Many credit and debit cards carry card-linked offers that pay cash back at specific stores and restaurants, but most pay only if you add them before you buy. Before you shop local, open your bank’s app, add each deal you’d use to the card you’ll pay with, and link that card to a cash back app.
Chase and Bank of America both say an offer’s cash back comes on top of your card’s regular rewards. So a $10-back-on-$50 offer at a local restaurant, added before dinner, works like a 20% discount, and the $50 still earns those rewards.
American Express says purchases made before you add an offer don’t qualify, and Wells Fargo says the same of its deals. Chase and Amex also attach each offer to just one of your cards and pay only when you use that card, so add each deal to the card you’ll pay with at that business.
Look for Chase Offers in the Chase app, Amex Offers under the Offers icon in the Amex app, BankAmeriDeals in Bank of America’s app, and My Wells Fargo Deals at Wells Fargo.
For more offers nearby, link the same card to a cash back app like Upside, which pays at participating gas stations, grocery stores, and restaurants. Claim the offer in the app before you pay, then pay with that card. Online, a cash back portal adds a rebate of its own when you click through to the store first.
Then make sure each purchase counts:
- Spend at least the offer’s minimum. Chase counts sales tax toward it.
- Buy before the offer expires. Bank of America’s Daily Essentials deals for nearby gas, lunch, or coffee must be used within 4 hours of activating them.
- Pay the business directly. Amex and Wells Fargo both pay nothing on a purchase made through a middleman, such as a delivery service.
- Use the physical card for Wells Fargo deals, since the bank warns that a digital wallet payment, or one taken on a merchant’s mobile card reader, may not count.
Chase sets no limit on how many offers you add and no penalty for one you never use. So once a week, open each card’s offers and add every deal at a place you already go.
Editorial & Advertiser Disclosure: The editorial content on this page is not provided, commissioned, reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser. Opinions expressed here are ours alone, not those of any advertiser. The offers that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. That compensation may influence which products we cover and where and how they appear on a page – including the order in which they appear – but it does not influence our evaluations, ratings, or opinions. We do not include every company or offer available in the marketplace.
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