Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
The Chase Freedom 2020 Q2 categories in which you can earn 5% / 5x back have been announced and include grocery stores, gym memberships, and fitness clubs. It should be pretty easy to max out Q2 for almost everyone given the inclusion of grocery stores.
The Deal
- The Chase Freedom 2020 Q2 bonus categories will be grocery stores, gym memberships, and fitness clubs. After registering, you’ll earn 5x on up to $1500 in purchases in those categories between April 1, 2020 and June 30, 2020.
- Registration will go live on Sunday, March 15, 2020
- These do not show up online yet, but beginning on 3/15 you can register here.
Key Terms
- Must register beginning 3/15/20
- Valid on up to $1500 in combined purchases in qualifying categories
Quick Thoughts
Keep in mind that warehouse clubs like Costco or Sam’s Club usually do not trigger the right category code for grocery stores. Discount stores like Target or Kmart may not either. On the other hand, with the abundance of everyday grocery stores that sell a plethora of gift cards, it should be very easy for almost anyone to max out this quarter’s bonus categories even if you won’t go through $1500 worth of groceries in 3 months.
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I know it’s not popular with everyone, but I use my Amex Everyday Preferred for groceries… and even though I carry the Chase Freedom card, I’ll continue to use the Amex in this way.
I have a personal trainer at my gym that runs me about $2k per year. I’ll be prepaying that with my Freedom card at the start of 2nd quarter and continue to earn 4.5X on groceries (with 30 transactions/month) on the Amex.
Looking forward to these 2nd quarter bonuses!
Won’t be able to max this one out. Probably won’t get any bonus at all next quarter. WMT is the only grocery store around here and they don’t count. So, no, it won’t be easy for everyone.
I did say “almost” anyone. On the other hand, I recently gave a piece of advice in a talk I gave: don’t focus on what you can’t do as that almost never helps. This is a perfect example: you’re focusing on WMT being the only game in town for you. Ok, that won’t work. So what can work? You obviously have Internet access. Are there any grocery chains that have websites? Do any of those websites sell gift cards? Do any of them code as grocery for Chase? If the answers to all of those questions were no (hint: they aren’t), my next question would be am I going to travel at all between now and the end of June? Might a place I pass through at some point in three months have a grocery store that isn’t Walmart?
As I said, I suspect it will be easy for almost anyone to max out. I’m sure there are some people who won’t, but where there’s a will there’s a way.
But now you have me very curious: where on earth is there a Simon Mall (I know you’ve commented about going to one) where there are absolutely zero grocery stores nearby? I can’t wrap my mind around that.
The closest SM to me is 2 hours away. The only reason I am ever in that city is to visit my elderly mother every 4 – 6 weeks. So, yes, I suppose I could go to a grocery store then if I had the time.
Where I live there are 13 WMTs, 1 Target and 2 Sam’s Clubs within a 5 mile radius of my home. There is one small grocery chain with 3 stores in the same footprint and they don’t sell gift cards due to fraud losses over the years.
Obviously I don’t know your area, but I would think that the people who live within that 2-hour drive between you and Simon Mall must be grocery shopping somewhere! That said, the internet makes it really easy. But obviously you certainly don’t have to max it out. Different strokes for different folks.
Nick is posting helpful information —not necessary to get mad at him for where u live (which sounds very special , you’re right)
Does WMT stand for Walmart? If so, you’re saying you have 13 Walmart stores in a 5 mile radius.of you!? That’s insane! No wonder you don’t have any other grocery options…. they choked everyone out!
Try being creative as Nick suggests…. may not max out, but try taking the biggest bite out of the bonus as you can!
It might be worth doing a Walmart grocery order online to pick it up in-store as I think I’ve seen other people mention that codes as grocery on some cards. No guarantee, but if it does code that way it’d hopefully help you spend a significant chunk of the $1,500 allowance.
Freedom not coding as 5x for my walmart grocery pickups