Update 10/6/24: A lot of people wanted to buy gift cards at CVS to earn 7x. However, it seems that recently the CVS system is not allowing Visa gift cards to be purchased with Paypal. The system only allows the fee to be paid that way and leaves the main balance for another payment method. (AFAIK, you can still pay with a credit card directly, but that won’t help for the use case being discussed.) You can still use this idea to get 7x on regular purchases from CVS (and possibly non-VGC gift cards from CVS?).
Original Post 9/14/24:
Chase has released the 5%/5x categories on their Freedom and Freedom Flex cards for the fourth quarter of 2024, up to $1,500 in purchases:
PayPal
McDonald’s – this should be 7x on the Freedom Flex card since that card always gets 2x bonus points at Restaurants
Pet Shops and Vet Services
Select Charities – Direct donations to the following charities are eligible: American Red Cross, Equal Justice Initiatives, Feeding America, Habitat for Humanity, International Medical Corps, International Rescue Committee, Leadership Conference Education Fund, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, National Urban League, Thurgood, Marshall College Fund, United Negro College Fund, UNICEF USA, United Way, World Central Kitchen, GLSEN, Out and Equal and Sage.
Paypal is an easy win. Some people might find the other categories useful as well. Remember that you can use Paypal to pay taxes; give charity; pay at millions of businesses like Walmart.com, Bestbuy.com etc; and even possibly pay in-store at some locations. It should also be possible to send money to a friend using the Family & Friends option for a 2.9% fee.
It’s been mentioned the possibility of using Paypal at CVS stores to get 7x on the Freedom Flex card since that card also earns 2x extra points at Drugstores. (Update: this doesn’t seem to work.)