How to meet spend for CSP bonus when ...

[Anonymous]

American Express Serve..

[red259]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

you don't have a mortgage , you don't buy groceries , and want to meet the spend without carrying a balance at the end of the term ?  I got a couple bills like cell phone car I surance , car payment , besides that gas and food while I'm on the road to and from work 

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What is it currently?  $4,000 over 3 months?  Insurance, use it.  Cell bill, use it.  Do you have any items that you planned to purchase that maybe you were saving for?  I wouldn't think spending $1,333/mo on it should be hard to reach. 

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Also it's generally a good idea to figure these things out prior to applying for the card.  If you apply for a card that requires a $4K spend and you don't have legitimate items to spend it on you will end up making purchases that you don't need just meet the bonus.  Not a good idea.

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+1 if you don't have a reason to spend money to hit the spend bonus then you probably shouldn't be gettin the card in the first place. There are plenty of other cards with lower spend requirements. I tend to let my phone and cable bills build up so when I get a new card I have plenty to charge. You would only do that with things that do not have late charges though.

[Anonymous]

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@red259 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

you don't have a mortgage , you don't buy groceries , and want to meet the spend without carrying a balance at the end of the term ?  I got a couple bills like cell phone car I surance , car payment , besides that gas and food while I'm on the road to and from work 

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What is it currently?  $4,000 over 3 months?  Insurance, use it.  Cell bill, use it.  Do you have any items that you planned to purchase that maybe you were saving for?  I wouldn't think spending $1,333/mo on it should be hard to reach. 

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Also it's generally a good idea to figure these things out prior to applying for the card.  If you apply for a card that requires a $4K spend and you don't have legitimate items to spend it on you will end up making purchases that you don't need just meet the bonus.  Not a good idea.

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+1 if you don't have a reason to spend money to hit the spend bonus then you probably shouldn't be gettin the card in the first place. There are plenty of other cards with lower spend requirements. I tend to let my phone and cable bills build up so when I get a new card I have plenty to charge. You would only do that with things that do not have late charges though.

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I disagree. Credit card bonuses are free money. Why would you pass up free money? But let's not get into that disagreement. 

To the OP: 

Prepaying your taxes for a 1.87% fee is your best bet. You would be paying less than 80 dollars for a sign up bonus worth $400 cash, or at least double that if you transfer to partners. 

Otherwise Williampaid lets you pay your rent for a 3% fee. Still well worth it. 

If you are feeling really sophisticated get an Amex Serve and load money on it with your CSP. Zero fees, and then you can just spend that money using your Serve card like you would with any other card. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@red259 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

you don't have a mortgage , you don't buy groceries , and want to meet the spend without carrying a balance at the end of the term ?  I got a couple bills like cell phone car I surance , car payment , besides that gas and food while I'm on the road to and from work 

---

What is it currently?  $4,000 over 3 months?  Insurance, use it.  Cell bill, use it.  Do you have any items that you planned to purchase that maybe you were saving for?  I wouldn't think spending $1,333/mo on it should be hard to reach. 

---

Also it's generally a good idea to figure these things out prior to applying for the card.  If you apply for a card that requires a $4K spend and you don't have legitimate items to spend it on you will end up making purchases that you don't need just meet the bonus.  Not a good idea.

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+1 if you don't have a reason to spend money to hit the spend bonus then you probably shouldn't be gettin the card in the first place. There are plenty of other cards with lower spend requirements. I tend to let my phone and cable bills build up so when I get a new card I have plenty to charge. You would only do that with things that do not have late charges though.

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I disagree. Credit card bonuses are free money. Why would you pass up free money? But let's not get into that disagreement. 

