US Credit Cards Summer Spending offers

I am currently flush with so many spending offers from credit card companies that I am finding it difficult to track. I will list the offers that I have received so far and it might be worth while for you to check for them as well.

1. +1x on Chase Business Credit Cards on 5K spend, up to 3x [From 5/1-7/31]

Enrollment Required?: Yes

I am seeing this on my Chase Ink Cash and United Business credit cards making them effectively 2x everywhere and 6x in office stores for Chase Ink Cash which is as good as it gets outside of sign up offers.

You need to spend exact multiple of 5000 USD to achieve that rate and you can do it up to 3 times.

I think the way this offer is worded, even if you activate it late into the cycle, you will still get the extra points for all your expenses during that period. I got this offer in email, so look out for emails with title "Announcement: XXX, we're excited to offer you extra points on your business expenses".

2. Bank of America +2x on all spend [From 6/x-12/31]

Enrollment Required?: No

This is a rather lucrative offer if you have Platinum Honors status with Bank of America Preferred Rewards. I got this offer on my Travel Rewards card and I am now earning 4.625x points on all my purchases until the end of the year. You do have to go through the trouble of using the card for some travel purchases to be able to redeem those points at 1c a point but I figured that should be doable with many activities coding as Travel for Travel Rewards card. Since the card also has no foreign transaction fee, I could use it on foreign travels as well.

The card had been out of use for me as I also have the Premium Rewards card but this offer brought it back with a bang. I had opened the Nearside business account to get "near" 2.2% back on my IRS payments but this card made me dump that strategy as I would now get 2.755% (4.625-1.87) effective cash back from this card for IRS payments.

I got the offer via email but now it also shows up when I log out of the account.

The offer shows up when logging out of the account as well


3. Amex Marriott +1x on 7.5K spend [From 6/15-8/15]

Enrollment Required?: No

American Express and Marriott are out with their summer spending offer as well. You can now earn 1 extra point if you spend exactly $7,500 on either of the 3 Amex Mariott Cards. That includes the no longer available $95 annual fee Bonvoy card, the $450 fee Bonvoy Brilliant card and the $125 fee Bonvoy Business card. The offer is also publicly listed at this link.

To me this offer doesn't move the needle much and I will only put that spend if I run out of the other offers which is not likely. The way I see it is I am only earning around 2.7% cash back on this card if I put the exact 7.5K spend on it since you can usually buy Marriott points for around .9c a point or lower when it is on sale. So it doesn't hold a candle to the 4.625% from the BofA Travel Rewards card.

4. Barclays +3x on grocery, drug store and restaurants [From 4/1-6/30]

Enrollment Required?: Yes

I got this offer on my Barclays View card which was formerly the Uber Visa card. I haven't use the card since the product change except for using the Barclays Personal Loan offer on it. This offer makes it a 4% cashback card in those cards which is still meh to me since I earn 4x in grocery and restaurants with my Amex Gold card and 3x in drug stores with my Chase Unlimited card both of which I value more than 4% cashback.

    


Final take

Many credit card issues are out with their summer spending offers for the summer so it behooves you to check your emails and letters for offers that could require enrollment. Of the ones listed, I find the Chase and the Bank of America offers appealing enough to change my spending towards to these cards.

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