Many of us have a Chase card that includes Instacart benefits, but it’s one of those perks that you may be unlikely to use without knowing more about how it works and if it is worthwhile.
Here’s everything you need to know about using these monthly credits!
WHAT IS INSTACART?
Instacart is a popular online marketplace and app that offers same-day, on-demand grocery delivery and pickup from over 80,000 stores in 14,000 cities. Orders are filled by personal shoppers and can be delivered within an hour. You may also have the option to pickup your orders.
Partners include national retailers like Albertsons, Kroger, Costco, Spouts, CVS, ALDI and more.
They have expanded to include additional retail stores like Staples, Dollar Tree, Target, Lowes, etc…
IS INSTACART FREE TO USE?
Yes, for the most part…
You don’t need to pay for an Instacart membership to order from Instacart, but there can be fees for delivery or pickup orders. Be sure your order offers enough value to cover any fees that are added.
An Instacart+ membership costs $9.99 per month or $99 per year if you don’t have cards that cover the cost of membership.
If you don’t have Instacart+ delivery fees start at $3.99 for same-day orders over $35. Additional service fees may vary.
Several Chase cards include a free 3 month Instacart+ membership which gives you $0 delivery fees on eligible orders. In addition, these cards include a monthly credit of $10-$20. These benefits are valid through December 31, 2027.
The awesome part is that these 3 month memberships STACK! So if you have multiple cards with a 3 month membership you can extend your free Instacart+ membership.
WHICH CHASE CARDS INCLUDE INSTACART BENEFITS?
Let’s break this down into three different card groups:
- Chase Ink Business Cards
- Chase Co-branded Cards
- Chase United Cards
The most generous Instacart benefits are offered on two of the Chase Ink Business cards which include a $20 monthly credit through December 31, 2027.
Most of the other cards listed below include a $10 monthly credit through December 31, 2027.
All cards listed below include 3 months or more of complimentary Instacart+.
As mentioned, the 3 months offered on each card can STACK – so if you have multiple cards, you will be able to extend your membership.
See below for specific card details.
Chase Ink Business Cards
Both of the Chase Ink cards below include a complimentary 3 months Instacart+ membership and a $20 monthly credit
- Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card
- Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
Considering these cards have NO ANNUAL FEE a $20 monthly credit is almost too good to be true – that’s up to $240 a year for $0.
If you would like more information on why these business cards are two of our favorite credit cards, check out THIS POST – any sort of side income qualifies you to open a business card.
Chase Co-branded Cards
All of the co-branded cards below include a complimentary 3 months Instacart+ membership and a $10 monthly credit.
Marriott Bonvoy
- Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card
- Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful™ Credit Card
- Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card
- Ritz-Carlton™ Credit Card
Southwest
- Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card
- Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card
- Southwest Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card
- Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card
IHG One Rewards
- IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card
- IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit Card
- IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card
Disney
- Disney® Premier Visa® Card
- Disney® Visa® Card
World of Hyatt
- World of Hyatt Credit Card
- World of Hyatt Business Credit Card
Other Co-brand Cards
- Aer Lingus Visa Signature® Credit Card
- Aeroplan® Card
- British Airways Visa Signature® Credit Card
- Iberia Visa Signature® Credit Card
Chase United Cards
The Instacart benefits on the United cards are slightly different. See below:
- United Club℠ & United Club℠ Business Cards
Complimentary Instacart+ membership
One $10 Instacart credit on your first purchase and $10 credit on your second each month with your eligible card (total $20)
- United Quest℠ Card
Complimentary 3 months Instacart+ membership
50% off an annual Instacart+ membership renewal with your eligible card
One $10 Instacart credit on your first purchase and $5 Instacart credit on your second purchase each month with your eligible card (total $15)
- United℠ Explorer & United℠ Business Cards
Complimentary 3 months Instacart+ membership
25% off an annual Instacart+ membership renewal with your eligible card
$10 Instacart credit each month
HOW DO I USE THE CREDIT?
1 – Sign up for an Instacart account if you don’t have one already
Here is my referral link if you are new to Instacart which will give you an additional $10 offer
2 – Activate the Instacart+ membership on your cards through the links below:
DO NOT create or switch to a business profile – simply opt out (tap “Maybe Later” if asked).
3 – Add your Chase card as a payment method
It will check for card eligibility
And then click to activate the membership
As mentioned, the 3 month memberships STACK so you can see in the images below that my membership end date was extended with each of the three different cards I added to my account.
This means that instead of getting just 3 months of credits on each of those 3 cards, I am able to redeem the $10-$20 monthly credit on all three cards for the entire 9 months.
4 – Redeem each of your $10-$20 monthly credits, each and every month
You are unable to stack the credits in your account so you will need to place one order per card and switch the payment method to use each of the credits you have.
You must use your eligible Chase card to pay for the order – this is a great way to keep some of these less active credit card accounts active.
Credits do not roll over into the next month so use-it-or-lose it.
Be sure to check for sales and discounts for additional savings. You can also find promotions in the “Offers” tab on the far left of the Instacart menu. These offers will stack with your credits.
