offering statement credits towards things people are spending on right now. Citi has also announced that the Prestige travel credit can be used at grocery stores and restaurants for the rest of 2020. The competition to become your grocery card is certainly heating up.
Chase cards offering bonuses on groceries
Chase has added the following earnings at grocery stores on up to $1500 per month from May 1 to June 30th, 2020:
- Chase Sapphire Reserve: 5x
- Chase Sapphire Preferred: 3x
- United Club Infinite: 5x
- United Explorer and older / no longer available United MileagePlus, MileagePlus Award and MileagePlus Select: 3x
- British Airways / Iberia / Aer Lingus Visa Siganture cards: 3x
- Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus, Premier, and Priority cards: 3x
- World of Hyatt and older Hyatt credit card: 3x
- IHG Rewards Club Premier and the older Select ($49) card: 3x
- Disney Premier card: 3% back in rewards dollars
Additionally, we announced yesterday that there is a higher $5,000 cap on the Marriott Bonvoy cards which will earn the bonus from May 1 to July 31st:
- Marriott Bonvoy cards (all, including no-longer-available cards): 6x
Quick Analysis
At first glance, 5x on the CSR seems like a hands down winner once you have exhausted this quarter’s 5x on the Freedom card. While I personally take the much-contested stance that Membership Rewards are more valuable than Ultimate Rewards, even I would have a hard time choosing the Amex Gold card over the CSR right now. Of course, the $1500 cap per card will make it hard to put the pedal to the metal on this one.
Gary at VFTW notes that an interesting piece on the Southwest credit cards is that the bonus could help you inch a little closer to a Companion Pass since those bonus points will be Companion Pass qualifying. You’re limited to $1500 in spend each month in May and June — but that’s still potentially 9,000 points toward the pass on $3000 spend. It beats getting there at 1x. Given the reduced requirements for the Companion Pass, it could make sense for some who opened only one credit card to spend towards it with this.
Those who have the Hyatt card should keep in mind that they will earn 3 elite nights for each $5K spend through June 30th. That means you’d only be able to do $3K toward that at 3x ($1500 in May and $1500 in June), but it still beats not getting 3x at all.
Since I don’t have the Hyatt card and have already earned north of the requirement for the Companion Pass this year, I’ll have the CSR queued up first from Chase. Once I max out my $1500 this month on that card, I’ve got decisions to make between 6x Marriott, 12x Hilton (see this post), 4x Amex…..decisions, decisions.
Bottom line
While I wouldn’t be taking trips to the grocery store just for MS yet, these offers certainly might make it worthwhile during your regular shopping trips. It’s great to see issuers competing for a piece of our spend on the categories that matter to us right now.
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[…] Update: As announced 5/1, the Amex cards are offering this bonus at US Supermarkets (not international) and with a higher cap (see this post for a lot more on Amex updates); no word on whether or not Chase works at foreign grocery stores. Chase is also offering grocery-related bonuses on many more cards (see this post for the full list). […]
Anybody know if you can double dip the grocery promo through a CSP to CSR PC?
I don’t know for sure, but I would bet that you can. I double dipped on referrals once that way, which leads me to believe that the computer system understands that it’s a separate thing if you get what I mean.
[…] of this overlaps with a Chase promotion that runs from May through June. In addition to many other Chase cards, Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus, Premier, and Priority […]
[…] are earning more at grocery stores. Not only is the Chase Freedom card earning 5% this quarter, but Chase and American Express announced that many of their cards would earn more at grocery stores for the […]
I’m seeing reports that the $1500 limit is for the period of the promotion and not per month. Can you confirm that it’s per month and that reports to the contrary are wrong. Thanks
[…] issuers have finally started to adjust by offering temporary perks that are accessible from home. Chase added grocery bonuses to a bunch of cards. Citi made it easier to earn the Prestige card’s $250 travel credit. And Amex surprised […]
Do CSR gets ×5 point on gift card if I buy from grocery stores??
Yes
Nothing at all on the Ritz carton card? It behaves like a Chase Marriott card in so many other ways (even though it is technically issued by JPM) and is not a business card, so I would have hoped that some of Chase’s other temporary benefits would apply but haven’t seen that yet 🙁
On a related note, after it lost the Visa Infinite airfare benefit, do you see any any upside to keeping the Ritz Carlton card vs the CSR now?
Ritz gets the same 6X grocery that the Chase Marriott cards get.
I still like the Ritz card for it’s great perks:
– Best in class Priority Pass
– Free authorized users (who also get Priority Pass)
– Equal trip protection to CSR
– $300 airline fee rebates per year
– 50K free night annually
Thanks! Is there something official that announced this 6x grocery? On a website or did they send something by email that I might have missed?
Search your email for one containing your Ritz card’s last 4. The email I received didn’t look like it was about the Ritz card. It just said the 6x stuff about my “Bonvoy” card.
Searched all over and couldn’t find any such email. In fact, the only one mentioning 6x was from Marriott and referred to Amex cards only. However, some more googling turned up this on the second page of the search results (after all blogs announcing this which I ignored since i was looking for a primary source):
https://uat.credit-cards.marriott.com/chase-6x-grocery
Looks like the web version of the email.
Thanks for the quick repsonse.
I have a critical timing issue. My CSR new AF posted on 1 May. Statement period will close on May 11. Statement will post ~12 May. Payment will be due by June 8. I plan to pc to CSP. However, I now want to MS the $1.5k/month of groceries on the CSR at 5URs/$1. I’ve read that I have roughly 40 days after the AF posts to pc and get a full AF refund. My question – can I spend $1.5k in May and also in early June to get the $3k grocery spend on the CSR (along with the 15k URs), and then pc to the CSP by 8 June?
