How to Avoid the Minimum Spend on Rewards Credit Cards

You often see those ads for ‘50,000 bonus points‘ on a credit card, only to find out that it comes with the caveat of spending upwards of $3,000 in the first few months of having the card. For some people, this can be aligned with one time expenses or recurring bills, without resulting in unnecessary spending. For more information about the best credit cards that I recommend, visit my post here.

For most of us, however, this creates the challenge of “what could I possibly need that amounts to $3,000 over the next few months”. I have known some people that make the mistake of buying items that they wouldn’t normally have purchased, and this makes those ‘rewards’ points not really rewards at all.

Luckily, there is a way to avoid putting yourself into a money pit in order to reach the minimum spending limit. Lets do some quick math to look at ‘rewards points’ in a little different light.

For most cards, 50,000 points is equal to anywhere from about $500-700 in airfare on a variety of airlines. So, once you spend about $3,000 and get the bonus offer, you will have around $650 to use towards free travel.

Now, what about if someone walked by and said that they would give you a $650 airline gift card for $90, you would most likely answer yes (assuming this person isn’t a sketchy fellow in a trench coat peddling scams). If you answer yes – here’s a trick to do essentially that.

So, here’s the trick to use to avoid digging yourself into debt or the ownership of 7 flat screen TV’s and juicers – instead of spending money on goods or services, use a money transfer app such as Venmo or PayPal. Most of these apps charge a 2-3% fee for using a credit card, which equates to about $60-$90 when transferring $3,000. Over the course of several transactions, transfer money back and forth between yourself and a trusted colleague. And – the banks are okay with this, since they are still getting their credit card use fee!

Overall, this is a great way to essentially get a ton of free airfare for less than $100 – and fly to somewhere you might have not thought possible before!