Tips for meeting minimum credit card spending without financial strain

Similarly, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers 75,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening. Points can be transferred to various airline and hotel programs including United Airlines, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Southwest Airlines Co., British Airways plc., Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited., Singapore Airlines Limited., JetBlue Airways Corporation., Air France KLM S.A., Emirates Airline., Iberia Líneas Aéreas de España S.A., Aer Lingus Group DAC., Marriott Rewards®, and IHG One Rewards.

With these cards' initial bonuses combined with category-specific spending bonuses, banks now award a majority of miles rather than airlines themselves. These points can be transferred to numerous airline and hotel programs for international business class tickets or hotel suites.

To earn these upfront bonuses requires meeting minimum spending requirements set by most lucrative cards. This requirement limits the number of cards one can acquire at any given time. Historically speaking about 15 years ago there were no minimum spend requirements; then they began at around $250 (Chase) or $750 (Citibank). Over time these amounts have increased due to several reasons:

1) Encouraging habitual use of the card.

2) Targeting higher-spending customers.

3) Acting as a barrier for those who sign up solely for bonuses.

However meeting these minimum spending requirements is not particularly difficult without resorting to complex strategies:

- Track your monthly expenses across different categories over time.

- Use credit cards for all possible bill payments including utilities.

- Consider making charitable donations via credit card.

- Limit yourself to one new card at a time based on your manageable spend capacity.

- Utilize services like Plastiq which allows rent/car/mortgage payments via credit card albeit with fees.

- Prepay bills or purchase gift cards if future expenditures need advancing within the bonus period.

- Pay taxes using services like Pay1040 (1.87% fee) or PayUSATax (1.85% fee).

- Leverage reimbursable business expenses where feasible under company policies.

By employing these strategies users may find it easier than expected to meet required spending thresholds thereby unlocking substantial rewards through their chosen credit cards.