Credit Card Minimum Spend

Credit card welcome offers are the fastest way to earn points and miles. But to receive those bonus points, you need to meet the minimum spend requirement on your new credit card. But meeting credit card minimum spend can be tricky when you open a card without a solid plan. Below we share some clever ways to reach a card's minimum spend.

Tips for Meeting Minimum Spend

Here are 8 useful tips for meeting credit card minimum spend.

Big Purchases and Expenses

Big purchases or expenses such as a new appliance, a home improvement project, or a large medical expense are excellent opportunities to meet a credit card minimum spend. These expenses usually only earn 1x on most cards, so you might as well charge it to a brand new credit card and maximize your earning. Next time you have a big expense coming up, consider applying for a new card in advance.

For home improvement projects, remember that a lot of contractors accept credit cards, even if they don’t advertise it. Make sure to check if they charge any fees for using a card. Even if they do charge a fee, it might be worth paying it since you can get outsized value from using your points and miles.

One last tip for big purchases: a lot of car dealerships will accept credit cards for a portion of the payment.

Prepay Utilities and Other Bills

Many utilities and other service providers allow you to pay more than what you owe at any given time. If you are a few hundred dollars short of meeting minimum spend, consider prepaying some of your utilities or your cell phone bill. Some insurance providers also allow prepayment, so consider looking into prepaying your car, renter’s, or homeowner’s insurance to meet your minimum spend.

Tuition and Childcare

Many schools, childcare centers, and colleges accept credit card payments. Some charge a fee, but others may not. Like with the other options in this post, analyze the numbers to make sure the benefit outweighs the fee. For a big welcome offer, incurring a fee for using a credit card would likely be worth it.

Plastiq

Bill payment services, such as Plastiq, allow you to use your credit card to pay bills that normally do not allow payment via credit card. Plastiq allows you to use a credit card to pay student loans, rent, car payments, mortgage payments (Mastercard only), and many others. Plastiq charges a 2.9% fee. In the past, they occasionally had specials that bring the fee down as low as 1.0%. Visa and Mastercard have few restrictions on Plastiq (Visa typically does not allow mortgage payments).

If you have never used Plastiq, sign up with our referral code: 572916.

Pay Your Taxes

You can pay your federal taxes online for a small fee. Three official websites accept credit cards for your federal tax bill:

• www.payusatax.com accepts Amex, Discover, Mastercard, and Visa for a fee of 1.82%.
• www.pay1040.com accepts Amex, Discover, Mastercard ,and Visa for a fee of 1.87%.
• fed.acipayonline.com accepts Amex, Discover, Mastercard, and Visa for a fee of 1.98%.

You can use any of these services to pay your year-end and quarterly estimated taxes. For more information on using credit cards to pay your taxes, check out this post.

Pay.gov

If you ever owe any money to the federal government other than taxes, you can likely use a credit card to pay for that without a fee. Check out www.pay.gov, which is the federal government’s portal for accepting payments. You can search by government agency or use the access code provided in the correspondence you received from the government.

Pick Up the Check

Next time you go out for a bite or a drink with some friends, offer to pick up the check and have them pay you back in cash or through Venmo. Your server will thank you too for saving them the hassle of splitting the check and processing multiple payments!

Works Expenses

If your job requires you to make purchases for your employer, including if you have to travel for work, look into whether you are allowed to charge those expenses to your own card and get reimbursed. If your employer lets you use your own card for business expenses, then you can use those charges to help you meet your card's minimum spend. But remember to always be upfront with your employer about what you are doing.

Credit Card Minimum Spend: ToP Thoughts

Meeting minimum spend can be tricky when you open a new card without a plan. Before applying for your next card, make sure you have a game plan, and consider the options listed above for meeting your minimum spend. Remember to always ask if a merchant or service provider accepts credit cards, and you might just be surprised by their answer!

What other methods do you use to meet minimum spend? Come join the discussion in our Facebook group!