topic Re: Chase Ecosystem + a grocery card? in Credit Cards

Chase Ecosystem + a grocery card?

VanderSnoot — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 22:19:53 GMT

I generally rely on the Chase ecosystem, but groceries have been a bit of a hole for me. I spend about $7k a year (inflation); I don't shop often at Whole Foods, and most of my spend is in person not online. Is there a best option for groceries? What do other people primarily using Chase use?

For my personal calculus, I have the Green card, and Amex is offering me the Gold. The fee is steep, but I can use some of the Uber credits and some of the Resy credits (probably not every month unless I changed my habits). I will occasionally make use of their offers as well. But I wouldn't mind ditching the AF altogether. I also can use other cards (US Bank Cashplus; CFU and CFF combo; whatever happens with my old Discos after the merger).

Re: Chase Ecosystem + a grocery card?

AndySoCal — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 22:23:44 GMT

@VanderSnoot Look at Citibank's Custom Cash which groceries is one of their 5% cash back catagories.

Re: Chase Ecosystem + a grocery card?

Varsity_Lu — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 22:39:57 GMT

@VanderSnoot

If you are already in with AmEx, get the Blue Cash Preferred. 6% grocery and streaming, and 3% gas. You'll probably get it with a soft pull. Annual fee is waived the first year and then you can downgrade it to Blue Cash Everyday. It's 3% grocery, gas, and online shopping, so you'll lose a little bit after the first year.

Re: Chase Ecosystem + a grocery card?

redpat — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 00:18:04 GMT

@VanderSnoot
Just stick w/ chase so you don't have points all over the place. CFU and CFF should be fine since $7k really shouldn't be that much of a game changer if you have CSP or CSR for transfer partners and get 2+ times.

Some do too much thinking about categories when in fact you may get diminishing returns having travel points and mixing cash back or working too many travel reward programs.

Re: Chase Ecosystem + a grocery card?

Follower — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 01:53:59 GMT

There are some recent threads about the Comenity AAA Daily Advantage Visa, which gives 5% on groceries (capped at $10,000 per year, which seems like it would easily fit your $7K threshold). Although a few areas are geofenced out of it. This may be easier to deal with than the aforementioned Citi Custom Cash and its $500 per billing cycle cap.

Re: Chase Ecosystem + a grocery card?

VanderSnoot — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 10:46:32 GMT

Thank you. I needed the reminder: sometimes more is less.

Re: Chase Ecosystem + a grocery card?

Fenway2025 — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 12:03:04 GMT

I'm not sure what your main grocery store is, but I shop at Kroger and by adding my CSP to the Kroger Pay app, whenever I use the QR code to pay at self checkout or any of the checkout lanes Chase codes it as online grocery. Depending on where you shop groceries at, I would check and see if they have an app where you can add mobile payment.

Best of luck!

Re: Chase Ecosystem + a grocery card?

mrks_ — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 13:13:37 GMT

I'm assuming you use your points for travel. Have you considered the Chase Aeroplan card? For a $95 annual fee it earns 3x Aeroplan points on groceries, but additionally it opens up using your Chase UR on Aeroplan's Pay Yourself Back which gives 1.25 cpp on travel booked directly. On top of that, Aeroplan gives a 10% transfer bonus, and Chase does an annual 20% transfer bonus. That's a 30% bonus with the 25% PYB, for a total of 1.625 cpp on your Chase points on up to 200k point per year.

Here are the final multipliers:

CFF

- Rotating categories - 8.125%

CFU

- Drugstores - 4.875%
- Catchall - 2.4375%

CSP

- Dining - 5.0375%

- Online groceries - 5.0375%
- Streaming - 5.0375%

Aeroplan

- Groceries - 3.75%

Re: Chase Ecosystem + a grocery card?

Debt-is-a-Scam — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 19:14:06 GMT

Don't rely, diversify. I'd look into Amex or C1. Cash+ looks good too.

Re: Chase Ecosystem + a grocery card?

Patient957 — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 20:00:06 GMT

Amex BCP is an obvious choice. On your $7K spend, it will get you $420 back your first year and $325/yr thereafter.

Citi CC is also a decent option, but with the $6K cap, you will get less back than the BCP, unless you're willing to switch cards after you cap out, which is a hassle.

I'd go with the BCP and keep it simple.

Edit to add: I just realized I'm assuming you're on team cash back. If you're on team travel and wanting transferrable points currency, then obviously the BCP doesn't work, and you need a different option.

Re: Chase Ecosystem + a grocery card?

NoHardLimits — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 20:11:34 GMT

@Patient957 wrote:
Amex BCP is an obvious choice. On your $7K spend, it will get you $420 back your first year and $325/yr thereafter.

Citi CC is also a decent option, but with the $6K cap, you will get less back than the BCP, unless you're willing to switch cards after you cap out, which is a hassle.

I'd go with the BCP and keep it simple.

Edit to add: I just realized I'm assuming you're on team cash back. If you're on team travel and wanting transferrable points currency, then obviously the BCP doesn't work, and you need a different option.

Unfortunately, BCP also has a $6k cap. However, CCC is worse because the cap is spread out to $500/month.

Re: Chase Ecosystem + a grocery card?

unsungivy — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 19:55:32 GMT

@VanderSnoot Don't make this more complicated than it needs to be.

Just get the PayPal Debit card and choose Groceries as your monthly category.

