Most travel rewards cards offer cardholders a chance to earn miles and points with card purchases, but there also exists the possibility to earn bonus points or cash back on top of that. This is through merchant offers, which give card holders access to exclusive deals and discounts. The most popular of these are Chase Offers and Amex Offers. BankAmeriDeals, Capital One Offers and Citi Merchant Offers have increased their number of offers as of late.
Taking advantage of these offers is easy, but every program has its own unique terms and conditions. Let’s take a deep dive into these programs to learn how they work.
What Are Card Merchant Offers?
Card merchant offers give you, the cardholder, the ability to earn bonus points, extra miles or even cash back on your purchases at select merchants. These merchants change every few weeks, so checking often to see what is available is the key to success. Chase, Capital One, American Express, Citi and Bank of America all offer their own merchant offer programs, with slight variations.
What Is Chase Offers?
Chase Offers is a program designed to offer statement credits on eligible Chase debit and credit cards. You’ve got to opt-in to the specific deals, but as soon as you do and make the associated purchase, you’ll get a statement credit within 1 to 2 weeks.
How Do I Use Chase Offers?
Using Chase Offers couldn’t be simpler. If you’re on your mobile phone, log into the Chase App and scroll down past your card balances. Near the bottom of the app you’ll find a dedicated section for your offers on all of your cards. You can toggle between your different cards by choosing different cards in the drop-down menu.
From the Chase website, navigate to the right-hand side of the dashboard to see your offers listed.
Once you’ve added the offers to your account, simply spend like normal and the credit will usually appear about a week or two later, although occasionally it may take a few weeks.
What Kind of Chase Offers Are Available?
The offers refresh every few weeks but include a variety of dining, shopping and travel rebates. Also note that just because an offer is available on one of your cards doesn’t mean that it will be available on all your cards. Conversely, the same offer can be on multiple cards, so make sure to add those offers on all your cards you intend to use.
Which Cards Offer Chase Offers?
Nearly every Chase personal and business credit card is eligible for these offers, including debit cards. Two examples are the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve®, both of which have solid benefits in addition to Chase Offers.
What Is Amex Offers?
Amex Offers—American Express’s merchant offer program—has one of the most expansive and diverse card merchant offers. The offers are targeted differently to each account holder and differ between all of their cards. Just like the other offers, you can either earn cash back as a statement credit or, if you have a Membership Rewards earning card, bonus points for transactions.
How Do I Use Amex Offers?
In order to see which offers you are targeted for, log into your account and scroll down to the bottom of your main dashboard page. The offers are also available in the Amex App if you’re a mobile user.
Once the offer is loaded, just use the card. Note that once you add an offer to one card, it will disappear from the other cards. Make sure you’re adding the offer to the card that you want to use and make sure that you use the right card for your purchase.
What Kind of Amex Offers Are Available?
American Express offers typically fall into a few categories: Entertainment, Travel, Shopping, Services and Dining. You may also see a category called Featured Offers which includes certain offers directly from American Express. Those are most often reminders about card benefits such as a spending bonus, category bonus or special interest rate offer.
Which Cards Offer Amex Offers?
Almost all American Express have Amex Offers on them, including Membership Rewards cards such as The Platinum Card® from American Express (Terms apply), business cards such as The Business Platinum Card® from American Express (Terms apply) and personal co-branded cards like the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card (Terms apply). Not only can you earn rewards from the card, but you can stack with those offers to earn cash back via Amex Offers.
What Is Capital One Offers?
Capital One structures their offers slightly differently than the other banks in that the offers are only accessible via the direct link inside your Capital One accounts. They are issued as statement credits much like all the other programs, but you cannot stack them with any other shopping portal.
How Do I Use Capital One Offers?
To see your available offers, log in to your Capital One account. Scroll down past your balance and credit score and you’ll see a box titled Credits for Shopping. Clicking on “View All Offers” will bring you to a section with all the Capital One Offers.
To earn credit, click the button that says “Continue to Merchant” and complete the purchase in the browser that opens. Note that if you make a purchase through an app on your smartphone it will not qualify for the rebate.
You’ll receive the rebate as a statement credit to your Capital One account within three billing cycles.
Unlike other offers where you add the discount to your card and then shop as normal, Capital One requires you to use a special link to get the discount. This means that you can’t get the extra bonus points from a shopping portal as you’re required to use the Capital One website.
