Originally Posted by
notquiteaff
I don’t have any of the rotating category cards, but for the last two years or so I have gotten rotating 5X category bonuses on one or more of my co-branded cards. One quarter it is the Marriott Visa, then the UA or the Hyatt card. Usually on groceries and gas, but sometimes also other categories, if I recall correctly.
If I had a 5X bonus for home improvement and I didn’t need a lot of stuff in that category, I would buy gift cards for various merchants at Lowe’s and category-shift my 5X.
See, and those bonuses that Chase does on cobranded cards feel like a nice surprise like the 5% categories used to be...I know it's silly, but I used to enjoy the reveals and Discover has been more interesting, while Chase has me questioning why I bother (it's a tossup if I want to close it as one less account to manage/monitor and replace with something else, but it's a no-AF card that sometimes is useful so does that justify keeping it? The Amex EveryDay I have is the same way.)
As for category-shifting, I've done a bit of that, but depending on which, it can be a bit of a pain with some places acting like they reallllly don't want to sell you gift cards (some Lowe's locations and a lot of gas stations), turning it into a kind of "coupon book" card (not to mention the increased chance of breakage.)