Ever since Chase teamed up with Instacart to offer complimentary Instacart+ and monthly credits, I’ve been happily saving money each month while also enjoying the convenience of having groceries delivered to my door. In this post, I’ll explain how I stack these Instacart deals. I expect that some readers will contribute great ideas of their own, so please check the comments on this post as well.
Free Instacart+
An Instacart+ membership gives you free delivery on orders of $10 or more ($35 minimum for Costco). If you have any Chase credit cards in your household, you can get complimentary Instacart+ for 3 months. That might not sound like much, but if you register multiple qualified cards, the months stack together. By registering qualifying cards in my household, I’ve stacked up two years of Instacart+.
Use these links to register each of the eligible Chase cards in your household:
- United cards
- Other co-brand cards (Marriott, Hyatt, IHG, Southwest, Aeroplan, British Airways, etc.)
- Ink Business Cash and Ink Business Unlimited
Note that when enrolling a business card, Instacart tries to get you to sign up for a business account with them. If you say “No” to that, the credits get added to your personal profile.
Note also that if you have two of the same exact cards, registering both will not stack. For example, you can stack by adding both the Marriott Bonvoy Bold Card and the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card, but if you have two Boundless cards in your household, it won’t help to register both.
Up to $20 off each purchase
When you register your Chase cards, as described above, you get monthly Instacart discounts. With some cards you get $10 off per month, some give you $10 off on up to two orders per month, and some give you $20 off per month. The best overall deal is to register an Ink Business Cash card and an Ink Business Unlimited card. Since each of these gives you $20 off per month, by registering both cards, you can get $20 off twice per month.
Note that if you have two Ink Business Cash cards, or two Ink Business Unlimited cards, registering both will not stack. For example, you can stack by adding both the Ink Business Cash card and the Ink Business Unlimited card, but if you have two Ink Business Cash cards in your household, it won’t help to register both.
If you don’t already have the Ink Business Cash and Ink Business Unlimited cards, I highly recommend getting them! They offer terrific welcome bonuses, have no annual fee, and the rewards earned on these cards can be transferred to a premium Ultimate Rewards card, such as the Sapphire Preferred card, to make the points more valuable. If you’re not sure whether you can qualify for these cards or how to go about applying, see this post for details:
Save more with friend referrals
- Get $10 off your first order: Use a friend’s referral code to sign up for Instacart for the first time (here’s mine: G1AE40510D, thank you!)
- Get $10 off for each friend who uses your referral code for their first order.
Buy discounted Instacart gift cards
There are often easy ways to buy Instacart gift cards at a discount. In the past, we’ve reported on ways to purchase discounted Instacart gift cards at Amazon.com, Costco, Sam’s Club, and other retailers. One deal available now, as I post this, is the opportunity to get up to 50% off an Amazon.com order by applying at least 1 Membership Rewards point to your order.
- Direct link to this deal (our affiliate link)
If you qualify for the deal, it’s essential to apply only one point to your order; otherwise, you won’t benefit from the discount (points aren’t worth much when redeemed through Amazon). I was targeted for a 30% discount, so I used this deal to buy a $100 Instacart gift card for $69.99 plus one point:
Earn more with shopping portals
You can earn rewards for your Instacart shopping by clicking through to Instacart from an online shopping portal. Be careful, though: some portals only offer rewards for your first Instacart purchase, not for return orders. As I write this, it looks like both Rakuten and Capital One Offers are offering 2x points for return orders. Sometimes I get targeted for better deals from Capital One Shopping (which is different from Capital One Offers):
Take advantage of Instacart savings
Shop in-store prices
With many stores, Instacart jacks up the prices above what the stores charge directly. However, they also offer several stores with “in-store” prices. By shopping at these stores, you’re more likely to get reasonable prices.
Shop Instacart Offers
Many stores offer deals such as “$20 off $50 or more.” The best options are those that also provide in-store pricing.
Get $2 off with a scheduled delivery discount
If you’re not in a hurry to receive your items right away, select a delivery window that offers $2 off your order.
