Insider’s experts choose the best products and services to help make smart decisions with your money (here’s how). In some cases, we receive a commission from our our partners, however, our opinions are our own. Terms apply to offers listed on this page.
Holiday shoppers will appreciate the new Chase Freedom 5% bonus categories for Q4 2022.
Chase; Insider
The 2022 Q4 Chase Freedom rotating bonus categories are Walmart and PayPal.
You can earn 5% back on the first $1,500 spent in combined purchases in these categories (then 1%).
Q4 runs from October 1 to December 31, 2022, and activation is required by December 14 to earn the bonus.
Read Insider’s guide to the best rewards credit cards.
Chase has released the new Q4 2022 rotating quarterly bonus categories on one of our favorite cash-back credit cards, the Chase Freedom Flex℠ . From October 1 to December 31, 2022, you can earn 5% cash back (5x points) on up to $1,500 in combined purchases (then 1%) at Walmart and on PayPal purchases when you activate the bonus.
These categories also apply to the Chase Freedom®, which is no longer available to new applicants.
We’re focused here on the rewards and perks that come with each card. These cards won’t be worth it if you’re paying interest or late fees. When using a credit card, it’s important to pay your balance in full each month, make payments on time, and only spend what you can afford to pay.
Chase Freedom Q4 2022 categories
Here are the Chase Freedom 5% bonus categories from October 1, 2022, through December 31, 2022:
Walmart: Includes purchases at Walmart Discount Stores, Walmart SuperCenters, Walmart Neighborhood Markets, www.walmart.com, Walmart branded gas stations operated by Walmart, any other Walmart branded retail stores operated by Walmart, and purchases made with Walmart Pay (excludes merchants operating within or on Walmart premises such as fast food, beauty services, and gas stations that are not Walmart branded, Sam’s Club, and local delivery merchants such as Shipt)PayPal: Includes purchases made using your card with PayPal (excludes payments made through the Xoom transfer service, Friends and Family, and Person-to-Person (P2P) transactions made with your card on PayPal)
Chase
These new categories are especially useful for holiday shopping. And because most major merchants now accept PayPal for online purchases, maximizing that category should be easy to do for most cardholders.
Chase Freedom Flex℠ and Chase Freedom® cardholders can activate the Q4 bonus categories through their Chase account starting September 15, 2022, until December 14, 2022.
Once you activate, the bonus will retroactively apply to purchases, up to spending limits, from the start of the current quarter.
How Chase Freedom quarterly bonus categories work
Each quarter of the year, the Chase Freedom Flex℠ and Chase Freedom® cards earn 5% back (or 5x points) on a different set of bonus categories. Activation is required, and once you hit the quarterly max of $1,500 spent in the bonus categories, your rate reverts to 1% back.
While these are marketed as cash-back cards, if you also have a Chase card that earns transferable Ultimate Rewards points, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, you can combine rewards between the two cards and transfer them to Chase’s airline and hotel partners. That’s why you can think of the Chase Freedom Flex℠ and Chase Freedom® bonus categories as earning you either 5% back or 5x points.
You’ll earn 5% back or 5x points on up to $1,500 in combined purchases each quarter, so if you max this out, you’ll earn $75 back, or 7,500 Chase points. Each quarter, you need to activate the quarterly bonus categories in order to be eligible for cash back or bonus Ultimate Rewards points. You’ll receive an email prompting you to activate them through your online account.
You can find out more about which card is right for you in our comparison of all three Chase Freedom cards.
Previous Chase Freedom quarterly bonus categories
For Q3 2022 (July through September), the Chase Freedom bonus categories were gas stations, rental car agencies, movie theaters, and select live entertainment. In Q2 2022 (April through June), Amazon and select streaming services were included, and in Q1 2022 (January through March), they were grocery stores (excluding Walmart and Target) and eBay.
