If you have a Chase Freedom credit card, you can now activate the third quarter (July 1 until September 30 in 2015) 5% rewards promotion. You can activate it through their website or 1-click activate through the email reminders they sent (if you are signed up for those). The Q3 features Gas Stations and Kohl’s. Keep in mind, both also offer a variety of gift cards for other retailers, so even if you won’t spend $1500+ on just gas and Kohl’s shopping alone, you can also buy gift cards for other retailers over there!

If you have a Chase Freedom credit card with the rotating 5% reward categories, mark your calendars and your ToDo lists. You can sign up for the 2nd Quarter promotions starting on Sunday 3/15/15. The new categories go live on 4/1/15 until 6/30/15, and they are very nice as well, they cover Restaurants, Bed Bath and Beyond, Overstock.com and H&M. The usual limits apply, you earn 5% on up to $1500 in purchases, so the maximum rewards is going to be $75. For purchases over $1500 in these categories during the quarter, you will earn the usual 1%.

Here’s a screenshot of the reminder:

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.