Opened a card with a 4000 dollar spend requirement in three months and I miscounted, I am at 3200 with nine days on the clock. My normal spending is groceries and petrol and there is nothing big coming up. What do people actually do at this point that does not involve buying things I do not need or anything that would upset the issuer?
The cleanest lever is pulling future spending forward rather than inventing new spending. Things that have worked for me:
Between the insurance and a couple of months of utilities I have covered 800 twice without spending a penny I would not have spent anyway.
One timing warning: what usually counts is when the transaction posts, not when you swipe. With nine days left do not leave it to day eight, and check your own card's terms because issuers word this differently.
Also watch refunds. If you return something before the window closes, the refund usually comes off your qualifying total and people get caught out by that in the last week.
The annual insurance switch alone is 540 of it. I feel a bit silly for not thinking of that.
Slightly boring answer, but if you cannot get there without buying junk, work out what the bonus is actually worth to you and be willing to walk away from it. I once spent 300 dollars on things I did not need to earn a bonus I valued at around 500 and the maths on that is much worse than it looks. This is my own experience rather than advice, and if this card is part of a bigger financial picture it is worth talking to someone qualified.
Fair, and the failure mode is real. Prepaying things you were going to buy anyway is the only version of this that is straightforwardly good.
Check whether the annual fee counts toward the requirement on your card, some issuers include it and some do not. Mine did, which was 95 dollars I did not know I already had. It is one line in the terms and takes two minutes to find.
@inbox_zero_ivo · 2mo ago · 2 replies
Rent and tax payments through card processors are the other route, but do the arithmetic before you get excited. If the processor charges 2.9 percent, putting 800 through costs you about 23 dollars. Whether that is worth it depends entirely on what the bonus is worth to you, and for a large bonus it usually is, comfortably.
What I would avoid is anything that looks like buying cash equivalents in volume. Accounts do get closed over that and there is no appeals process worth relying on.
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@bias_bound_bea · 2mo ago
23 dollars against the bonus is nothing, that is a fine backstop if the prepayments fall short.
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