Do CCs ever offer non-signup bonuses occasionally?

[Anonymous]

Like a coupon to a store that's designed to get someone that normally wouldn't buy something or spend as much on something, couldn't this tactic work with CCs?  Maybe it does get used and I'm just too new to CCs and bonuses and am just unaware, and if that's the case I'd like to hear about some examples.

Say someone has a card and they typically only put a hundred bucks through it each month.  Couldn't it be a wise move for a creditor to target them with a bonus, something like $50 if you spend $1500 in 3 months?  This would stimulate some to generate 5X their normal spend (on that card) and could get certain customers after those 3 months of using the card more often to start favoring that card even post-bonus.  Also perhaps targeting people that were maybe once good customers that now rarely use the card.  While on the surface it may seem counter productive to target your less profitable customers as opposed to the ones making you the most money, getting non-customers or rare customers to be more frequent is a very common strategy across many businesses. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Like a coupon to a store that's designed to get someone that normally wouldn't buy something or spend as much on something, couldn't this tactic work with CCs?  Maybe it does get used and I'm just too new to CCs and bonuses and am just unaware, and if that's the case I'd like to hear about some examples.

Say someone has a card and they typically only put a hundred bucks through it each month.  Couldn't it be a wise move for a creditor to target them with a bonus, something like $50 if you spend $1500 in 3 months?  This would stimulate some to generate 5X their normal spend (on that card) and could get certain customers after those 3 months of using the card more often to start favoring that card even post-bonus.  Also perhaps targeting people that were maybe once good customers that now rarely use the card.  While on the surface it may seem counter productive to target your less profitable customers as opposed to the ones making you the most money, getting non-customers or rare customers to be more frequent is a very common strategy across many businesses. 

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 Various credit card companies like Barclays, Citi and Chase do this frequently   Nothing unusual for them to do so

[Anonymous]

Cool.  What types of bonuses are typically offered?  Are they targeted to certain profiles only or are they more generalized?

[Anonymous]

Actually the thread right below yours when I clicked on it was about an extra spend bonus: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Laughable-bonus-spend-offer-Ritz/td-p/4772564

[NRB525]

Ummm, OP you just started a separate thread 30 minutes before this one where you did indeed get another offer for a Shop Small bonus from AMEX.

To add:

BofA has merchants that appear on their BankAmericaRewards. Usually 5%, sometimes 10%, usually one purchase, sometimes purchases plural.

Discover has sent me some offers for additional spend bonus potential. One was for 10%. The Apple Pay promo last year was for 10% when you used Discover on Apple Pay.

Citi has sent me several 5% bonus offer promos on categories.

[pipeguy]

I've received two within the last 6 months, my GM Buypower card offered an extra $100 if I'd spend $1000 within 3 months, which is a no-brainer since I auto pay about $500 a month on the card and got that easy $100. I also got a $100 for $2000 90 day spend on my Fidelity Visa a couple of months ago, which I'll finish up this month (no auto spend on that card) so that's another easy $100. 

Bottom line, yes they happen....

[jbb27885]

I received a random $5 gift card to Starbucks from Discover once.

[longtimelurker]

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@NRB525 wrote:

Ummm, OP you just started a separate thread 30 minutes before this one where you did indeed get another offer for a Shop Small bonus from AMEX.

To add:

BofA has merchants that appear on their BankAmericaRewards. Usually 5%, sometimes 10%, usually one purchase, sometimes purchases plural.

Discover has sent me some offers for additional spend bonus potential. One was for 10%. The Apple Pay promo last year was for 10% when you used Discover on Apple Pay.

Citi has sent me several 5% bonus offer promos on categories.

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Yes, Citi sends offers on a whole variety of cards, offering extra points on various categories up to a max of $25 or 2,500 points (TY, AA)   People, IMO, tend to get over-excited by these since the cap is so small, but if you are going to spend there anyway, it's a small extra bonus.

Barclays on the Sallie Mae has done similar things for some people, 2% extra in non-core categories

And, slightly differently, Amex offered on extra 2% on the Blue Cash line (OBC, BCE, BCP) for purchases at WholeFoods for about three months.  

[NRB525]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@NRB525 wrote:

Ummm, OP you just started a separate thread 30 minutes before this one where you did indeed get another offer for a Shop Small bonus from AMEX.

To add:

BofA has merchants that appear on their BankAmericaRewards. Usually 5%, sometimes 10%, usually one purchase, sometimes purchases plural.

Discover has sent me some offers for additional spend bonus potential. One was for 10%. The Apple Pay promo last year was for 10% when you used Discover on Apple Pay.

Citi has sent me several 5% bonus offer promos on categories.

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Yes, Citi sends offers on a whole variety of cards, offering extra points on various categories up to a max of $25 or 2,500 points (TY, AA)   People, IMO, tend to get over-excited by these since the cap is so small, but if you are going to spend there anyway, it's a small extra bonus.

Barclays on the Sallie Mae has done similar things for some people, 2% extra in non-core categories

And, slightly differently, Amex offered on extra 2% on the Blue Cash line (OBC, BCE, BCP) for purchases at WholeFoods for about three months.  

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And then there's another thread where AMEX is "stealing" from the BCP cardholders by giving BCE cardholders ~3 months of some extra percentage on purchases 

[lhcole77]

Last spring I took advantage of an offer on my Barclays Aviator card. I had to spend $500 per month in March, April and May. I received 15,000 AAdvantage miles for it.