Two of the most popular free cash back cards pay 5% on categories that rotate every three months, and the categories for the final quarter of 2026 are live now. They are also unusually well matched to how people actually spend between October and December, which makes this the easiest quarter of the year to max them out.
There is also a deadline attached, and missing it costs real money. Here is what is 5% right now, what the cap is worth, and the date you need in your calendar.
What is 5% right now
| Card | Q4 2026 categories (1 Oct – 31 Dec) | Cap |
|---|---|---|
| Chase Freedom Flex and Chase Freedom | Grocery stores (excluding Walmart and Target), dining, and American Red Cross donations made through the official Red Cross channel | 5% on up to $1,500 in combined purchases this quarter |
| Discover it Cash Back | Restaurants, entertainment and utilities | 5% on up to $1,500 this quarter |
Note how little they overlap. Chase covers the supermarket run, Discover covers the electricity bill and nights out, and both cover eating out. If you hold both cards, and they are free, so there is no reason not to, you have 5% across groceries, dining, entertainment and utilities simultaneously.
The deadline: December 14
Neither card pays the bonus automatically. You have to switch the categories on, and the two issuers treat a late activation completely differently.
Chase gives you until December 14, 2026. Activate at ChaseBonus.com by that date and the bonus applies retroactively to category purchases you already made earlier in the quarter. In other words, if you activate on December 13, your October grocery shopping still earns 5%.
Discover is not retroactive. Your 5% begins on the day you activate, or the first day of the quarter, whichever is later. Anything bought in the category before you switched it on earns 1% and stays there permanently.
So the practical rule is simple: activate Discover immediately, and activate Chase before December 14. We cover that asymmetry in more detail in our Discover it vs Freedom Unlimited comparison.
What the cap is actually worth
The $1,500 quarterly limit is the number that defines the whole thing, and it is worth being precise about:
| Spending in bonus categories | At 5% | What you would have earned at 1.5% | Extra |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500 | $25 | $7.50 | +$17.50 |
| $1,000 | $50 | $15 | +$35 |
| $1,500 (the full cap) | $75 | $22.50 | +$52.50 |
So one card maxed out is $75 for the quarter, or $300 a year if you max all four quarters. Hold both cards and max both this quarter and it is $150. That is a useful amount of money for pressing a button, but it is not life-changing, which is worth knowing before you reorganize your spending around it.
One wrinkle on the Freedom Flex: Chase’s quarterly bonus is an extra 4% on top of the card’s normal rate, and dining already earns 3% on the Flex, so restaurant spending inside the cap earns 7% this quarter rather than 5%. Fill the $1,500 with dining instead of groceries and the quarter pays $105 instead of $75, so if you have both kinds of spending, put the meals out on the Flex first.
Spending past $1,500 earns the card’s ordinary rate, which on the Freedom Flex is 1% and on the Discover it is 1%. Once you hit the cap, switch to a flat-rate card for the rest of the quarter.
Why Q4 is the easiest quarter to max
Look at the categories against a normal November and December. Grocery spending rises for holiday cooking. Dining rises with end-of-year meals out. Entertainment rises over the holidays. Utilities rise as heating goes on.
In most quarters, maxing $1,500 means deliberately shifting spending. This quarter it mostly means remembering which card to pull out on spending you were doing anyway. A household spending $500 a month on groceries hits the Chase cap by the end of December without changing a single habit.
Holiday shopping itself mostly does not fall in these categories, gifts bought at a department store or online retailer are not groceries or dining. For that side of the season, our Black Friday and holiday shopping guide covers which cards to use instead.
The exclusions worth knowing
Walmart and Target do not count as grocery stores on the Chase bonus this quarter. This catches people every time the grocery category comes round, a big shop at Walmart earns 1%, not 5%. The same applies in practice at most superstores and warehouse clubs, which code as discount or wholesale merchants rather than supermarkets.
Utilities on the Discover bonus generally means the bill paid directly to the provider. Paying through a third-party bill-payment service can change how the charge codes.
Entertainment is broader than people assume, cinemas, concerts, theme parks and streaming often qualify, but it is defined by merchant code, not by what felt entertaining. Our streaming card guide covers the coding issue in detail, including the billing path that silently costs you the bonus rate.
The reliable test costs nothing: make one small purchase at the merchant you are unsure about, then check what rate it earned on your statement before committing the rest of your spending.
How to actually play this quarter
Four steps, in order.
Activate both cards today. Discover first, because its clock starts when you activate. Chase before December 14, but there is no reason to wait.
Put groceries on the Chase card: at an actual supermarket, not Walmart or Target. Put utilities and nights out on the Discover. Dining works on either; use whichever is further from its cap.
Track roughly where you are. $1,500 over three months is $500 a month per card. If you are well under by late November, move more spending across; if you are over, stop and use a flat-rate card.
Use a 2% card for everything else. A 5% card earns only 1% outside its categories, which is worse than a decent flat-rate card, this is exactly why we recommend pairing in our no-annual-fee guide.
And if you are opening the Discover it this quarter, remember its first-year Cashback Match doubles everything you earn, making this quarter’s $75 effectively $150. The Freedom Flex vs Freedom Unlimited comparison covers which Chase card to pair it with.
Quick answers
What happens if I forget to activate? On Chase, activate by December 14 and you still get the bonus on earlier purchases this quarter. On Discover, purchases made before activation earn 1% and cannot be recovered.
Does the $1,500 cap reset each quarter? Yes. It is per quarter, not per year, so each new quarter gives you a fresh $1,500 at 5%.
Do Walmart and Target really not count? Not as grocery stores on this quarter’s Chase bonus. They are excluded explicitly.
Can I hold both cards? Yes, and you should, both are free, and their Q4 categories barely overlap, so together they cover groceries, dining, entertainment and utilities.
When are the next quarter’s categories announced? Issuers publish them ahead of the quarter starting. Check in late December for the January to March list, and activate as soon as it opens.
Methodology and disclosures
Bonus categories, caps and activation deadlines come from the issuers’ published announcements for the quarter. The earnings figures are arithmetic applied to those published rates and caps. No issuer pays us for a mention or a ranking; CardRankr runs on display advertising, not affiliate commissions.
Issuers set rotating categories quarterly and can change category definitions, exclusions, caps and deadlines at any time without notice, and merchant coding varies by individual business. Everything above reflects the terms published at the time of writing, confirm the current details with the issuer before relying on them. Last verified: October 2026.
- Discover it® Cash Back vs. Chase Freedom Unlimited®
- Chase Freedom Unlimited vs. Freedom Flex
- Best Credit Cards for Groceries in 2026
- Best No-Annual-Fee Credit Cards of 2026
If your shopping is mostly online rather than in store, see the best credit cards for online shopping, which covers the rates that apply all year rather than by quarter.
Sources and further reading
- Chase Freedom Flex: card terms and current bonus categories — Chase
- Cashback Bonus rewards summary — Discover
- Credit card agreement database — Consumer Financial Protection Bureau