Stacking Examples
Staples Ink
The image above shows an example of purchasing a $69.99 item from Staples. I stacked my Chase Ink $20 discount with a Staples-specific $20-off deal, and sprinkled in $2-off by opting for a later delivery. Even after accounting for the tip and service fee, I would have saved $32 compared to buying the same item in person for $73.39, after tax. However, the real savings would be even greater, as the remaining $41.38 would be paid with my gift card balance, which I had previously bought for 30% off. In total, in this example, I would have saved over $44.
Cat Food
The Staples order was a made-up example. In real life, I’ve been buying cat food. The example below shows that even after increasing the default 10% tip to 20%, I still spent only $9.52 of gift card credit for $22.64 in cat food:
Conclusion
If you have multiple qualifying Chase cards in your household, it’s easy to get monthly discounts plus many months of Instacart+ for free. By stacking these discounts and others, you can save money and enjoy the convenience of shopping from home.
Do you have other suggestions for saving money with Instacart? Please comment below.
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Well, my first orders didn’t work so well. I added both my Chase Ink Business Ultimate and Chase Ink Business Cash cards to my account. Placed two orders with Dick’s Sporting Goods for golf balls. Total after $20 credit was $12.03. Both orders were delivered. Chase charged one card the $12.03. On the other card the $12.03 showed pending and then a $12.03 credit pending and a charge for the full price of $31.27. Today only the $31.27 charge remains.
I contacted Instacart and I don’t know how they did it but my Chase cards now show only the two correct transactions and the $31.27 transaction has disappeared.
I see recent posts here talking about a $3 pick up fee but my Publix orders I’ve carted so far playing around with the website and the loaded Chase cards, all have a 2.99 delivery fee but it’s waived. I don’t even see where to add tip (assume it will) but if it saves me a trip to the store to get $20 or $10 (or close to it) of free stuff, I’m OK to give a tip.
Strange, I have two Business Ink cards, so I applied both to the same membership. I was able to get the $20 off twice using the first card (I forgot to switch to card 2), but when I changed payment to the other card, I didn’t get the $20 discount on it. I guess they only allow the $20 for the number of Ink cards you have, regardless of which one you use for payment.
Final addendum to previous comments. I tried to maximize 6 orders using 6 different $10 instacart Chase benefit cards. Minimum order accept is $10 so the lowest $ order you can make is $10 + $3.99 pickup fee = $13.99. I waited until all 6 orders were ready for pickup. The orders were in one large paper bag and 9 plastic bags. Very confusing to figure out if everything was there, it was not. One order had 4 of the same item but did not fill because the grocery only had one of this item. The person filling that order texted me about the situation; however, when I read his not and the texted back, chat was no longer available. The cost of that item was $2.59 + $3.99 for pickup fee. The $10 was not applied to the pickup fee so the $2.59 item cost me $3.99. The receipt did brag that I had just saved $2.59!
The entire process took a big chunk of time and was a total waste of my time. If you already use Instacart, the additional $10 reduction on a large order is worth it. If you are new to Instacart because of the Chase promotion, forget the $10 bonuses. I will try to use the two $20 bonuses from my INK cards each month, otherwise forget about it…
While I’m neurotically obsessed with capitalizing on these offers, I totally agree that for Instacart newcomers who are just trying to capitalize on a $10 Chase credit, get ready for a headache. 50% of the time they will not have a selected item in stock, and things go awry from there. There are ways to mitigate the losses, but it’s always still a headache. (I found the GoPuff benefit from a few years back much smoother and reliable.)
In my case, I do use several $20 and $10 credits each month, and I’ve learned which items are “safe bets” at the stores I shop from, to minimize the chance of something being out of stock. I also do carefully select the replacement option (which Instacart allows you to do). Still, I’ve had enough to go wrong enough times that I don’t go into these transactions with a “it has to work” mentality. It’s almost more of a gambling mentality, where if my wins exceed my losses, so I have a net gain, I’m good.
I have never used Instacart, so I signed up for + with 8 eligible Chase cards.
But it says the free membership for Instacart+ expires in Feb 2026.
Obviously something is wrong – any ideas?
Did you register multiples of the same card? Eg if you registered two different Ink Cash cards, you’ll only get the benefit from the first one
No, they are all different. But it didn’t like the Ink cards. Cash and Unlimited.
Oh weird. You might have to contact their support if it won’t recognize those. Those are the most valuable!
The odd thing is that on my Chase site I see many ink cards, but 2 are separated, even though I did nothing different in applying, same company, used SSN, etc. AND those 2 card applications triggered a hard pull each on TransUnion !!