Where does the Ritz card fall under this? I thought I saw somewhere that it was 6x Bonvoy, but not sure about dates/max. Thanks.
If I use my Marriott Bonvoy Card to have groceries delivery through Shipt will I be all to get 6 points/dollar spent?
Does Morgan Stanley ever reimburse Amex business cards to clients?
Any thoughts on whether “grocery stores” include Walmart or Sam’s Club?
Near zero chance. Sam’s Club definitely not — that’s a warehouse store. Walmart only if it’s a Neighborhood Market, and then I’m not positive if it’ll code as grocery with Chase. It does with Amex.
Nick, chase doesn’t code WMNM as grocery
Jim: I got 5x at a Walmart store with the CSR. According to TPG, Chase said that in order to code as grocery, a Walmart or Target needs to carry a “full-service grocery line of merchandise including a deli and bakery”. My store does have those things. YMMV.
[…] Chase adds groceries on most $95 and up consumer cards […]
Do you know if this applies to the United Business Mileage Plus (the NON-Explorer) card?
Nope. This offer is on consumer cards, not business. The only Chase business cards with grocery bonus are the Marriott ones (I think there are 2 older Chase Marriott business cards that are no longer available and they will earn 6x on up to $5K May-July, a different calendar and cap than the offers on most Chase cards).
Essentially, I don’t think Chase is looking to encourage spend on small business cards. That makes sense — given the current economic environment, they surely expect that many small businesses may fail. I don’t think they want to create more exposure in that regard than necessary. Notably, Amex also didn’t do much on business cards — apart from adding credits to the Business Platinum that erase purchases people are currently making (rather than adding a bonus category to encourage new spending), they didn’t do anything on business cards either. I don’t expect we’ll see much incentive on the business cards.
Is the chase CRS bonus only valid for US supermarkets?
Chase didn’t specify, but since other normal Chase bonus categories (like travel and restaurants) work worldwide, I’d expect the same on supermarkets. It depends of course on how that supermarket codes — I’m sure it might vary depending on the store.
Ok cool. Thanks for the reply, Nick. I’ll give it a shot!
What about The No AF Hilton Honors Card ? Will it earn the same 12X as the surpass and Aspire on supermarkets ?
Nope. Only the Aspire and Surpass. See this post for full details:
https://frequentmiler.com/amex-stay-at-home-perks/
[…] See this post on Frequent Miler for full details. […]
Am I correct that Chase Ink does not get any bonus for grocery stores?
Correct. Nothing on any of the Chase business cards apart from the Chase Marriott business card. I think that one was pushed by Marriott.
My guess here is that Chase isn’t looking to encourage more small business spend given the state of the economy. It’s a risk that probably isn’t worth it to them at the moment given how they’ve tightened up on the Ink cards.
Do I have this right: If you have Freedom and CSR, you can max out each for $1500 per month for May and June ($6k total)and buy GCs ? Total 30k points? However, you will have to pay the activation fees on Visa GC.
Correct. Stack it with a local fuel points offer like the one running currently at Kroger to mitigate activation fees.
https://frequentmiler.com/kroger-4x-fuel-points-on-visa-mastercard-third-party-gift-cards/
Did the Freedom 2nd quarter spend limit change? The quarter is $1500 max in the 5% bonus categories. Not monthly.
No, it didn’t — you’re totally right. My bad for reading quickly and not thinking critically. @MalMel: You can theoretically spend up to $4.5K ($1500 this quarter on Freedom and $3K (two months at $1.5K each) on CSR. Still a good deal, but BigDog is right that you can’t repeat it again next month on the Freedom.
Oh gosh, thank you guys for catching that and explaining!
meh. Jumping from 2x to 3x on my older United MileagePlus Select won’t move the needle as I already shifted my grocery spend to the InkPlus card where I’m buy Gift Cards (including grocery) at office supply stores which gives me 5x Chase UR.
Which grocery GC can you get at which office supply stores?
Back when Office Depot was still open before SIP they had Raley’s cards which work for me. Also staples online has Safeway e-cards. Those are my mine grocery stores.
I haven’t double checked, but Staples always used to have Whole Foods online also.
SW is also gifting 20K qualifying RR points toward CP and Elite A status but the 20K RR points cant be used for flights – they are also gifting A status tier points and miles.
So the Grocery play could make it even easier to score a CP
Yup. There’s a paragraph about that in the post. Definitely easier, though with a $1500/mo cap and only on the personal cards, it won’t get you all that far.
And I got an email that Hilton Aspire cards also added a few key benefits:
12X points on groceries (not as good as 5X on Chase SR)
Free weekend night can be used any night (besides also extending expiration of those nights)
And the $250 resort credit can be applied to restaurant purchases from 6/1/20 through 8/31/20
Yup. I linked to our earlier post about that stuff in the first paragraph of this post, but here’s a direct link:
https://frequentmiler.com/amex-stay-at-home-perks/
Interestingly, the press release hadn’t said anything about the free night being valid any night. We’ll post about that as well once I dig it up.
So the Chase grocery spend is capped at $1500 per month. The Amex Hilton Aspire didn’t mention any cap as far as I can tell.
Presumably you could buy $1,500 per month in GCs at grocery stores and get the 5x on Sapphire Reserve
Having both cards , which is better deal – CSP at 3x or Chase Marriott at 6x for groceries ?
Clearly using spellcheck was not a decision you made this morning. 🙂
Amex…..decisions, decisiions.
But good article otherwise