Cashback & Bonus Points for Supercharging and other EV chargers

[RiceFam]

This post is about sharing ways to maximize cashback from Supercharging purchases and other EV Chargers. Do you have experience with EV chargers or supercharging getting bonus points or cashback on your credit card?

Hi all! I'm wondering if the community here has personal experience and can confirm which EV charging companies will trigger any bonus categories on any credit cards. For example, the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card gets 3x points back on travel category (includes gas, parking toll, bridge tolls too); theoretically, some EV chargers might categorize in one of these travel categories, and a payment to them might trigger the bonus category.

If you have used one of these credit cards with bonus points categories while EV charging, and can personally confirm that it triggered a bonus, I'd like to hear from you which EV charging company/brand it was, and which credit card product you used.

I'm collecting responses to create a table of EV companies that trigger bonuses, so as a community, those who want to maximize earning points or cashback from charging can strategize accordingly. There are so many credit cards that give bonus points for gas stations, so it's about time we strategize how to maximize cashback & points for charging. (And if there's already a public resource with this information, I'd love to see it!)

At the moment, I have read some different threads that mentioned ChargePoint charges as travel category on Chase Sapphire Reserve. Not sure if anyone else can confirm that.

The only credit card I know of that gives bonus cashback for Tesla Supercharging is the M1 Owner's Credit Card. I can personally confirm that gives 10% back (up to $200/month), and that's been my go-to form of payment for Supercharging.

I'll update the table below as more people share information.

Confirmed for Cashback or Bonus Points when EV Charging or Supercharging:

Charging Brand	Credit/Debit Card Product	Cashback/Points Modifier	Other Considerations
Tesla Supercharger	M1 Owner's Credit Card (confirmed)	10% cashback ($200 max monthly)	Requires owning at least $1 in Tesla stock with M1Finance. Cashback comes back in form of Tesla stock.
ChargePoint	Chase Sapphire Preferred (unconfirmed)	2x points (triggers as travel)
ChargePoint	Chase Sapphire Reserve (unconfirmed)	3x points (triggers as travel)	Reports that this also triggers the $300 annual travel credit.

Charging brands confirmed NOT to trigger card bonuses for travel:

Charging Brand	Credit/Debit Card Product Used	Category Transaction Triggers As
EV Connect	Chase Sapphire Reserve	Computers, equipment and software

 

[garrett5688]

Wow first time I’m seeing the M1 credit card. What kind of financial gymnastics are they doing to offer 10% back?

Do you supercharge enough to make it worth it?

I’ve been pretty happy with the alliant 2.5% cash back on everything card

 

[RiceFam]

Wow first time I’m seeing the M1 credit card. What kind of financial gymnastics are they doing to offer 10% back?

Do you supercharge enough to make it worth it?

I’ve been pretty happy with the alliant 2.5% cash back on everything card

I use M1Finance.com as one of my investment platforms. They're the ones behind the M1 Owner's Credit Card. Since they're paying the 10% cashback in the form of Tesla stocks in their platform, they're basically betting that folks will want to use their platform for investments. They're a competitor to Robinhood, so it's free-to-use their investment platform with no trading fees. I'm assuming they have their own math for profiting off holding people's cash. That being said, there's a maximum $200/month cashback limit. I have their M1 Plus account (there's a 1-year free trial) so the card's annual fee ($95) is waived.

I'm only supercharging at about $60-$100/month right now (I live in an apartment, so supercharging is my primary form of charging). Since I use M1 normally anyway for investing and this card's annual fee is waived for me, I'm definitely getting value back that I wouldn't normally get. Is it actually worth the $95/year annual fee if one didn't have M1 Plus? Questionable. You'd need to do the math, but 10% back is the best I've seen. (Outperforms even cashback for gas stations.)

2.5% cashback is great, but 10% is better, right? I have a couple of general-use cashback cards that get me 2% on everything/anything. I was using those before I swapped to M1 Owner's for Supercharging.

 

[jrmt23]

I've thought about this as well. As before I had a $0 AF Amex Hilton card for the 5x hilton points on gasoline.

Currently superchargers code as "Transportation - Vehicle Leasing and Purchase" on my Amex Gold card.

ChargePoint does code as "Transportation - Fuel" on Amex, and EVGo codes as "Transportation - Auto Services".

 

[Ken43]

I've thought about this as well. As before I had a $0 AF Amex Hilton card for the 5x hilton points on gasoline.

