If you use Instacart for groceries, you should know about a huge reward opportunity embedded in many Chase credit cards. From monthly credits to extended Instacart+ membership, this benefit has become one of the easiest ways to save on everyday orders. And this credit card benefit actually can save you money in your monthly budget. Sign me up.

Here’s how the benefit works, how to set it up, and tips to squeeze the most value out of it.

What the Chase Instacart Benefit Is (and Who Gets It)

Free Instacart+ Membership

Many Chase cards now include 3 months of complimentary Instacart+ membership when you activate the offer by linking your eligible card to your Instacart account. You can do this for each eligible card you hold, and the 3 free months stack.

Instacart+ normally costs $99/year, so that’s a nice bonus on its own. Once the complimentary period ends, your paid membership may auto-renew (so it’s important to check your settings if you don’t want to keep it).

Monthly Credits You Can Earn

After the free membership is active, you’ll get monthly Instacart credits — and how much you get depends on which Chase card you hold:

Ink Business Cards

If you have one of the following cards you’ll earn $20 monthly Instacart credits per enrolled card while you have an active Instacart + membership. Be sure to register it through the unique link provided here for the Ink Business cards.

Link to enroll your Ink card in the promotion

• Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
• Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card

United Chase Cards

Chase United cards offer monthly credits and Instacart+ beneftis as described below. Again, you’ll need to enroll your United cobranded cards through the specific United link.

Link to enroll your United Cobranded Cards

• United℠ Explorer Card
• United℠ Business Card

The United Explorer and United Business card both come with $10 monthly Instacart credits plus three months Instacart+ membership. You also are eligible for 25% off the annual Instacart+ membership renewal.

• United Quest℠ Card

The United Quest card comes with a $10 monthly Instacart credit plus an additional $5 credit on a second purchase along with three months Instacart+ membership. You are eligible for 50% off the annual Instacart+ membership renewal.

• United Club℠ Card
• United Club Business Card

The United Club and United Club Business cards come with two $10 monthly Instacart credits and complimentary Instacart+ membership.

Other Chase Cards

Co-branded cards like the ones listed below come with a $10 monthly Instacart credit once you activate the offer and maintain Instacart+.

Link to enroll your cobranded Chase cards

• Aer Lingus Visa Signature® Credit Card
• Aeroplan® Credit Card
• British Airways Visa Signature® Card
• Disney® Premier Visa® Card
• Disney® Visa® Card
• Iberia Visa Signature® Credit Card
• IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card
• IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card
• IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit Card
• Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card
• Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card
• Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful® Credit Card
• Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card
• Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card
• Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card
• Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card
• Southwest Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card
• World of Hyatt Credit Card
• World of Hyatt Business Credit Card

How the Credits Work

Here’s what you should know about monthly credits:

• Each credit arrives at the beginning of the month after you enroll.
• Credits typically expire at the end of the same month if unused — they don’t roll over.
• Each monthly credit applies only to a purchase of $10 or more made with the enrolled card.
• You must pay using the same card you enrolled to get that card’s credit.

I like to treat these credits as free money toward groceries or everyday Instacart orders!

How to Set Up the Instacart + Chase Benefit

• Use the links above to register each of your cards to their corresponding promotional page. All you’re doing is essentially adding multiple payment methods to your Instacart account. You just have to register initially via the links above.
• Follow the instructions to add your credit card number and activate your Instacart+ membership.
• Repeat this process for each additional card.

👉Pro Tip: Instacart will likely ask you if you want to set up a business account when registering business cards. Say NO, and it will simply add your business credit card to your personal account.

It took me about 15 minutes to set up all the cards for myself and my husband. After that initial time investment, it has been very easy to go in and redeem the credits monthly.

Pro Tips to Maximize the Benefit

Stack Free Months Across Cards

Since the free Instacart+ months stack, you can extend your membership far into the future just by activating each eligible card.

Example:

• World of Hyatt + IHG One Rewards → two separate 3-month timers

Use Your Credits Before They Expire

Set a monthly reminder for the last week of the month to use any unused Instacart credit, because they expire at month’s end if not used.

When you log into your Instacart account, it will remind you of any credits you have available to use for the month. In the image below, it shows a reminder to use my Ink credits when I log into my Instacart account.

Use the Correct Card at Checkout

Only orders where you actually use the enrolled card will trigger the monthly credit. You can stack credits by placing separate orders with different cards if you want to maximize monthly value.

I have a Kroger and an Aldi across the street from each other with Instacart pick up. I typically place a few orders at each on my account and my husband’s account and knock out several credits all in one trip!

Plan Orders to Hit $10 Minimum

Since each credit applies to orders of $10+, it’s usually easiest to plan small grocery or goods runs — like weekly staples — to unlock the credit.

👉Pro Tip: If they don’t have an item, they’ll often times just refund the item – meaning you lose out on the credit. I have gotten fairly good at ordering what items I’m fairly certain will be in stock. Likewise, I’ll try to put a note for alternative choices on items that may be low in stock!

Watch Out for Fees

I typically only choose stores that allow pick up to avoid any possible delivery fees and tips. However, even my in-store pick ups now charge a fee. Locally, its around $3.99 per order. Obviously this changes my “free $10 credit” to a “discount on my grocery order”.

Currently, my Kroger and Aldi do not inflate Instacart prices so I’m still willing to jump through the hoops for the time being. But I’m quick to use any $20 credits first! If anything expires, it will be my $10 credits! In the example below, I’ll happily pay $4.95 for $20 worth of groceries.

Stack Instacart Orders with Shopping Portals

If you’re a regular Instacart user, it may be worth it to go through a shopping portal and earn some additional points on your purchase! If you’re only hitting the $10-$20 monthly credit, it may not make sense. But if you’re frequenting Instacart, shop through Rakuten or another portal to earn even more!

For what it’s worth, every time I’ve shopped Instacart through Rakuten, I’ve had to file a missing points claim to get my points to post – but maybe that’s just me.

Things to Watch

Credits Don’t Stack Per Order

Even if you have multiple cards enrolled in one Instacart account, only the credit from the card used to pay will apply to that order.

One Card Type Per Instacart Account

Often, only one card per card type will apply in a single Instacart profile — but you can work around this with multiple Instacart accounts if you have email variations or a spouse who can have a separate Instacart account. For example, if you have two World of Hyatt cards, only one per account.

Additionally, multiple Ink Cash cards or Ink Unlimited cards will not stack on one Instacart account. However ONE Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited per account is okay.

Membership Auto-Renewal

If you don’t want to keep paid Instacart+ after your free months are over, make sure to turn off auto-renewal in your Instacart settings. Any time I add a new qualifying card to my account, my complimentary Instacart+ membership is pushed forward three months.

Its worth it to note that my renewal automatically shows discounted 25% as I have my United Business card attached to the account.

Conclusion: What You’re Really Getting

This benefit is essentially like having some free cash on groceries you already have to buy. If you have a pick up fee, the groceries are not quite free but I’ll take the discount any day. We currently have several credit cards with this benefit -yielding us about $120 per month of credits! That’s several hundred dollars per year that I’m willing to jump through some hoops for!

-Jenn @pointingthewaytomemories