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 I agree with your disagreement!   Certainly when Citi AA Exec was hot, people were getting several cards and trying to meet the $10K spend requirement, because the offer was so good, even if they normally wouldn't put that type of spend on ta card.   To a lesser extent, it can also be worth it for the CSP

[Anonymous]

To be honest I got this card because it offers points back on dining , not really because of the bonus  because I knew there is no way in the world I can spend 4k and not owe a balance afterwards and. since i Have a freedom and using both can maximize the earnings for cash back , gift cards etc. I'm not dumb enough  to go and buy 4 iPhones just to justify the spend . If I don't meet it then it is what it is , I guess. I got my bonus on my united card though so that's 30k miles  

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

To be honest I got this card because it offers points back on dining , not really because of the bonus  because I knew there is no way in the world I can spend 4k and not owe a balance afterwards and. since i Have a freedom and using both can maximize the earnings for cash back , gift cards etc. I'm not dumb enough  to go and buy 4 iPhones just to justify the spend . If I don't meet it then it is what it is , I guess. I got my bonus on my united card though so that's 30k miles  

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If you plan to use the points for cash back or gift cards, especially if you don't get the bonus, the CSP isn't worth having.   The free double cash gives 2% (or 1.99%!) on everything, not just dining.   But since the first year has no AF, I guess it's OK for that period.

[Anonymous]

im switching careers within the next 4 to 6 months ., my spend there is going to be over the roof of especially gas (God willing im going to be a truck driver) . So then. Can use and abuse chase freedom And discover it  . But if after year 1 I see no benefits on CSP then it's out ! I'm almost sure there is others around that missed the bonus and still found good use to justify the AF 

[Ghoshida]

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@Anonymous wrote:

im switching careers within the next 4 to 6 months ., my spend there is going to be over the roof of especially gas (God willing im going to be a truck driver) . So then. Can use and abuse chase freedom And discover it  . But if after year 1 I see no benefits on CSP then it's out ! I'm almost sure there is others around that missed the bonus and still found good use to justify the AF 

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I got it last year when the threshold was still 3k. Added my SO as an AU and she flies 2-3 times (the rest are on her corporate AMEX while these have to be treated as personal spending) and I tend to dine out quite a bit. We also had to travel to India this winter and got ourselves a nice California vacation before that so getting the 3k spent didn't look like a big deal. 

Anyway, we've racked up about 19k points in the past 3.5 months, so looking towards getting approx 60-70k points over a year. About 90% of this is from dining+travel so double points on almost all spend. I'm a bit conservative and value my points at 1.6-1.7cpp, so these points are worth about $1,100 to us. Additionally I transferred about 7.5k of freedom points last quarter so that was an extra $52 worth (same valuation, .7cpp extra on freedom cashback) which over the year can be about $200. Even putting that aside, the CSP gives us about $1000 a year on an ongoing basis (netting off the AF when it becomes due). Given our spend pattern, it's still about $300-400 better than say the next best (free) alternative, which is Double Cash. 

If you have a similar spending pattern, you'll find CSP pretty useful even without considering the bonus. The bonus is just that extra bit of sweetness. 

[Anonymous]

Here's what I did.  I got CSP a couple of weeks ago and bought two musical instruments (a real nice sax I'm using and a clarinet on order) and met the 4K quickly.  I also happened to get NFCU's cash rewards with a 2.99 balance transfer offer, thanks to this forum.  I will pay off the balance in 6 months or so and pay about $60 in interest.  I booked a flight with the points and saved $60 on the trip using chase's travel website, used the rest of the points to pay most of the rental car (week in Arizona in March). Utilization near 0 on CSP (just for dining right now-I eat out a lot).  May cancel it before the year is up but we'll see how it goes.  Got it for travel, might go places in the summer.  CSP CL up to 7K (transferred CL from amazon).  Balance is $3500 on NFCU card (10K CL), near zero on all others.  Because of the CSP offer, I got in with NFCU through creditaddict and some other folks who suggested I join a credit union.  I was denied for a Checking line of credit (too much debt on a home equity line of credit) but spoke to a nice NFCU lady about it.  Turns out she has a gambling problem, like me.  I gave her some worldly advice to try to help her not go down the road I did.  Now in recovery at 54 I get CSP and other stuff but have to be careful. The $4K/40K points offer made me a little manic (I'm bipolar living on VA/SocSec disability) and triggered a music-buying spree.  I am a musician so the new toys are and will get some use-and I can always sell them if necesary.  Yes, the little blue card does get attention when you use it, but works like any other.  Equifax is 652 (minus inquiries), so there you go, warts and all.

[Anonymous]

i run all the bills in my household through all my cards!