Addendum to recent message. Of 54 store available to me, there are only 2 that have in-store prices and pick-up. One of the pickup store has no times available for pick-up (that’s over an entire week). The one remaining store, a grocery, now adds a $3.99 pickup charge. It didn’t add $3.99 for the first 3 orders. So, to use a $10 instacart benefit the minimum order is $10 and Instacart adds $3.99. Instacart does no work for the pickup order but gets $3.99. What a deal (for Instacart)!!
Your article was a wake up call for me. Between P1 and P2 we have many Chase cards so I’m now trying to learn the ins and outs of Instacart. We have 54 store listed, but only a few have “same store prices” and pick-up. I found the website cumbersome but not impossible. I have initially learned several things:
lol agree, I tried store pickup yesterday, 1 out of the 3 things was oos, and instacart refunded ~$6 to the chase credit and still charged $3.99 pickup fee. Most likely I won’t spend another $3.99 to use the credit.
And agree, very time consuming.
Can someone please chime in with my situation: I have 2x CIC and 2x CIU, P2 also has multiple CIC/CIU. I opened a new account, activated 1 hyatt, 1 hyatt biz, 1 CIC, 1 CIU and got instacart+ for a year. Also got $10 + $10 + $20 + $20/month.
If I share my instacart+ with P2, can he also use his CIC/CIU $20 credit? was hoping to save his instacart+ membership till mine expires.
How do I maximize the other CIC/CIU? do I need to open multiple accounts and activate all? if so, all my instacart+ will expire in 6 months, and I won’t be able to use the $20 promo next year unless I purchase (multiple) memberships?
Thanks!!
How did you get 2 years? I was able to add United, CIU, Hyatt and IHG. It won’t let me add any more cards get error…”something went wrong, try later”. Trying to add CIC, SW. How to add additional cards?
Have you tried again? I was able to add all of our qualifying cards to get a couple of years. You can only add one of each card type, but you should be able to add CIC and SW in that instance.
Sometimes I’m able to get the credit on the same card few times in the same month. Not sure why, it seems to be very random.
If you have multiple Inks, you can pay with any kind of Ink to get any of the Chase Ink credits. Same with the co-brand cards. It might look like you’re using the credit on the same card multiple times but you might be using one of the other card’s credits?
If I have multiple ink cash, can I switch and get the $20 credit for the second ink cash? does that auto-activate the instacart+ membership without actually adding 3 months to my existing one?
Just a heads up, Capital One shopping rewards will not work if you use any INK or Chase Discounts in the order. It used to stack but not anymore. All instacart transactions made through Capital One shopping where I have used Chase/Ink discounts now show up as ineligible. They have updated the T&C to indicate rewards will not be earned if any other discount is used.
Between P1 and P2, we have around $150 in monthly credit with 4 at $20. We usually do pickup to avoid delivery charges, but orders under $35 have a $4 fee.
For the $20 credits, that’s basically 80% off, but if you pay the fee with 30% discounted gift cards, that becomes 86% off. The $10 credits are 60% or 72% off, respectively.
Pickup fee is $3.99. Delivery fee is $3.49 but the scheduled delivery discount of $2 helps offset that reducing it to $1.49. So if you tip $2.50, pickup and delivery cost the same.
Note about the $2 delivery discount. It’s subtracted from the item cost so if you have exactly $10 in your cart, only $8 of the Chase credit will be used. You’d need $12 of items to maximize the credit.
You can view remaining credits by going to your account and selecting “Credits, promos, and gift cards.” Each will show as $10/$20 off any store.
Good tips!
Note that not all stores have a pick up fee though. I pick up from a local grocery store that has no fee.
I used $20 credit from a single Ink Unlimited card 5 times now. The last two times were in this month. I thought you can only get $20 credit 3 times and 1 per month.
Also, there doesn’t seem a minimum purchase to get the credit if you shop at Sam’s Club. I shopped 4 times there for stuffs just above $20 and got the full credit every time.
I believe the Shop Your Way portal tracks return visits and they also have a monthly mission of three purchases for grocery delivery giving an extra $3. Instacart qualifies for the mission.
You can use these when you are traveling also. I love getting some groceries delivered to my hotel.