Four card programs change their 5% cash back categories every quarter: Chase Freedom, Discover it, Citi Dividend and Nusenda's Platinum Cash Rewards card. Q4 runs from October 1 to December 31, 2026. Here's what each one pays on and what you have to do to get it.
Activation works differently from card to card. Chase backdates a late activation to October 1. Discover and Citi only pay from the day you activate or enroll, so do those two now.
Chase Freedom Flex and Freedom
This quarter it's grocery stores, dining and donations to the American Red Cross, on up to $1,500 of combined spending. Chase's grocery category leaves out Walmart and Target.
You have until December 14 to activate, and you don't lose anything by waiting. Chase's Freedom Flex page says that if you activate by then, "you'll earn 5% cash back for category purchases dating back to October 1, 2026." Miss December 14 and you get no 5% for the quarter.
Freedom Flex earns 7% on dining. Chase's Freedom Flex page puts it as "7% cash back (3% Dining cash back + 4% bonus category cash back)." The older Freedom card doesn't have the 3% dining rate, so it earns 5% there.
Discover it
Discover pays 5% on restaurants, entertainment and utilities, on up to $1,500. That's the same for Discover it Cash Back and its Student, Balance Transfer and NHL versions.
Discover's definitions are narrower than the names. Entertainment means tickets to movies, sports, concerts and attractions, so streaming doesn't count. Utilities means home electricity, gas and water, plus phone, internet and cable bills you pay online or by phone, not in a store.
Activation is already open, so activate before October 1. Discover doesn't backdate: its terms say the 5% runs "from 10/1/26 (or the date on which you activate 5%, whichever is later) through 12/31/26," so purchases before you activate earn the regular 1%.
Citi Dividend
Citi's categories are restaurants and the Citi Travel site. Citi no longer takes new applications for the Dividend, but people who have one still get the quarterly offer.
You enroll on Citi's offer page, which opened for Q4 on September 10. Citi doesn't backdate either: the offer starts "within two business days of when you enroll, or October 1, 2026, whichever is later." If you've already enrolled, Citi says no further action is needed.
The limit works differently from Chase's and Discover's. Citi's page says "Your total annual cash back is limited to $300 and includes cash back earned with this offer." That counts everything the card earned this year, so if you've already reached it, the Q4 bonus won't pay anything.
Nusenda Platinum Cash Rewards
Nusenda sets its own list, and it's a long one this quarter: 16 kinds of stores, including restaurants and fast food, grocery stores, wholesale clubs, drug stores, gas stations and Amazon. The bonus tops out at $75 in bonus cash back per quarter.
Nusenda doesn’t require you to enroll in the quarterly bonuses for the terms to apply.
Keeping track of it
PointBagel can't see whether you've activated, so that step is on you. On October 1, the Which Card tool and each card's page switch to the new categories and assume you have. The rotating categories calendar shows this quarter and next, with the date we checked each one.
Sources
- Chase, "Chase Freedom Announces Q4 2026 5% Cash Back Categories: Grocery Stores, Dining and American Red Cross Donations," media.chase.com, September 15, 2026, and the Freedom Flex and Freedom pages on chase.com, read September 26, 2026.
- Discover's 5% Cashback Bonus terms, read in a cardmember account on September 21, 2026. Discover's public calendar page has been down since late August.
- Citi's Quarterly Dividend Offer page, citi.com, read September 26, 2026.
- Nusenda's credit card rewards page and its merchant category list, nusenda.org, read September 26, 2026.
