Mastercard Chase Instacart - See if it's worth it
Mastercard Chase Instacart – See if it’s worth it
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With recent changes in our economy, many credit card issuers are offering rewards focused on recession-prone categories like groceries, meals, fuel, and travel. The latest is the Chase Instacart Mastercard®.

This card offers a great cashback rate on Instacart purchases, but is it really worth it? We’ll explore some of the card’s key features and benefits to help you decide if it’s worth a place in your wallet.

Highlights of the Chase Instacart Mastercard:

  • Rewards rates: 5% cash back on Instacart in-app purchases from Instacart.com and partner retail brands; 5% cash back on Chase Travel Center purchases; 2% cash back on gas stations, restaurants, and select streaming services; 1% back on all other purchases
  • Welcome Offer: Automatically receive one year of free Instacart+ and $100 in Instacart points upon approval; auto-renew membership (terms apply)
  • Annual fee: $0
  • Regular APR: 16.49% to 25.24%

This card offers exceptionally high rewards for online deliveries at 5% off, including many grocery, electronics, sporting goods, pharmacy and warehouse club retailers (and more – see the full list of Instacart retailers here list). However, the rewards don’t stop there.

As mentioned above, you can also earn cash back on gas station fees, restaurants, and select streaming services. Also get 5% back on purchases made with your card at Chase Travel Center. All purchases outside of these bonus categories still receive 1% back.

Track the extraordinary benefits and benefits of your Instacart Mastercard

If you have time to read our Instacart Mastercard Benefits Guide, you’ll know everything this card has to offer. If you’re pressed for time, we’ll briefly go over the card’s benefits below.

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Welcome bonus

While there are other cash back cards that offer more enticing welcome bonuses of $200, $300, or more, we’re giving this card a pass because it’s a card with no annual fee. Plus, a $199 welcome bonus includes $100 in Instacart order credits and a free Instacart+ membership, normally $99 per year. After one year, your membership will automatically renew.

Earn rewards

Most of the best grocery credit cards focus on merchant codes specifically for grocery retailers. While Instacart is best known for providing grocery delivery, the delivery service is expanding its network of partner merchants.

This means you can deliver items such as electronics, sports equipment, household items, pet care products, cosmetics, and more. Yes, the shipping options are great, but even better is the 5% refund you get on these items. That means you can get 5% back on computers and wearable tech at Best Buy or gardening supplies at Lowe’s.

Redeem rewards

Another benefit of this card is the flexibility of its rewards. Your redemption options include:

  • Gift card
  • Crossing the Chase Travel Center
  • Direct Deposit or Statement of Credit
  • Points for all or part of your Instacart order

No minimum bonus balance is required for direct deposit, statement credit, or Instacart orders.

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Cost

There are no annual or international transaction fees on this card, but you should be aware of other fees. While you’ll receive a discounted service fee on all orders with your Instacart+ membership, you can pay additional fees, including:

  • Heavy fee
  • Long distance service charge
  • Liquor service charge
  • Priority fee
  • Collection fees (at some retailers)

Additionally, you may find that some items may be priced higher than they were when purchased in store.

More card benefits

Instacart+ Membership

With an Instacart Mastercard, you can get a free Instacart+ membership (usually costs $99 per year or $9.99 per month). Instacart+ membership means you get $0 shipping on orders of $35 or more, plus a lower service fee.

Travel and Shopping Guarantee

Your Instacart Mastercard also gives you travel insurance and shopping protection benefits, including travel accident insurance and emergency assistance, baggage delay insurance, shopping protection, lost baggage reimbursement, roadside assistance and extended warranty protection.

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World Elite Mastercard Benefits

This card also includes World Elite Mastercard benefits such as:

  • Phone protection
  • Zero liability protection (for fraudulent transactions)
  • 24-hour concierge service
  • Free ShopRunner Membership
  • MasterCard Identity Theft Protection
  • Discounts on brands like Lyft, Fandango, and DoorDash
  • Access to car rentals, flights, cruises and vacation packages, and a Mastercard luxury hotel and resort portfolio

Is the Instacart Mastercard worth it?

As always, whether this card is worth analyzing depends on how you use it and your personal goals to save time and money. Below, we’ll look at a spend example that compares rewards to credit cards with similar rewards programs in common spend categories:

  • Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Card: 3X points on dining, travel, gas stations, public transportation, popular streaming services and calling plans; 1X points on other purchases
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card: 3X points on dining (including eligible delivery), select streaming services, and online grocery purchases (excluding Walmart, Target, and Wholesale Club); use Chase Ultimate Rewards and Lyft Rides (Lyft offers up to March 31, 2025) earn 5x points; 2X points on other trips; 1X points on all other purchases
  • American Express Blue Cash Everyday® Card: Earn 3% cash back on purchases at U.S. supermarkets, U.S. gas stations, and U.S. online retail on purchases of up to $6,000 per category per calendar year (then 1%); 1% Return on other purchases
SPENDING CATEGORY ANNUAL SPENDING INSTACART MASTERCARD REWARDS WELLS FARGO AUTOGRAPH REWARDS CHASE SAPPHIRE PREFERRED REWARDS AMEX BLUE CASH EVERYDAYREWARDS
* Assumes a 1.9 percent charge on $6,000 of online grocery orders from Instacart
Online Grocery/supermarket spending $6,000 $300 $60 $180 $180
Dining $4,800 $96 $144 $144 $48
Gas $3,600 $72 $108 $36 $108
Travel/travel portal spending $1,000 $50 $30 $50 $10
Streaming services $1,200 $24 $36 $36 $12
Online shopping/delivery $2,400 $120 $24 $24 $72
Cellphone bill $2,400 $24 $72 $24 $24
All other spending $6,000 $60 $60 $60 $60
Welcome bonus $199 $300 $600 $200
Annual fee/additional fees -$114* $0 -$95 $0
First-year rewards value $831 $834 $1,059 $714
Ongoing rewards value $632 $534 $459 $514

Although this is a simplified example, you can see that the value you get from Instacart Mastercard and loyalty cards isn’t much different compared to other cards. Adding a 1.9% service fee to your Instacart order will reduce some of the rewards you earn with your Instacart card.

After the first year, you won’t get a welcome bonus or free Instacart+ membership, so the value you get from the card drops further. That being said, we believe consumers who use Instacart do so not just to save money: to save time. In our example, the time savings is something we can’t easily quantify, but you might value it.

Just to save time, you can become an Instacart fan, albeit for an extra fee. If that’s the case, buying an Instacart Mastercard can give you a slight discount and cash back, and even if there are no rewards, you’ll still treat yourself well.

Who should get an Instacart Mastercard?

Based on the analysis above, this card might not be the life-changing cash-back credit card you envisioned, especially if you’re looking to recover huge amounts on groceries and delivery services. We think the real benefit might be for those who are already using Instacart and don’t mind continuing to use some of the titular incentives. So if you like to save time and a little cash, we don’t think there’s any harm in trying this card, since there are no annual transportation costs.

Final result

We are very excited about the debut of the Instacart Mastercard. However, after more analysis, we found that some of the card’s value is offset by what you might pay for using the service on a regular basis. If you want this card to speed up your Instacart usage while saving some money, the value proposition isn’t there.

However, if you have more time than money and use Instacart anyway, we think this card is more of a ‘icing on the cake’. The Instacart Mastercard simply gives you the opportunity to earn rewards for services that are of value to you.

Learn more:

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