The best travel and rewards credit cards offer bonuses of $500 or more for the first few months, but there’s a catch. They all require you to meet minimum spending requirements to receive the bonus, and you may have to charge thousands of dollars for purchases in a short amount of time.
Take, for example, the popular preferred card Chase Sapphire. This flexible travel credit card offers a massive bonus of 60,000 points worth $750 in travel, but only if you spend $4,000 on new purchases within three months of opening your account.
Some spending requirements are even higher, which begs the question: what steps can you take to meet credit card spending requirements and receive a bonus when your regular spending alone isn’t enough? Below, you’ll find eight ideas to help you meet the bare minimum with ease.
Overspending warning for credit card signup bonus.
First, a warning about credit card overspending. While any of the strategies we offer can help you earn a generous credit card welcome bonus, you should make sure you always have cash on hand to pay your credit card bill in full. After all, the average credit card interest rate is currently over 18 percent, so you’ll lose money if you get a bonus but accumulate long-term credit card debt.
The best way to earn a credit card bonus is to have a plan in mind and the regular income you need to stay debt-free. There are some reward cards that offer signup bonuses along with 0% APR on purchases for a limited time, but these offers tend to be less generous. If you are using a zero annual interest rate offer, please make sure you can pay your balance in full before the initial offer expires. Now consider these options to meet those expenses and claim your bonus:
1. Prepayment for utilities and running costs
Consider prepaying recurring bills and running expenses to meet minimum spending requirements. For example, most platforms allow you to “pay up front” on your electricity or gas bill, with the excess applied to your bill as credit for future months. You can also use plastic to prepay your garbage collection, water bill, and cable TV.
Be sure to check the convenience fees that may apply when you pay your utility bills with a credit card. While these fees may be worth it when you get a generous credit card signup bonus, you should still consider them. When it comes to utility bills, for example, you’ll usually find a flat fee of $1.50 to $3 each. credit card payment you make.
2. Pay your tax bill with plastic
You can also pay your tax bill with a credit card, although where you pay and your options may depend on the type of taxes you pay and where you live. For example, your state will likely have its own set of options when it comes to paying state income tax with a credit card.
In any case, fees will be charged whenever you pay taxes in plastic. When it comes to paying federal taxes with a credit card, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) offers several options with a credit card convenience fee that ranges from 1.87% to 1.98% of the payment amount.
3. Use Credit Cards for Holiday Shopping
Holiday shopping is a great opportunity to meet minimum credit card spending. And keep in mind that you can start holiday shopping any time of the year, so if you want to do it in August, get a new card and go shopping.
4. Pay your college tuition and fees
Many colleges and universities allow you to pay for tuition and fees with a credit card, although some charge extra for this. Either way, charging tuition can help you meet your minimum spending requirements, and you can even get reimbursed from your 529 savings plan after the fact (if you have one).
5. Write off insurance premiums from your credit card
Some insurance companies may allow you to pay your premiums with a credit card and usually there is no convenience fee. Examples of insurance you can pay for with a credit card might include auto, homeowners, health, life, and more.
6. Use a Credit Card to Pay Your Rent or Mortgage
You can also pay your rent or mortgage with a credit card, but you’ll likely have to jump over some additional hurdles since you usually can’t do this directly. For example, you can use the Plastiq platform to pay rent or mortgage payments. However, Plastiq only allows you to use Discover or Mastercard for these specific expenses (not American Express or Visa).
You can also check out the Bilt Rewards Mastercard, which was created to help people earn rental rewards. This is a card with no annual fees and you can use rewards for transfers to partner hotels and airlines, rent, home down payment and more.
7. Pay for eating out, gas and groceries.
According to the Consumer Spending Survey released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in September 2022, household food spending increased by 13.4% in 2021, with food spending outside the home increasing by 27.6%. Fuel costs also rose 37 percent last year.
Throw in groceries and you can easily get closer to meeting the minimum credit card spending requirement if you start using plastic for these recurring expenses.
8. Set up a credit card to pay for all your subscriptions.
Also make sure you’ve set up all of your regular subscriptions on your new credit card, including things like Hulu, Disney+, and Sirius satellite radio. While recurring subscriptions can be inexpensive on their own, setting up all of your recurring monthly subscriptions to a new credit card can help you hit your minimum spending threshold faster.
bottom line
Now that you have good ideas on how to meet the credit card spending requirements to claim this bonus, it should be easy for you to reach the threshold. Just make sure you have a plan in place to achieve it and that you don’t overpay just to get a bonus, especially with interest rates over 18 percent.
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The editorial content on this page is based solely on the objective judgment of our contributors and is not based on advertising. It was not provided or ordered by credit card issuers. However, we may receive compensation when you click on links to our partners’ products.