Currently superchargers code as "Transportation - Vehicle Leasing and Purchase" on my Amex Gold card.

ChargePoint does code as "Transportation - Fuel" on Amex, and EVGo codes as "Transportation - Auto Services".

I have a AMEX Hilton card which gives 3x Hilton points on all purchases and 6x points on US Auto Gasoline purchases.
It seems anti climate friendly to penalize people for charging EV versus buying gas.

Recently I noticed Tesla Supercharger purchases have been changed to appear as
"TESLA INC SUPERCHARGER" with a description of "AUTO FUEL DISPENSER"
Perhaps AMEX will eventually extend the bonus to US Auto Fuel purchases, not just US Auto Gasoline purchases..

 

[jrmt23]

I have a AMEX Hilton card which gives 3x Hilton points on all purchases and 6x points on US Auto Gasoline purchases.
It seems anti climate friendly to penalize people for charging EV versus buying gas.

Recently I noticed Tesla Supercharger purchases have been changed to appear as
"TESLA INC SUPERCHARGER" with a description of "AUTO FUEL DISPENSER"
Perhaps AMEX will eventually extend the bonus to US Auto Fuel purchases, not just US Auto Gasoline purchases..

It's likely more tesla than amex as they're the ones who tell card merchants what they're doing business as. It's why some restaurants don't qualify for 4x on the gold card, but most do.

 

[jrmt23]

I discovered this card today, has anyone tried it?

'Green Purchases' Earn High Cash-Back Rates With the FutureCard Visa Card

Earn 5% cash back at Tesla Superchargers, Lululemon's secondhand shop and more with this new charge card.

www.cnet.com

 

[thmaub]

I discovered this card today, has anyone tried it?

'Green Purchases' Earn High Cash-Back Rates With the FutureCard Visa Card

Earn 5% cash back at Tesla Superchargers, Lululemon's secondhand shop and more with this new charge card.

www.cnet.com

I just signed up. Seemed easy enough since it's not a true credit card so no credit pulls or anything. I'll be using M1 for tesla supercharging and this for all other charging.

EDIT: I'll say that I like that this is not another card I need to carry around. It gave me a virtual card that I could add to GPay and enter directly into the charging apps as a payment source.

EDIT 2: You also get a $25 bonus for linking a bank account. So there's a free charging session if nothing else.

 

[jrmt23]

I just signed up. Seemed easy enough since it's not a true credit card so no credit pulls or anything. I'll be using M1 for tesla supercharging and this for all other charging.

EDIT: I'll say that I like that this is not another card I need to carry around. It gave me a virtual card that I could add to GPay and enter directly into the charging apps as a payment source.

EDIT 2: You also get a $25 bonus for linking a bank account. So there's a free charging session if nothing else.

How do you like the M1 card? I actually use M1 also, but i'm not a M1+ member.

 

[thmaub]

How do you like the M1 card? I actually use M1 also, but i'm not a M1+ member.

So far, I like it. I signed up and did the free year M1+, but I expect to make enough rewards to cover the fee past this free first year.

The 10% back on tesla is nice, but I really expect to make the bulk of the rewards back on the 5% on most fast food. I just dumped $100 in and had it even split among all the stock of brands I use: tesla, netflix, and some restaurant conglomerates. Also, despite the initial post suggesting that the rewards are only offered as stock, you can actually have the rewards paid right back to the card as cashback. Whether it is financially smarter to do that over investing it back into the stock is debatable tho.

 

[kishkaru]

I use my US Bank Altitude Connect credit card for 4% back on EV charging.

Cash back:

5% Prepaid Hotels/Rentals via US Bank portal
4% Travel (airline/hotel/rental/train), Gas, EV charger
2% Supermarket, Restaurant, Streaming
1% Everything else

Also comes with a $30 streaming credit per year, and $100 TSA Precheck/Global Entry credit every 4 years.
Currently $500 sign up bonus for $2k in spend (can be cashed out).
Currently $95 annual fee (waived for 1st year).

Tesla Superchargers correctly categorized as "EV charger" and I get 4% back.
There may be other cards that offer 5% or more, but have to jump through hoops. This one is straightfoward and no hassle.

 

[jrmt23]

I use my US Bank Altitude Connect credit card for 4% back on EV charging.

