Quarterly credits and categories: What to know for Q3 2026


Quarterly benefits are among the more challenging credit card perks to keep up with.

When it comes to quarterly statement credits, you have three months to use them up before they expire. With quarterly bonus categories, you have to memorize a new set in each quarter to ensure you’re getting the best return for your spending.

These are the perks you’ll want to remember from July through September 2026. Bookmark this article, and come back in October when Q4 begins.

American Express

There are a few Amex cards with quarterly benefits you’ll want to take advantage of. Here’s what to know.

The Business Platinum Card from American Express

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express has two statement credits that reset each quarter. These help offset the Business Platinum’s $895 annual fee (see rates and fees).

  • Up to $90 statement credit per quarter (up to $360 per calendar year) for eligible Indeed purchases in the U.S.: Business owners can use this statement credit toward subscription plans, sponsored job posts, advertisements on the platform and more.
  • Up to $50 statement credit per quarter (up to $200 per calendar year) for eligible Hilton purchases: This statement credit can be used for any eligible purchase at a property in the Hilton portfolio. Note that you must be registered in the Hilton for Business program to participate.

Enrollment is required for select benefits.

To learn more, read our full review of the Amex Business Platinum.

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American Express Platinum Card

With the American Express Platinum Card®, there are a pair of quarterly statement credits that help offset its $895 annual fee (see rates and fees).

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  • Up to $100 statement credit per quarter (up to $400 per calendar year) for Resy: Pay with your Amex Platinum at an eligible U.S. Resy restaurant. No reservation is required.
  • Up to $75 statement credit per quarter (up to $300 per calendar year) for Lululemon: Pay with your Amex Platinum and receive the statement credit for purchases made at U.S. stores (excluding outlets) and online.

Enrollment is required for select benefits.

To learn more, read our full review of the Amex Platinum.

Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card

The Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card has one quarterly benefit you’ll want to maximize.

  • Up to $50 in flight statement credits per quarter (up to $200 per calendar year): Pay for a flight directly with an airline, through AmexTravel.com or the Amex Travel App™ and receive up to $50 in statement credits each quarter.

To learn more, read our full review of the Hilton Aspire.

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The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card

The quarterly statement credit on The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card is a highlight perk.

  • Up to $60 Hilton statement credit per quarter (up to $240 per calendar year): Receive up to $60 in statement credits each quarter on purchases charged directly with the Hilton Business Amex toward a property within the Hilton portfolio, including bookings and incidental charges, such as dining and spa services.

To learn more, read our full review of the Hilton Business Amex.

Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card

The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card‘s quarterly statement credit is one of the card’s top benefits.

  • Up to $50 Hilton statement credit per quarter (up to $200 per calendar year): Receive up to $50 in statement credits each quarter on purchases charged directly with the Hilton Surpass card toward a property within the Hilton portfolio. This statement credit is similar to the one on the Hilton Business Amex.

To learn more, read our full review of the Hilton Surpass.

Related: How to maximize benefits with the American Express Platinum

Chase

Two Chase cards provide rotating quarterly bonus categories for cardholders to maximize.

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Chase Freedom and Chase Freedom Flex

If you have the Chase Freedom Flex® (see rates and fees) or legacy Chase Freedom® (no longer available to new applicants), you have access to bonus categories that change every quarter.

  • Up to 5% cash back: From July 1 through September 30, you can earn bonus cash back on gas stations and electric vehicle charging, public transit, select live entertainment and donations to United Way. You’ll receive bonus cash back in these categories on up to $1,500 of combined spending each quarter (then 1% back). You must activate your categories to receive this higher earning rate; you have until Sept. 14 to activate. The quarter ends Sept. 30.

To learn more, read our full review of the Chase Freedom Flex.

The information for the Chase Freedom has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Related: Chase Freedom Q3 categories: 5% back on EV charging, gas stations, live entertainment, transit and United Way

Citi

One Citi card provides rotating quarterly bonus categories.

Citi Dividend Card

If you hold the Citi® Dividend Card (no longer available to new applicants), here are the Q3 categories you need to keep in mind.

  • Up to 5% cash back: You’ll earn 5% cash back this quarter on purchases made at gas stations and home improvement stores. Citi Dividend cardholders earn 5% bonus cash back on up to $6,000 of spending across the year (then 1% back thereafter), so you can maximize your bonus categories for the whole year during a quarter that has the best bonus categories for your individual spending habits. You must activate your categories each quarter. These categories will run through Sept. 30.

The information for the Citi Dividend card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Related: Ultimate guide to the Citi Travel portal

Discover

Discover has one card that earns bonus cash back in a new set of categories each quarter.

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Discover it Cash Back

The main perk of the Discover it® Cash Back is its rotating bonus categories.

  • Up to 5% cash back: Discover’s third-quarter bonus categories are gas stations, transportation and drugstores. Cardholders earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in combined spending on rotating categories each quarter (then an unlimited 1% cash back thereafter). You’ll need to remember to activate your current categories. This quarter ends Sept. 30.

The information for the Discover it Cash Back has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Related: The best first credit cards for beginners

U.S. Bank

If you’re a U.S. Bank fan, there’s one card with a quarterly benefit you can maximize.

U.S. Bank Cash+ Visa Signature Card

With the U.S. Bank Cash+® Visa Signature® Card, you’ll receive bonus cash back each quarter you activate.

  • Up to 5% cash back: This benefit is flexible each quarter. You’ll earn 5% cash back on up to $2,000 in combined spending on two rotating categories (then 1% back) of your choice after you activate them. The categories covered this quarter are cellphone providers, department stores, electronic stores, fast food, furniture stores, ground transportation, gyms and fitness centers, home utilities, internet, movie theaters, select clothing stores, sporting goods stores, streaming services and TV. The current quarter runs through Sept. 30.