5% back on up to $1k spend MONTHLY (or 6%, if you're funding PayPal with a 1% debit card), and it is the WIDEST Grocery category of any card (includes Costco, Target, and usually Walmart.)

And no pull at all to get. Just tell them to send it.

Re: Chase Ecosystem + a grocery card?

Patient957 — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 19:33:18 GMT

@NoHardLimits wrote:
@Patient957 wrote:
Amex BCP is an obvious choice. On your $7K spend, it will get you $420 back your first year and $325/yr thereafter.

Citi CC is also a decent option, but with the $6K cap, you will get less back than the BCP, unless you're willing to switch cards after you cap out, which is a hassle.

I'd go with the BCP and keep it simple.

Edit to add: I just realized I'm assuming you're on team cash back. If you're on team travel and wanting transferrable points currency, then obviously the BCP doesn't work, and you need a different option.
Unfortunately, BCP also has a $6k cap. However, CCC is worse because the cap is spread out to $500/month.

Yup. I missed that little detail. Considering the AF, that cap makes the BCP far less attractive than I was thinking. Oh well.

Re: Chase Ecosystem + a grocery card?

NoHardLimits — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 22:55:08 GMT

@Patient957 wrote:
@NoHardLimits wrote:
@Patient957 wrote:
Amex BCP is an obvious choice. On your $7K spend, it will get you $420 back your first year and $325/yr thereafter.

Citi CC is also a decent option, but with the $6K cap, you will get less back than the BCP, unless you're willing to switch cards after you cap out, which is a hassle.

I'd go with the BCP and keep it simple.

Edit to add: I just realized I'm assuming you're on team cash back. If you're on team travel and wanting transferrable points currency, then obviously the BCP doesn't work, and you need a different option.
Unfortunately, BCP also has a $6k cap. However, CCC is worse because the cap is spread out to $500/month.
Yup. I missed that little detail. Considering the AF, that cap makes the BCP far less attractive than I was thinking. Oh well.

BCP can be very attractive if one can also make good use of the streaming category. Amex and US Bank seem to have more reliable coding for me with YouTube Premium and YouTube TV. Capital One and Citibank are unreliable for those purchases and often code as something other than streaming.

Re: Chase Ecosystem + a grocery card?

Outbackexplorer — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 20:45:01 GMT

@unsungivy wrote:
@VanderSnoot Don't make this more complicated than it needs to be.

Just get the PayPal Debit card and choose Groceries as your monthly category.
5% back on up to $1k spend MONTHLY (or 6%, if you're funding PayPal with a 1% debit card), and it is the WIDEST Grocery category of any card (includes Costco, Target, and usually Walmart.)

And no pull at all to get. Just tell them to send it.

Any datapoints of which 1% debit cards work with it?

Re: Chase Ecosystem + a grocery card?

Varsity_Lu — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 21:15:00 GMT

@unsungivy wrote:
@VanderSnoot Don't make this more complicated than it needs to be.

Just get the PayPal Debit card and choose Groceries as your monthly category.
5% back on up to $1k spend MONTHLY (or 6%, if you're funding PayPal with a 1% debit card), and it is the WIDEST Grocery category of any card (includes Costco, Target, and usually Walmart.)

And no pull at all to get. Just tell them to send it.

My experience with PayPal debit has been horrible. In fact, I ended up deleting my entire PayPal account because the frustration was not worth a few cents extra. BCP gives you a true 6% the first year plus a great SUB (I got $300) and then you can easily get 4.4% from it going forward even with the AF. That's if you don't use the other benefits like the $91.92 Disney offer ($84 + $7.92 cash back) and such. I'll take AmEx anyday over PayPal. And if you are already in with AmEx, BCP will be a soft pull.

Re: Chase Ecosystem + a grocery card?

Gregory1776 — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 00:24:43 GMT

@Patient957 wrote:
@NoHardLimits wrote:
@Patient957 wrote:
Amex BCP is an obvious choice. On your $7K spend, it will get you $420 back your first year and $325/yr thereafter.

Citi CC is also a decent option, but with the $6K cap, you will get less back than the BCP, unless you're willing to switch cards after you cap out, which is a hassle.

I'd go with the BCP and keep it simple.

Edit to add: I just realized I'm assuming you're on team cash back. If you're on team travel and wanting transferrable points currency, then obviously the BCP doesn't work, and you need a different option.
Unfortunately, BCP also has a $6k cap. However, CCC is worse because the cap is spread out to $500/month.
Yup. I missed that little detail. Considering the AF, that cap makes the BCP far less attractive than I was thinking. Oh well.

It could be, so many people just write it off. If you shop at clothing stores it's so worth it. Keep an eye on the offers tab 1-2x a month when you pay ya bill and you'll devour the annual fee.

Duluth, polo, BA, and men's warehouse are going to be easy for me

Re: Chase Ecosystem + a grocery card?

ktm — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 22:53:49 GMT

Since you have a travel card and are considering upgrading it, if you wanted to stay within Chase and were OK with a travel card, another option is the Chase Marriott Boundless = 3x for groceries. Most people value Bonvoy points at $0.008 /pp, which works out to 2.4%, but when you consider it's other benefits, it might be a good option for you.

Re: Chase Ecosystem + a grocery card?

ElvisCaprice — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 23:15:37 GMT

Everything hinges on where you shop for groceries.