Useful and should be easy to maximize

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The bonus categories for the Discover it® Cash Back and its student card version have been announced for Q2 2025, and they should be easy for most cardholders to fully maximize. Once you activate the bonus categories, you’ll earn 5 percent cash back on purchases at grocery stores and wholesale clubs from Apr. 1 through Jun. 30, 2025 (up to $1,500 in spending, then 1 percent). That’s worth up to $75 in cash back.

This shouldn’t be difficult to achieve since you’ll only need to spend an average of $125 per week. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average U.S. household spent $6,053 on food at home (groceries) in 2023. That amounts to just over $1,500 per quarter. When you include wholesale clubs, which are commonly excluded from other top grocery cards, Discover offers one of the easier and more valuable quarterly categories to utilize regardless of your spending habits.

Here’s a bigger breakdown of just how this quarter’s categories stack up to the competition and how to ensure you can most easily squeeze out the value.

Comparing this quarter to other cards

Many top rewards cards include solid grocery category bonuses, but not many offer bonuses at wholesale clubs, which helps make this quarter shine.

Personally, I plan to use as much of the $1,500 as I can at Sam’s Club, which is the closest wholesale club to my home. I can easily do some grocery shopping to maximize the category if I can’t reach $1,500 solely at Sam’s Club. I rarely get rewards above what flat-rate cards offer at wholesale clubs, so I like to leverage that bonus where I can. Here’s a look at the rewards rates other top grocery cards offer in comparison:

* Based on Bankrate’s most recent point valuations

The best opportunity cost for this quarter, in my opinion, is for wholesale clubs. It’s easy to spend a lot of money at a wholesale club but it’s typically hard to get spectacular rewards in return. As you can see, the bonuses in this category rarely exceed what you can get from a flat-rate card unless you have that club’s co-branded card.

Watch those exclusions

Every merchant is assigned a merchant category code. This code determines what a merchant is counted as in the eyes of your issuer when you make purchases with your rewards card.

This is something of a hidden pitfall on category reward cards: Certain categories are explicitly excluded from a quarter’s bonus earnings, so you’ll want to make sure your purchases are in the correct category. Otherwise you’ll only earn 1 percent on your purchases. Here’s what won’t count for Discover’s Q2 2025 categories:

• Superstores, including Walmart and Target
• Convenience stores like 7-Eleven, Speedway and Wawa
• Discount stores like Family Dollar, Big Lots and Dollar Tree
• Purchases of affiliated wholesale club services, such as delivery services, travel, and cell phone purchases
• Individual merchants and stand-alone stores within physical Wholesale Club locations

You’ll only earn 5 percent on up to $1,500 in combined purchases per quarter in the included categories (activation required). Make sure not to spend more than that, because you’ll only get the subpar value of one percent cash back on any amount after $1,500.

Here’s how to lock in your savings

Although grocery stores and wholesale clubs should be easy enough to maximize, if you won’t be able to spend that much money in those categories, there are still a few clever ways to lock in your savings to use after the quarter ends.

One option is to buy gift cards for your grocery store or wholesale club to use in the future. Or, if your store or club sells gift cards to other merchants inside the store or on their website, you could buy those to lock in the 5 percent discount or to get a higher discount at those merchants.

For example, let’s say I need to buy clothing for my child but would only earn 1 percent cash back with my purchase. Instead of just buying directly on the website, I’ll make a cart and then purchase a gift card for that amount at the grocery store to earn 5 percent cash back. Then I’ll use the gift card to pay on the website, effectively gaining a better discount.

Just make sure not to spend more than you can manage to pay once the statement is due and don’t buy a gift card unless you are certain you’ll use it in the future. This might also be a good opportunity to buy gift cards as holiday gifts, even if those holidays are a ways off.

The bottom line

The rotating quarterly bonus categories on the Discover it® Cash Back have made it a long-lasting mainstay in my wallet. I like that Discover gives me time to evaluate and plan my upcoming expenses so I can take advantage of the high cash back earning rate. Although some quarterly categories are more difficult to maximize than others, this quarter should be a walk in the park no matter your level of card expertise.

Eligibility and Benefit level varies by Card. Terms, Conditions and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by Amex Assurance Company.

For Capital One products listed on this page, some of the benefits may be provided by Visa® or Mastercard® and may vary by product. See the respective Guide to Benefits for details, as terms and exclusions apply.

The information about the Citi Custom Cash® Card, Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi, BJ’s One+™ Mastercard® and the Sam’s Club® Mastercard® has been collected independently by Bankrate.com. The card details have not been reviewed or approved by the card issuer.