The information for the U.S. Bank Cash+ has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Related: 11 credit cards that can get you $1,500 or more in first-year value

Bottom line

If you’re focused on maximizing your card benefits, it’s essential to keep track of statement credits and rotating bonus categories.

Benefits can reset monthly, quarterly, biannually or annually (either each calendar year or cardholder anniversary). It’s important to know when your statement credits begin and end to get the most out of your rewards cards.

With these quarterly benefits, be sure to check in again in October. That’s when we’ll have details on what to expect for Q4 of 2026.

Related: 25 cards currently offering welcome bonuses of 100,000 points or more

For rates and fees of the Amex Business Platinum, click here.
For rates and fees of the Amex Platinum, click here.



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It lets users automate the workflows with the help of mobile apps both for Android and iOs that provide a self-service option. Most of their pricing for each unit is kept private, you have to contact them, and they will let you know the prices. The company provides regular updates to introduce new features and improve security to avoid scenarios like Kronos outage. The Kronos software boasts over 2,200 clients, some of the clients include Tesla, Honda, Gamestop, Hospitals, MTA, Whole Foods, etc.

What is Kronos Outage?

Kronos outage occurred when cybercriminals in December 2021 performed a ransomware attack on the software affecting the private cloud systems, attendance system, and payroll. It lasted one week for the companies to resume using it, and some went up to one month.

The team released a statement letting the customers know of the attack and its effects on the Private Club. The private club consists of healthcare, banking, telecommunicating services, and human resource management solutions. The message also alerted the customers that they were unsure if other solutions like UKG dimensions, ready, and UKG products were affected as they have different environments.

The vice president also added that they consulted with cybersecurity experts to figure out what happened and have a better scope of the attack. It took a while to restore it to normalcy.

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Did Kronos Lose Any data?

The parent company of the software gave fewer details about the attack. They did not mention whether they lost any data. They stated that they didn’t lose sensitive data like date of birth, social security details, and bank account details; instead, other details were lost like email addresses.

Some of the people who lost a lot of data included Nationals of Brazil, India, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Belgium, e.t.c.Organizations from Cleveland reported that they lost the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.

Many cybersecurity experts like Mac McMillan had reported that the attack could be related to the Log4j vulnerability, found in the Java programming language, but the company denied the reports.

Kronos also reported a strong backup system with secure transmissions that could hold data for 28 days. The backups get stored in different environments and use different architecture compared to those used by the production environments. The hackers tried to block all the communication between backup servers and the production environment making restoration of services take longer.

The organization appointed Mandiant, a cybersecurity firm, to provide reports about the incident and provide future monitoring of the situation to avoid such scenarios in the future, and West Monroe to help bring everything to normal.

Effects of Kronos Outage on Companies and Organisations

  • During the tracking of worker’s worktime, Kronos provided sheets that they will use to fill in data to track the employee’s time. This is very hard for some companies with over 2,000 workers across different locations but the same company.
  • Some organizations called on their workers to monitor themselves daily and send their data to Human Resource departments via Google forms after a certain period. It was demanded that the spreadsheets and Google form no longer work, and companies retreated to emails where each worker sent his hours via email to the Human Resource.
  • All the affected institutions who used the software have to input the manually collected data during the Kronos outage when all the services resume. It will take a lot of time and may affect and delay some processes like issuing tax information and w2 forms.
  • Some companies who are the customers were disappointed and prompted to file a legal suit against the software owners. For example, the Metropolitan Transport Authority spokesperson was the first to report taking legal action.

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Effect of Kronos Outage on healthcare

Healthcare was one of the fields that were hit big by the attack. Hospitals use Kronos software in their systems, which has affected the smooth running of the activities. One of the products attacked in the Kronos outage was meant for health care administration. It made the management duties very hard, especially for processing payments and reporting attendance and timekeeping of the healthcare workers.

It affected all hospitals, i.e., rural hospitals, small clinics, multi-urban hospitals, and big hospitals. It made them pay workers inaccurately, with missing allowances and deductions, making them go to courts, riot on social media, and visit their respective unions.

UMass Memorial Health described this incident as a lesson for their plans. Luckily enough, they reacted quickly during the attack by improvising a payroll that could pay their workers without using hours worked. It made it easier for workers to key in important details, and HR made any adjustment needed faster.

Examples of hospitals affected were:
  • Workers at the University of Florida Health missed their six weeks of overtime and holiday pay due to a lack of records.
  • Pittsburgh’s Allegheny General Hospital missed more than 50 hours on its paycheck.
  • Nurses at Missoula’s Community Medical Centermissed some of their monthly dues.

Other hospitals that lost the data include Monument health, Baptist health, Ascension St. Vincen, and Ohio health.

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Let’s make Cybersecurity a priority

Cybercrime activities are rising, and organizations like software providers and users should have a formidable backup solution. It avoids scenarios where you lose all the data and don’t have an option. Organizations should also have alternative solutions in case of such a scenario, i.e., hospitals can set up alternative payrolls that don’t rely on the Kronos software.

Hackers target organizations with a lot of data. For instance, the payroll software serves more than one million users, which can be one of the motivations of the attack to harvest a lot of data.

The Kronos outage was a lesson to other enterprises and organizations who don’t invest in cybersecurity teams that help them avoid such risks from occurring. Its the role of the vendor and user to keep their data secure.

If you don’t take security with the seriousness it deserves, you lose many clients. After the attack, some organizations had to cancel the contracts and look for alternatives which was a significant loss.

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