Meeting Spend Requirements

Meeting minimum spend requirements is one of the scarier parts of travel hacking. Unfortunately, that's the most common requirement you need to meet before the credit card company will give you reward points. So it's unavoidable.

Spend requirements per card can range anywhere from spending $1,000 in three months (super easy) to spending $10,000 in three months (super hard... unless you're rich—in which case, why are you even here?). Both Goober and myself are firmly grounded in the 99%. While we're not starving, we do stare wistfully at the electronic lottery billboards.

So how do we do it?

1. Pay absolutely EVERYTHING with card when you can. We can't stress this enough. Every cent counts. 
• Dining out. If you're eating with a bunch of friends, put the bill on your card and have your friends pay you back in cash.
• Groceries
• Gas
• Utilities
• Phone bill
• Mall purchases
• Donations
• Rent if you can. If you can't, we'll get into that later.
2. Amazon payments. This is a free service that you can create and link to a credit card (or checking account). You can send up to $1,000 a month free to anyone. Goober uses it to pay rent to his landlord. And if you're really desperate, you can send the money to a trusted friend or relative and them give you cash back. Creating two accounts is NOT recommended. Amazon keeps an eye on that.
   Disclaimer: We are not acceptable if you choose your friends poorly.
3. Chargesmart. This is an interesting service that allows you to charge transactions to your credit card that can't normally be paid by credit card such as mortgages, student loans, car loans, etc... However, there is a 3% service fee so use this only when you are desperate to meet your minimum spend.
4. Bluebird. Similar to Changesmart, but without a service fee. We'll be talking about Bluebird more in depth in future posts.
5. Purchase prepaid cards. They're everywhere now. Office Depot allows you to buy prepaid cards and gift cards with a credit card (including an activation fee, which will allow you to easily meet spend requirements. One downside is that you still have to pay off the credit card at the end of the month. With gift cards, you can sell them back at plastic jungle for about 92% of what they are worth. Neither of us have used plastic jungle.

David's experience with meeting minimum spend requirements

I put EVERYthing on my credit cards. I also started using Bluebird to pay my rent. I haven't been evicted yet, so I can vouch for Bluebird.