How to Increase Credit Card Spend & Rewards – 2018

Lets say that you have 4 months to an anniversary’s span to make the necessary spend so that you get that beautiful sign-up or anniversary bonus you’ve been yearning for. Increasing you credit card spend is ideal if you want to earn higher elite status, bigger and better bonuses, as well as reaping your rewards category to the fullest.

Of course, not everybody is willing enough to put out a big spend of $9,000+ for such benefits, but we have good news for you! We have compiled a list of objectives proven to help you with your spending and leave you the least amount of frustration possible in 2018.

Editor’s Note: Integrate your personal standards and ethics towards making a decision on whether or not to use a particular method or not.

Recommended Credit Cards To Apply For:

• The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card earns you a 50,000 Bonus when you accomplish a spend of $4,000 or more on purchases within a given 3 months. That’s a considerable $625 in travel when you redeem through Chase’s UR portal. You can earn an additional 5,000 bonus points after you add the first authorized user and make a purchase in the first 3 months from account opening. Consider that the Chase Sapphire Preferred also has price protection.
• With the Barclaycard Arrival Plus^TM World Elite MasterCard®, earn 50,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 90 days — that’s enough to redeem for a $500 travel statement credit
• With the Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express you can earn 30,000 Bonus Miles after making $1,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening with a $95 annul fee attached!
• The Chase Freedom Unlimited^® offers a $150 Bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening. If you add an authorized user and make your first purchase within the first three months, you’ll earn an additional $25 bonus. Also, earn an unlimited 1.5% cash back on all purchases which you can redeem your cash back rewards at any time and for any amount. This is a pretty nice daily credit card to consider for flat cash-back and convenience.
• Get your hands on a Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express and earn $300 when you make a spend of $1,000 within a given 3 months. This is a great card for those looking to capitalize their category spending with grocery and gas purchases.

Best Ways To Increase Credit Card Spending

The most efficient way to increase your credit card spend is to find techniques that allow you to use a credit card to pay for expenses that do not normally allow credit card charges (rent, mortgage, taxes, etc.) as well as finding ways to spend money with your credit card and getting the money back as cash, also known as Manufactured Spending. We will be going further in-depth on these techniques on this very section!

Increase Credit Card Spend:

• Fund Student Loans or College Savings: Changes have occurred to where virtually all federal student loans will not have the option to be paid by a credit card which leaves a window for the Gift of College option to be more attractive.
  • You can find a Gift of College card at most Toys-R-Us/Babies-R-Us stores. You should expect a $5.95 or 1.19% fee attached with the ability to load a maximum of $500.
  • College of Gift Cards purchase codes trigger as Charity. Since US Bank’s Cash + is getting rid of the 5% on Charity option, this leaves question on the table as to whether it’s worth it or not.
• KickFurther: You could fund KickFurther consignments $500 at a time using a credit card to separately add funds to your account. A very tedious process and quite risky considering you’ll be using KickFurther as an investment platform. Rewards doesn’t necessarily outweigh the risk.
• Pay Rent with Rentler: Rentler is the new option for paying rent with your credit card with 2.5% fees or $3.99 for debit cards. Keep in mind that you will need to have your landlord sign-up with rentler in order to pay your rent. Plastiq seems to be the better overall option because of that.
• Serve:The Amex Serve is said to be alive for some, however, you should expect the Serve to no longer be funded via MoneyPak.
  • You can now hold up to 5 different AMEX Serve accounts. Reload is only available for those with an account that is not frozen.
  • Loading the card indirectly as followed:
    • Buying Reload cards, however these are extremely hard to find
    • Buying a VISA/MC GC and using as a debit card to reload in-store:
      • loading your card in-person will still work with many gift cards. Stores have taught their employees against allowing reloads with gift cards, however, with a gift card + your name attached (giftcard.com), it will work as validity against your ID.
      • Works at Family Dollar and Dollar General stores. All brands of VISA/MC GC with a PIN should work.
• Visa / MasterCard Gift Cards:  Still one of the better options. 5 Back VISAs were our lucrative go-to recommendation when it came to manufactured spending, but seeing as how CVS pulled out leaves me questioning the legitimacy of 5 Back.
• Blue Bird: Reload Bluebird indirectly with credit card, then withdraw money or pay bills. Of course, with the recent waves of Amex Shutdowns, if your account is frozen, it leaves this option out the window.
  • Loading the card indirectly as followed:
    • Buying Vanilla Reload cards, however these are extremely hard to find
    • Buying a VISA/MC GC and using as a debit card to reload in-store at Walmart:
      • loading your card in-person will still work with many gift cards. Stores have taught their employees against allowing reloads with gift cards, however, with a gift card + your name attached (giftcard.com), it will work as validity against your ID.
      • MC GC do work at Walmart however, you must quickly hit the “Change Payment” button after swipign the card to change your payment to a debit payment.
  • Once funds are loaded, get your money back by using Bluebird’s bill pay services to pay your credit card bills or withdraw cash from ATMs.
• Funding Bank Accounts: Still available, however, most bank accounts have resorted to lowering the funding limit exponentially. Citi no longer allows bank account funding
• Buy Merchant Branded Gift Cards for Restaurants, Gas Stations, Stores, Online Shops, etc– Look into purchasing a gift card for major merchant brands such as Quiktrip, Walmart, Target, Shells, McDonald’s, Victoria Secret, etc.
  • “branded” gift cards usually do not carry any fees and they don’t hold to a point expiration which is great when meeting a spending requirement while also having something that holds value.If you’re consistently spending on local groceries, gas stations, retail store, etc., you should look into this method. Just look at it as you’ll eventually make that spend on your card anyways also it’s a great way to trigger the cash back rewards on your card.
  • You can currently purchase a $300 PIN-Enabled VISA gift card online at Staples.com and load them into a AMEX Bluebird or Serve account prepaid. Use the account to pay bills you can’t normally pay with a credit card.
• KIVA Loans: Use your credit card to make a micro-loan with a times span of 6-12 months to pay back with no interest.
  • KIVA Loans triggers as charity and again, KIVA Loans made with a US Bank Cash + will not trigger the 5% anymore. It’s worth checking out the US Bank VISA Flexperks VISA Card for 3X for charitable contributions.
• Money Orders- Select grocery stores (commonly smaller, local groceries) will allow you to purchase money orders with a credit card at no extra charge. You can purchase the money order with your credit card and have it deposited into your bank.
  • Be careful with money orders, a lot of people has been getting their bank account shut down after depositing a large amount of money orders.
  • Gift cards issued by Metabank will no longer work at most US Post Offices.
• Pay your Bills with Plastiq: This option is recommended if you cannot use a credit card to make a certain payment such as rent, etc. Plastiq is currently offering 2.0% fees on linked Amex cards!

Conclusion:

There’s plenty of ways out there that could potentially get you that higher sign-up bonus or status elite that you’ve always yearned for. Of course, putting some spend on your new credit card will lay you down the right path towards that attractive reward, however, it’s not as easy as it seems and putting a heavy spend on your credit card can be bothersome if not done effectively, which is why you need to use your hard-earned money wisely and maximize your spending as much as possible! It is to your ability whether or not you are willing to use a particular method. I suggest incorporating personal standards and ethics before utilizing any technique shown above. Also, be sure to check out our best credit card promotions section for all your credit card needs!