Cash back:

5% Prepaid Hotels/Rentals via US Bank portal
4% Travel (airline/hotel/rental/train), Gas, EV charger
2% Supermarket, Restaurant, Streaming
1% Everything else

Also comes with a $30 streaming credit per year, and $100 TSA Precheck/Global Entry credit every 4 years.
Currently $500 sign up bonus for $2k in spend (can be cashed out).
Currently $95 annual fee (waived for 1st year).

Tesla Superchargers correctly categorized as "EV charger" and I get 4% back.
There may be other cards that offer 5% or more, but have to jump through hoops. This one is straightfoward and no hassle.

Welp I think I found my next card. The streaming + EV charging credits alone have definitely sold me.

Do you have a referral link? It might give both of us some extra sign up bonus points!

 

[kishkaru]

I checked my account and I don't see any option to refer. Unfortunately, I don't think any of US Bank's cards offer the option to refer.

 

[jrmt23]

I checked my account and I don't see any option to refer. Unfortunately, I don't think any of US Bank's cards offer the option to refer.

No worries, figured wouldn't hurt to benefit both of us! Thank you!

 

[STS-134]

Confirmed for Cashback or Bonus Points when EV Charging or Supercharging:

Charging Brand	Credit/Debit Card Product	Cashback/Points Modifier	Other Considerations
Tesla Supercharger	M1 Owner's Credit Card (confirmed)	10% cashback ($200 max monthly)	Requires owning at least $1 in Tesla stock with M1Finance. Cashback comes back in form of Tesla stock.
ChargePoint	Chase Sapphire Preferred (unconfirmed)	2x points (triggers as travel)
ChargePoint	Chase Sapphire Reserve (unconfirmed)	3x points (triggers as travel)	Reports that this also triggers the $300 annual travel credit.

So I figured out a couple of years ago that ChargePoint coded as travel and triggered the 3x points on my Chase Sapphire Reserve. I've been paying Chargepoint with the CSR ever since. But I just checked my account and it's now coding as automotive and not earning any bonus points!

Did a search and found this:

Looks like the change happened some time between 8/2020 and 9/2021. When exactly, I don't know. Can someone else confirm they're seeing the same thing and maybe try to narrow down the changeover date further?

In the meantime, I will change the card in my Chargepoint account from my CSR to my Chase Freedom Unlimited so I can at least get 1.5 points per dollar.

 

[jrmt23]

So I figured out a couple of years ago that ChargePoint coded as travel and triggered the 3x points on my Chase Sapphire Reserve. I've been paying Chargepoint with the CSR ever since. But I just checked my account and it's now coding as automotive and not earning any bonus points!

Did a search and found this:

View attachment 807537

Looks like the change happened some time between 8/2020 and 9/2021. When exactly, I don't know. Can someone else confirm they're seeing the same thing and maybe try to narrow down the changeover date further?

In the meantime, I will change the card in my Chargepoint account from my CSR to my Chase Freedom Unlimited so I can at least get 1.5 points per dollar.

Chargepoint codes as "Transportation - Fuel" on my Amex.

 

[ljbad4life]

Chargepoint codes as "Transportation - Fuel" on my Amex.

EVgo did not code as fuel, it coded as automotive-other. That was a while ago. Hopefully it's been fixed.

 

[grayguy]

I just signed up. Seemed easy enough since it's not a true credit card so no credit pulls or anything. I'll be using M1 for tesla supercharging and this for all other charging.

EDIT: I'll say that I like that this is not another card I need to carry around. It gave me a virtual card that I could add to GPay and enter directly into the charging apps as a payment source.

EDIT 2: You also get a $25 bonus for linking a bank account. So there's a free charging session if nothing else.

Have you used this card yet? I downloaded the app, but I'm leery about giving out my SSN to the company. They state they do not run your credit, but then ask for your social. Some reviews mentioned having their identity stolen around the same time and blamed this company. Of course, the world is full of people drawing causal relationships between correlated events, but I figured it was worth checking. I've emailed the company why they need my SSN and they have not responded.

 

[Eno Deb]

Tesla superchargers and other EV chargers such as Chargepoint trigger the "online shopping" category of the Bank of America "customized cash" card. This means 3% cashback minimum and 5.25% if you have "platinum honors" status (e.g. by keeping $100k+ in investments at Merrill Edge). No annual fee, no hoops to jump through. Also works for Amazon and many other online shops.

 

[Ken43]

M1 visa. Just got an email from m1 that effective 6feb2024, Tesla charges will no longer get 10 percent back for m1+ members. Now only 2.5 percent