If you have started this adventure in credit arbitrage, aka travel hacking or award travel, for purposes of lower cost travel, you know that the credit card signup bonus required spend can be daunting, especially if you have several cards you are working on at one time.
For example, credit card bonus often have requirements like spend $4,000 in 3 months to get 60,000 points/miles. Some people will say I don’t have $4,000 of spending that I do or I don’t have $4,000 to put on a credit card to hit that target. I would say, don’t fret, because you should not spend over what you normally spend or spend what you don’t have. I repeat don’t go into credit card debt to accumulate points however appealing the lower cost travel is you can get. However, when done the right way, you can achieve with your normal spend and possibly some small fees, which is optimal, and using manufactured spend techniques. I will explain further the techniques I am using to do so.
Use Normal Spend
Currently to meet the minimum spend requirements for a card(s), I first transition everything I can purchase with a credit card to that card I am working to get the bonus on. It may be better to start with doing one card at a time. For example, food, utilities, fuel, clothing, entertainment, insurance, gym fees, etc. will account for some of the everyday spending you put on the card to get to that $4,000. If you track your normal expenses in a money management tool like Mint, you can map out when and if you can reach the goal of $4,000 in the 3 months with just your normal expenses.
Third Party Services
Next, there are expenses that can’t normally be paid with credit card, except you can for a small fee which you must decide if it’s worth it to you. For example, your mortgage/rent would fit this criteria. However, using a service like Plastiq, you can pay your mortgage for a service fee up to 2.5% or less. Using my example, for my $1079 mortgage, I pay a service fee of $26.98 with a Visa card, in order to use a credit card, but it’s worth it to me when working on meeting required spend for multiple credit cards at one time. This is a technique that will assist in you hitting that goal and you can use if and when you like if your normal spending won’t get you there.
Manufactured Spending
The other technique I use is called “manufactured spending” (MS), which is buying cash equivalents, like Visa gift cards that have a pin from online websites like GiftCards.com or Giftcardmall.com. From Giftcardmall.com, the max you can get is $5000 (inclusive of fees) and from GiftCards.com the max you can get is $2500 (inclusive of fees). Start slow, whatever you do. You can order 2 $500 gift cards from each totaling $2000. When you get the cards, activate them and go to Walmart Money Center and buy two money orders for $1000 each. Tell the clerk you will pay each $.68 money order first with cash. Also, mention you will be paying in $500 increments, then swipe the card and enter the pin. Once you have the money orders, if you have a bank you can take a picture to make deposits, you are going to do just that. Once the money orders deposit into your account, pay the credit card off with the funds you just deposited.
Offset Fees By Using Cashback Portals
You might not cover all the fees you incur, but by going to the above online websites through CashbackMonitor.com, which is cash back portal, by searching for Giftcards.com and Giftcardmall.com, you can see which sites gives the largest percentage cash back. Then you can create a login for whichever you chose and go through that site to the websites mentioned above to purchase gift cards. This will assist to cover most of the fees you incur for the purchase of gift card(s), but you will need to wait awhile before you get the cashback.
These are currently the techniques I am using that is working for me to achieve my spending requirements often for several cards at a time. I try to offset fees with cash back from portals or on a cash back credit card. These techniques will help you too, but start slow and see what works for you.
If you would like to apply for some of the services I mentioned above that I used like Plastiq or Cashback Portals, visit my Affiliate and Referral link here and find those services from there.
PS: Any readers who are currently using these techniques, 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.
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