5% Categories For 2025 Fourth Quarter

As we near the end of the third quarter it is just about time to turn the page to the third quarter of 2025. Hopefully you have already wrapped up your third quarter spend, and are fully locked onto October 1st. If not, then get to it! For this post I wanted to share the 5% categories for 2025 fourth quarter and provide shortcut activation links for each. It is best to activate each one today when they are ToP of mind so you don't forget. You wouldn't want to complete the spend and then wonder where your bonus points are. Who would do such a thing? Hi, it's me, I'm the idiot, it's me. Don't be Mark… 12/12/25 UPDATE: The last day to ensure all of your 5x back earning is activated is just a few days away. Double check that you are all set!

Chase Freedom Flex (or OG Freedom – No Longer Available)

The categories for this upcoming quarter for the Freedom Flex, and OG Freedom, are as follows (5x earning on your first $1,500 in spend from all options combined):

• Old Navy
• Chase Travel
• Department Stores
• PayPal (December 1st – 31st only)

What Counts As A Department Store?

Here is what Chase says about defining department stores (which is very general terminology):

Merchants in this category generally have multiple departments which sell apparel, home furnishings, furniture, electronics, cosmetics, housewares, and major household appliances. These departments may have their own separate check-out counters. Purchases made on a merchant’s website are included. Supercenters, discount stores, or specialty stores (e.g., stores that sell primarily one line of products such as shoe stores, pet stores, electronics stores, clothing stores), and online marketplace websites (online stores that do not have physical locations and sell a variety of products) are not included in this category.

What we can say is that any place that sells food too, like Target and Walmart, will not count towards this goal. It is more stores that you would find in malls from the 90s. Here is a list of places that should count:

• Bloomingdale's
• Kohl's®
• Saks Fifth Avenue & Saks Off 5th
• Loehmann's
• Boston Store®
• Macy's
• Sears®
• Dillard's
• Nordstrom
• JcPenney®
• Nordstrom Rack
• Von Maur®

There are likely other regional stores out there that fall into this category as well, but this list should give you a good idea of what you are looking for.

Overall Thoughts

This was the worst looking quarter I can ever remember from Chase. That was until I saw PayPal as the birthday celebration option. With how widely available PayPal is at checkout online, and in store, this will likely do a majority of the heavy lifting here. Just make sure that you don't start that spend until December 1st.

Activation Link

Discover Card

Next up is the Discover card, my second favorite option solely because I have several of them. This card earns cash back because Discover has no transfer partners. You can earn a cumulative 5% back on the first $1,500 in spend on the following categories this quarter:

• Amazon
• Drug stores

These are two potentially pretty heavy use options for many. It should be a fairly simple quarter to take advantage of for people. I personally have a pretty good Amazon balance right now, so I will have to focus on all that drug stores sell within their establishments.

Activation Link

US Bank Cash+

This is a card I have had my eye on for a bit. I wouldn’t sign up for it directly though. The way to do it is to grab a very underrated US Bank Altitude Connect card and then downgrade it to this after the first 12 months. That is of course if you are past Chase 5/24 status and are not worried about getting back under soon. The card earns 5% back on up to $2,000 in spend each quarter, which is higher than most other options capped at $1,500. You also get to select 2 categories from their list which is a nice feature.

• Shopping
  • Furniture stores
  • Electronic stores
  • Department stores
  • Select clothing stores
  • Sporting goods stores
• Services & Utilities
  • Home utilities
  • Cell phone providers
  • Gyms/fitness centers
  • Ground transportation
• Entertainment
  • Movie theaters
  • Fast food
  • TV, internet and streaming

Activation Link

Citi Dividend

The precursor to the Citi Custom Cash, which is a really unique 5% option, was the Citi Dividend card. Unlike the Custom Cash, the Dividend works on the traditional 5% back one spend set up. The difference with the Dividend is that you get $6,000 per year across all quarters, so you can skip some and still maximize it. The categories for the card are as follows:

• The Citi Travel Site
• Restaurants

While getting 5x on restaurants is nice, I doubt this will be a heavy hitter for most. Hopefully you already gobbled up much of the $6,000 in category cap in a previous quarter already anyway.

Activation Link

5% Categories For 2025 Fourth Quarter: ToP Thoughts

I have to say that this is one of the worst quarters I can remember for categories. Usually the fourth quarter is a fairly good one too, since the banks want to capture all of that holiday spend. There are a few (singular) decent options for the Freedom and Discover cards. Usually I would like to see more than one good category for each card though. Let me know which option is your favorite for the second quarter over in the ToP Facebook Group.