Registration is now open to activate your 5x category bonus earning with your Chase Freedom® Card. For the second quarter of 2019, the bonus categories are grocery stores and home improvement stores.

As usual, the 5x earning rate only applies to the first $1,500 in spending in those categories. If you max out your bonus category spending for the quarter, you’ll get 7,500 Chase Ultimate Rewards® points.

7,500 Chase Ultimate Rewards® points are worth $75 in cash. But you can get much more value by transferring to any of the following credit cards:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred – #1 travel card for beginners
• Chase Sapphire Reserve – great for frequent travelers
• Ink Business Preferred – highest Chase sign-up bonus for business customers

Once your points have been transferred to one of the above cards, you can amplify the value even further! If you transfer the points to Chase’s travel partners like United Airlines, Southwest or Hyatt, you can get way more value than the original $75.

7,500 points could be enough for a one-way flight to lots of great destinations!

For more information on Chase’s flexible points program, check out The Complete Guide to Chase Ultimate Rewards®.

Key Things to Remember

• You need to activate the 5x earning rate by June 14, 2019
• The promotion runs from April 1, 2019 to June 30, 2019
• The promotion is valid at grocery stores and home improvement stores (not valid at Walmart or Target)

How to Activate

Unfortunately Chase doesn’t automatically enroll you into the bonus category earning promotion each quarter. To activate, you can go to the Chase Activation website and enter your last name, zip code and the last four digits of your Chase Freedom® Card.

Alternatively you can log into your Chase Freedom® Card account and activate from there. You can also sign-up one time to have Chase send you a reminder email each quarter. That email contains a button for easy 1-click activation.

Bottom Line

It’s interesting that Chase didn’t include any mobile payments or PayPal like they did last year in the second quarter. Hopefully they’ll include some special Chase Pay offers during the quarter to help amplify earning rates.

The good news is grocery stores is back as a bonus category. This is a great category because everyone shops for groceries and you’d only need to spend $125 per week to reach the $1,500 max. Plus, there are no cards in the Chase Ultimate Rewards family that have a grocery bonus.

The home improvement category is more discretionary, but if you have spring cleaning or remodeling projects, this is the quarter to do it. I know I’ll be spending some money in this category to get my lawn ready for spring and summer.

While I would’ve liked to also see something with mobile payments, these are two solid categories. And if you’re struggling to meet the maximum bonus for the quarter, both grocery stores and home improvement stores sell a wide variety of gift cards. to ensure you earn the full 7,500 point bonus this quarter!