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. Pay Taxes

Paying taxes is another way of meeting the minimum spend on your credit cards but it usually comes with a fee (2 to 3%). Paying that fee can be worth it if you’re trying to get the spend on a card to get a big sign up bonus so do the math and make sure it makes sense to you.