Great news for credit card cashback fans! Chase has published a sneak preview of their 2015 5% rotating quarterly categories and there’s an exciting change! The first quarter is Grocery Stores! This is huge since we all need food! It has the usual quarterly limit of $1500, and some stores are not eligible (eg Walmart, Target, and other warehouse stores) as usual. But still, this is a great cashback opportunity. The maxout on this is $75 in Cashback Rewards for the first quarter (5% of $1500). Also included in Q1 are Starbucks and Movie Theatres. This increases the chances of more people maxing out the first quarter.

The second quarter is headlined by Restaurants, while the third is gas stations. Both have “and more” so more options may be added. The last quarter, as usual, it is holiday shopping time, headlined by Amazon.com. For each quarter, the activation (sign-up/opt-in) for promotion is the 15th of the previous month. So for Q1, you can sign up starting December 15, for Q2 you can sign up March 15, and so forth. Another consumer-friendly thing that Chases does (I know, shocking!), you can sign up deep into the quarter and still qualify.

Tip: you can also buy gift cards at the various participating stores, so you can pre-buy your future purchases. For example, if you are a regular Starbucksaholic, you can load up your gift card for future purchases. Or buy other store gift cards through the grocery stores. Or gift certificates at your favorite restaurants or gas stations. And so forth.