CARD LIMITS AND OPTIONS
Your Instacart account is limited to one of each card type at any given time. So you can not add 3 Chase Ink Business Cash cards to your account, but you can add 1 Ink Business Cash card, 1 Ink Business Unlimited card and 1 Southwest card…
The name on the credit card does not need to match the name on your Instacart account so feel free to add other family members cards (of course with permission) to your Instacart account.
If you have multiple of the same card in your household you can create and manage a second Instacart account with any duplicate cards or you can hang onto those cards and add them when/if you close the first round of cards previously added to your Instacart account.
(See “MY INSTACART STRATEGY” below for an example)
PICKUP VS. DELIVERY
Some stores offer a free pickup option, while others charge a pickup fee.
I was not charged a pickup fee on my first three orders from my local Safeway store, but have been charged that $3.99 pickup free on all orders since.
The cost to pick up your order with a pickup fee vs. paying any applicable service fees and tipping your driver on a delivery order can be so similar that I have chosen to have my order delivered on occasion for the added convenience.
You can easily swap between the two options during checkout to see the difference in total cost.
NOTE ON PRICES & ADJUSTMENTS
Prices of the items are set by the retail partner. Some retailers offer the same prices as in-store and others may charge more for items ordered through Instacart.
You can view pricing policies for each retailer on the Instacart website and app.
When you are ordering an item that is priced by weight you may see a difference in price after the order has been filled and actual items purchased have been selected and weighed.
I’ve had this work in my favor and against…
A few months ago, I thought I ordered enough broccoli to fully take advantage of my $20 credit. The shopper gave me three small crowns and my total cost was adjusted from $5.98 to $3.55 – not a big deal, but I could have ordered a few extra crowns of broccoli and still paid the same amount.
I’ve ordered chicken on multiple occasions and have received a better price through Instacart than if I’d shopped in-store. On this order, my estimate was $10.85 and my shopper selected a package of chicken retailing for $14.68 and there was no price adjustment. Of course, your results may vary.
If you have specific instructions for your shopper you can indicate that when finalizing your order. For example, you can ask them to pick the greenist bananas available.
You can also indicate if you would like them to substitute or cancel an item if it is no longer available. If an item is canceled you will not get your credit back.
MEMBERSHIP EXPIRING?
You will be notified when your membership expiration date is nearing and will be automatically enrolled in a paid membership if you do not cancel before your renewal date.
If your Instacart+ membership is ending soon you can:
- Remove one of the cards you have a second of and activate the 3 month membership on the additional card.
- Apply for a new card that includes this benefit.
- Watch your email for a discounted offer to renew your membership.
- Use the 25%-50% discount offered on one of the United co-branded cards.
- Renew through Costco with a $79 discounted rate.
Or you can call it great-while-it-lasted and move on…
MY INSTACART STRATEGY
If you love details, here’s my current Instacart+ membership strategy.
If too much detail feels overwhelming, skip down to the “IN SUMMARY” section below.
Here are the ACTIVE cards I currently have loaded in my Instacart account:
- Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card
- Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
- Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card
- Aeroplan® Card
These 4 cards give me a total of 12 months of FREE Instacart+
And $60 of credits each and every month
Here are the NOT ACTIVE cards that have not been added to my Instacart account because they are duplicates of the above (my husband and I both open cards regularly):
- Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card
- Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
- Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card
I am planning to upgrade the ACTIVE Marriott Boundless card to the Ritz-Carlton™ Credit Card in the next few weeks. The Boundless card will be removed from my Instacart account allowing me to add the NOT ACTIVE Marriott Boundless card. Adding a new card will extend my Instacart membership an additional 3 months.
That new Ritz-Carlton card will be the FIFTH card on my list of ACTIVE Instacart cards, adding another 3 months to my membership AND bringing my total monthly credits to $70 per month.
If I close or remove one of the ACTIVE older Ink Business cards I can move its duplicate from the NOT ACTIVE cards into its place and again, extend the life of my membership.
Even if I don’t apply for any new cards that have this perk, I already have enough cards to extend my free Instacart+ membership through the end of the promotion – December 31, 2027.
Creating a second Instacart account with a different email address is another option if you’d prefer to use all the card credits sooner rather than later.
Lots of different ways to go about this – those are my current thoughts.
IN SUMMARY
Getting a free grocery stipend every month is a fun perk that if used will help offset any annual fees you may be paying on the Chase cards that include monthly Instacart credits.
How sweet is it that two of the most popular no-annual fee cards include up to $240 in Instacart credits each year?
If you’re unfamiliar with the DoorDash credits included on some of the most popular Chase cards be sure to check out THIS POST
Chances are high you have a card that includes some of these perks – will you use them?
Holly @onpointwithholly is part of an affiliate network and may receive commission when you support her efforts to continue to provide FREE content, resources and guidance. Send me a DM if you have any questions or would like help deciding the best credit card strategy for you!
Wow! Thanks for this great tutorial!
Thanks, I’m glad you found it helpful!