In 2021, the previous quarterly bonus categories were as follows:
Q1: Cable, internet, and phone services, wholesale clubs, and select streaming servicesQ2: Gas stations and home improvement storesQ3: Grocery stores (excluding Walmart and Target) and select streaming servicesQ4: Walmart and PayPal
And in 2020, the quarterly bonus categories included:
Q1: Gas stations, internet, cable, and phone services, select streaming servicesQ2: Grocery stores, fitness club and gym memberships, select streaming servicesQ3: Amazon and Whole Foods purchasesQ4: Walmart and PayPal
Here are the previous quarterly bonus categories from 2019:
Q1: Gas stations, tolls, drugstoresQ2: Grocery stores and home improvement storesQ3: Select streaming services and gas stationsQ4: Department stores, PayPal, and Chase Pay
Chase Freedom Flex card details
In addition to earning 5% back (5x points) on quarterly bonus categories, the Chase Freedom Flex℠ earns 5% cash back on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards, 5% back on Lyft rides through March 2025, 3% cash back on dining and drugstores, and 1% back on everything else.
It’s a no-annual-fee card, but it does charge foreign transaction fees, so you won’t want to use it for international purchases.
The Chase Freedom Flex℠ is currently offering $200 Bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening.
If you also have the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve®, or Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, you can transfer your bonus to travel partners like United Airlines, Hyatt, and Marriott.
Right now, there are alternative bonuses available directly through Chase for the Freedom cards — find out more in our guide to the current Chase Freedom offers and in our Chase Freedom Flex review.
Other credit card options
If you want to explore other options before committing to the Chase Freedom Flex℠ , there’s one very similar card to check out, as well as other cash-back credit cards with different bonus category structures.
Also with quarterly bonus categories: Discover it Cash Back
This Discover it® Cash Back doesn’t offer the ability to convert cash back into points for travel, but it does offer different 5% bonus categories each quarter of the year.
The Discover it® Cash Back earns 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in purchases each quarter when you activate the bonus categories Discover It Cashback rotation, similar to the Chase Freedom Flex℠ , so you max out at $75 back each quarter, or up to $300 back each year.
The card has no annual fee, and earns 1% back on all other purchases. New cardholders will get all their cash back matched at the end of their first year, so if you earned $500 back total, Discover would match that for a total of $1,000 back Discover It Cashback rotation. You can read our Discover it Cash Back card review for all the details.
Unlike Chase, which announces quarterly cash-back categories every three months, Discover reveals its calendar for the year at once.
Here’s the 2022 Discover it 5% cash-back calendar:
Q1: Grocery stores and fitness club/gym membershipsQ2: Gas stations and TargetQ3: Restaurants and PayPalQ4: Amazon.com and digital wallets
Earn 5% on your top eligible monthly spending category: Citi Custom Cash Card
The Citi Custom Cash℠ Card makes it easy to earn 5% cash back (5x Citi ThankYou points) without having to keep track of rotating categories or remembering to activate a bonus. Cardholders earn 5% back on up to $500 in spending (then 1%) on the eligible category they spend the most in that billing cycle.
Categories that qualify include:
RestaurantsGas stationsGrocery storesSelect travelSelect transitSelect streaming servicesDrugstoresHome improvement storesFitness clubsLive entertainment
The Citi Custom Cash℠ Card offers a welcome bonus of Citi Custom Cash℠ Card. If you also have the Citi Premier® Card or Citi Prestige® Card (no longer available to new applicants), you can pool your points and transfer them to Citi’s airline partners, like JetBlue or Singapore Airlines. Find out more in our Citi Custom Cash card review.
A strong alternative: Chase Freedom Unlimited
If you don’t want to keep track of quarterly bonus categories, you may want to consider Chase’s other cash-back Freedom card instead.
The no-annual-fee Chase Freedom Unlimited® earns 5% cash back on travel purchased through the Chase portal, 5% back on Lyft rides through March 2025, 3% cash back on dining and at drugstores, and 1.5% back on everything else with no limit. If you’re a new cardholder you can currently earn $200 after spending $500 in the first three months from account opening.
The trick of turning cash back into Ultimate Rewards points when you have another eligible Chase card works with the Chase Freedom Unlimited® too, so you could be earning at least 1.5x points on all your purchases — a very solid return on spending. Here’s our Chase Freedom Unlimited card review to learn more.