How to Meet Minimum Spending Requirements

When signing up for a new credit card, you’ll typically need to meet a minimum spending requirement within a specific time period to unlock the card’s welcome bonus. In some cases, the required spending is quite minimal; however, for larger welcome bonuses, the threshold often exceeds $10,000.

Credit card welcome bonuses are one of the fastest ways to accumulate points. Therefore, you’ll want to be sure that there aren’t any barriers to meeting the minimum spending requirement, as you’d otherwise lose out on a great opportunity.

Fortunately, there are some creative ways to meet minimum spending requirements, which can either buy you more time to complete the spending, or push you over the threshold before the spending window closes.

What Are Minimum Spending Requirements?

Many credit cards with welcome bonuses come with some sort of minimum spending requirement. Usually, you’re required to charge a certain amount in purchases onto your credit card within three months to be eligible to receive the signup bonus; however, the spending window can also be drawn out over six months or longer.

The window to meet the minimum spending requirement begins on the date of your application’s approval. Therefore, in practise, you actually have less than the three-month allotment to fulfill the spending requirement, given that it takes time for your new card to arrive in the mail.

The amount of spending required to unlock the card’s welcome bonus varies widely between cards, and can also change as new offers are rolled out on individual cards.

For entry-level cards with low annual fees, the welcome bonus is usually quite modest, and might have a minimum spending requirement of up to $1,000 in the first few months.

Mid-tier cards, which have an annual fee in the range of $120–150, have a higher minimum spending requirement that’s typically paired with a larger welcome bonus. You can usually expect a minimum spending requirement in the range of $1,000–3,000, although it sometimes goes higher for larger welcome bonuses.

Top-tier cards, which come with an annual fee of $400 or more, generally have the highest welcome bonuses, and the biggest minimum spending requirements to match. Expect to spend $5,000–10,000+ during the spending window to unlock a handsome amount of points.

It’s also becoming more popular…