How to Meet Credit Card Minimum Spend on Chase Sapphire Preferred

For beginners to the travel hacking practice, you may not have any idea how you can meet the required spending in order to get the credit card signup bonus even though you are very interested in doing so because you too want to travel for essentially free as well. 

I will lay out a few prerequisites prior to going at this full boar and if these are not met then do not do this:

• Check your credit scores via Credit Karma are over 700 (TransUnion and Equifax Credit Bureaus are provided)
• Commit to paying the credit card balance in full every month (means you don’t carry a balance)
• If you currently have credit card balances, then begin by paying those off prior to moving forward with any new credit card applications (even if it could mean free travel because sound financially footing is a must especially with the interest rates these credit card companies espouse)

The Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card is an excellent way to start earning points/miles for travel.  As of 12/25/16, it has a 50,000 Ultimate Rewards (UR) points bonus after $4,000 spend in 3 months and additional 5,000 (UR) points for adding an authorized user and they make a single purchase in first 3 months.  So, below I listed some expenses you are more likely to have that you can use to get to that $4,000 spend and I have used as an example some of the expenses in my own budget:

Expense	Cost	Paid for Using
Mortgage/Rent	$900 + $22.5 (2.5% service fee)	Via Plastiq linking Sapphire Preferred Card
Cell Phone	$136	Sapphire Preferred Card
Gym	$32	Sapphire Preferred Card
Newspaper/Magazine	$6	Sapphire Preferred Card
Car Payment	$381 + $9.53 (2.5% service fee)	Via Plastiq linking Sapphire Preferred Card
Car Insurance*	$151	Sapphire Preferred Card
Cable Bundle (Internet, Cable, Alarm Monitoring)	$170	Sapphire Preferred Card
Gas/Fuel*	$200	Sapphire Preferred Card
Netflix	$13	Sapphire Preferred Card
Utilities - Electric	$100	Sapphire Preferred Card
Utilities - Water	$65 + $1.63 (2.5% service fee)	Via Plastiq linking Sapphire Preferred Card
Utilities - Gas	$20 + $.50 (2.5% service fee)	Via Plastiq linking Sapphire Preferred Card
Food*	$500	Sapphire Preferred Card
Discretionary Spending*	$300	Sapphire Preferred Card
Total:	$2800

*Note:  Some of the cost, like insurance and gas/fuel, are for two people (my wife and I).

As you can see above, if you transferred all your similar expenses from the categories above to Sapphire Preferred for one month, you can possibly put $2800 on that card in the first month and if the next month you put another $1200, you will hit that $4,000 mark.  In the table, you see via Plastiq linking Sapphire Preferred Card which allows you to use a credit card to pay one of your largest expenses for 2.5% service fee.  You can use this technique as you see fit, but I wanted to show you the possibility to assist getting to that spending limit quickly.  You can remove the expenses I have listed and put in your own and see whether your expenses can get you to that $4,000 requirement in 3 months.  If so, you are on your way to 50,000 (UR) worth approximately $625 in travel.  As you get this bonus, you can then set the stage to get more signup bonuses following this plan.  See Award Travel with Chase Credit Cards blog.

Note: The links for Plastiq and Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card are referral links which will earn me points and/or credits if you apply using them.

PS:  Please share your experience by leaving a comment on this post.  Also please be sure share this content to your friends and family if you find it useful.  I thank you in advance.