Credit card merchant offers: Your guide

"Credit card merchant offers" might sound like a bit of a mouthful, but it’s really just a way to unlock deals and perks with your card at some of your favorite stores. Merchant offers aren’t just limited to your credit card, either — some financial institutions (including Chase) also have offers on your eligible debit card purchases. These deals are often exclusive offers curated by your card issuer that usually offer cash back, discounts and other bonus rewards on eligible cards. Let’s learn more about how both debit and credit card merchant offers work, as well as how you might unlock additional value as a Chase cardholder, no matter what type of card you have.

What are credit card merchant offers?

Merchant offers are promotions that are provided by your card issuer, in partnership with retailers and service providers. These offers help the businesses attract customers while helping you get a better deal. Plus, the offers are often for some of the biggest brands on the market, possibly for purchases you were already considering. Merchant offers can be broadly split into three sub-types:

Cash back offers

Cash back is, at its simplest, exactly what it sounds like — a specified amount or percentage of your purchase is credited back to your account in dollars whenever you make eligible purchases. There are three varieties to consider:

• Generalized cash back: Many credit cards come with certain categories of spending, such as dining, gas or travel, that automatically receive a percentage cash back on every dollar spent within those categories.
• User-selected cash back: User-selected cash back offers are typically merchant offers that apply to a specific retailer or service provider. These are generally limited-time promotions that you must manually activate via your issuer’s offers portal. The cash back on these offers may be a fixed cash value when you spend a certain amount or a percentage of your total purchase and may apply to both credit and debit cards.
• Hybrid approach: Some issuers combine generalized and user-selected cash back, allowing users to get limited-time rewards on select categories of their choosing, which they need to manually activate. For example, "3% cash back on home improvement store purchases next month."

Discounts

Another way to get a better deal with merchant offers is through discounts. With these offers, you might receive a certain percentage off your total purchase if you spend a certain amount, or even a generalized discount on purchases of any amount made with an eligible debit or credit card.

Bonus rewards points or miles

Finally, some credit card merchant offers may take the form of bonus rewards like extra points or miles (depending on your issuer’s reward structure). As an example, this might be something like "five times points on purchases made with your eligible card" at a popular sporting goods store. Note that this offer category is typically limited to credit cards.

The Chase Offers portal

Chase Offers is the official offers portal for eligible Chase cardholders. You can access the Chase Offers portal via the Chase Mobile^® app. After logging into your account, simply scroll down your home page until you see the Chase Offers tab, where you’ll see a preview of some of the offers available to you. Click into the tab itself to bring up the full portal. Here, you can select which of your cards you’d like to see the offers for (including your debit card), see the full extent of the offers available and even filter them by category to find exactly what you’re looking for.

Which Chase cards have offers on them?

This is where it gets really good: They all do! While the specific offers will vary across different cards, all Chase credit and debit cardholders with cards registered to a U.S. primary residence are eligible to take advantage of our offers.

How to activate credit and debit card offers with your Chase mobile^® device

Once you’re in the Chase Offers portal, activating offers on your debit and credit cards takes just one tap. There’s no need to fuss with codes or coupons. Just browse the offers portal and click on the offers you’d like to activate. You’ll see a pop-up with additional details, taking you to a website to redeem the offer (offers you’ve already activated will display a green check mark on the bottom corner of their card on the portals page).

Now it’s time to use your eligible card to redeem the offer. You can activate the offer right before your purchase, or keep it activated and stashed away just in case you end up shopping at the participating store before the offer ends or before it expires.

Tips to make the most of your Chase Offers

Here’s how to get the most out of your Chase Offers:

• Use the specified card: Offers are specific to the card, and the purchase must be completed with that card to qualify.
• Read the fine print: Check if there are any limits or restrictions.
• Activate offers before shopping: Offers are only valid when activated before the purchase. However, it doesn’t cost you to activate an offer and not redeem it.
• Check offers regularly: Chase updates its offers regularly, which may expire after some time.
• Stack with other savings: Chase Offers may be stacked with other in-store promotions, coupons and other deals to help maximize your savings.

In summary

Debit and credit card merchant offers are a great way to potentially get additional savings and rewards on everyday purchases. Just remember to activate your offers before you start shopping, use the specified card when completing your purchase and read the terms and conditions carefully to see if there are any restrictions.