10 Ways To Meet Minimum Spend on Cards
Some of the Travel Rewards credit cards have a certain “minimum spend” for you to be able to get the sign up bonus and below are some tips on how to do so.
I wanted to reiterate that ideally, you need to spend on things that you pay for anyway (like food, and utility bills for example) and not spend on the things that don’t matter to you just to get the bonus for a certain card.
Having said that, below are some tips for you on how to meet a minimum spend on a new card:
1. Prepay bills
You can pre-pay utility bills in advance such as electricity, phone/internet, internet, trash/sewer, water, etc. to help meet the minimum spend on your card(s).
2. Prepaying Insurance
Prepaying car insurance can benefit you since some of the insurance companies offer a discount if you could prepay three or even six months in advance.
3. Picking up the tab when eating out
Offer to pick up the tab when dining out with friends and have them pay or Venmo you.
4. Planning out a big purchase in advance
Another way to meet a minimum spend in planning on a big purchase in advance. Let’s say you’re doing a major home renovation soon so why not apply for a card, use it for those expenses and earn some points along the way?
You can also ask a family member that has an upcoming big purchase and have them reimburse you. Just make sure that you trust him/her to get your money back :)
Another way to easily meet the minimum spend on a credit card is when you’re planning your own wedding. Make sure to ask your potential wedding vendors if they accept credit card payments. You can easily meet 2 to 3 credit card spending so plan accordingly!
5. Paying your rent or mortgage
Some landlords, apartment complex or bank will allow you to pay your rent by credit card without a fee so you may need to talk to them and see if they do this.
If you own a home, you can use a service like Plastiq to pay your mortgage. They charge a 2.85% fee but it's worth paying that small fee to help meet the minimum spend on your card.
6. Holiday gifts
You can consider buying gifts in advanced for holiday, graduation and birthday for your loved ones. The benefit of this is you’re done shopping and avoid procrastinating at the very last minute :)
7. Groceries
You can also consider stocking up food and supplies to help meet the minimum spend on cards.
8. Gas
You can also prepay and buy a few gas gift cards. I buy a few of these whenever I am trying to meet a minimum spend since we travel a lot for work.
9. Prepay on Upcoming Trips
Sometimes we still need to pay for travel expenses so why not pay for it in advance? Maybe you wanted to pay for an activity like doing a private tour or dine in a Michelin starred restaurant?
10. Gift cards
Let’s say you’ve tried following this list and you still have some spending to do to get the bonus. Well don’t worry - you can use your credit card to buy some gift cards!
Office supplies stores like Staples and Office Depot, sell Visa and Mastercard gift cards but you pay an activation fee of $3 to $7 dollars per gift card. The key to avoid paying this is to wait for a promotion where they waive these activation fees. I would recommend bookmarking Doctor of Credit’s page and be on the lookout for these gift card promotions.
A word of warning though, buying gift cards is a big no-no for card issuers like American Express. It works for other banks like Chase but there’s always a risk of getting your account shut down and they can potentially claw back points.
I would recommend taking it slow and mixing up your spending by using your card on other things. Try to be a good customer and use your card to pay for groceries, gas, etc. and not just buying gift cards :)