It’s important to remember that these offers can not be made in-store and are online only offers because they’re made via the website. Also, if you’re a frequent online shopper, you’ll get capped out at $1,000 in rewards every three statement cycles.
What Kind of Capital One Offers are Available?
Many of the same offers that you’ll find on all other cards are the same as you’ll find here with Capital One.
In the top search bar in the Capital One Offers section you can search by an individual store or by a category such as travel, food, or shopping.
Which Cards Offer Capital One Offers?
Capital One Offers are available to all US based consumer cardholders. If you have a business credit card, these offers won’t be available to you. While they don’t have a comprehensive list of cards that come with the offers, some of the credit cards that come with these offers are:
- Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card
- Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
- Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
Make sure to scroll down in your Capital One account to see what’s available for you.
What Are Citi Merchant Offers?
Just like the Chase and Amex Offers, Citi Merchant offers give cardholders the ability to earn extra cash back on top of any rewards that come with your credit cards.
How Do I Use Citi Merchant Offers?
Citi has a specific website set up where you can see which cards you have, which offers are available on each card and how to load them. Not all cards will have the same offers loaded, so make sure once you add the offers you use the right card.
Also, note that some offers are available for in-store only or online only. Those terms will be shown when you click on the button to activate the offer.
What Kind of Citi Merchant Offers Are Available?
Just like American Express, Citi lumps its offers into five main categories: Travel, Health and Wellness, Shopping, Dining & Entertainment and Other.
Citi Merchant Offers also offer many local offers that are different from the national offers. Citi will attach these offers to the zip code on your billing address, so expect to see many smaller local restaurants to choose from.
Which Cards Offer Citi Merchant Offers?
Citi doesn’t have a list available of which cards offer Citi Merchant Offers, but it appears to be limited to personal cards and not available on business cards.
Some Citi cards known to currently have offers associated with them:
- Citi® Double Cash Card
- Citi Premier® Card
- Citi Rewards+® Card
- Citi Custom Cash® Card
- American Airlines AAdvantage® Mile Up®*
What are BankAmeriDeals?
BankAmeriDeals is a cash back and rewards program for Bank of America cardholders. It gives you access to benefits such as cash-back, coupons, discounts and access to exclusive experiences, just for being an account holder.
How Do I Use BankAmeriDeals?
BankAmeriDeals are eligible on any account that you have with Bank of America. You don’t link a deal to a specific card, rather you add it to your account. Once the purchase is made across any of your debit or credit cards, the cash back shows up within 30 days.
Simply hit the blue plus sign in the top right of the deal you’d like, and the specific terms will show for that deal. Note that many deals do have limitations for the amount of cash back that will be applied to the account.
Under the preferences section you can add your preferred cash-back account. If you have a checking account, cash back will be deposited there. If not, you can use your credit card and you’ll receive a statement credit.
What Kind of BankAmeriDeals Are Available?
Bank of America includes not only nationwide businesses, but also mixes in a wide variety of local deals as well.
Under the preferences tab, you can add in your preferred ZIP code. This should be the zip code that you shop and dine the most, and that will allow Bank of America to personalize deals for you.
Specific deals range from airlines such as Alaska Airlines, tech companies like Dell and online food companies such as Nuts.com. There are dozens of deals available every month, and since there is no cost to use the program, if you add the offers to your account and don’t use it, they’ll simply expire.
Which Cards Offer BankAmeriDeals?
Most credit and debit cards offered by Bank of America are eligible, both business and personal. Examples include:
- Bank of America® Unlimited Cash Rewards credit card
- Virgin Atlantic World Elite Mastercard®*
- Bank of America® Travel Rewards credit card for Students
Cards excluded include ATM-only cards, Credit Purchasing Card (P-Card), Travel/Corporate Card, Fleet Card, Prepaid Payroll & Incentive Card, All healthcare account products – HSA/FSA Health Reimbursement/Flexible Spending, HELOC – Home Equity Line of Credit accounts, Merrill Lynch CMA deferred debit cards and AAA credit cards. This list is subject to change at any time.
Bottom Line
Cash back and extra point offers give cardholders the ability to double dip, earning points or miles while simultaneously earning extra cash back on purchases at select merchants. These offers have to be opted into, so make sure to check back to your card’s offer page regularly to take maximum advantage of all of the offers.
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