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I got a new credit card with a very large signup bonus - as long as a minimum amount is spent on the card in the first 3 months. I usually don't go for things like this but in this case the bonus is so large that it's worth the hassle. The amount I have to spend is probably about $5000 more than I would normally spend in this time.

What are some creative ways that I can "spend" this money, without:

  • taking on extra cost (I could just send my friend $5000 via paypal, pay the 3% or whatever, and be done with it - but I don't want to lose that 3%)
  • spending too much time or effort (e.g. the "scam" where people would buy thousands of dollar coins, then lug them to the bank and deposit them)
  • obviously, spending money on things I wouldn't normally spend it on (I could just buy a car and be done)

My current plan is to see how much I have left to go with about a week left, and then just buy myself an Amazon gift card (nearly as good as cash) for the balance, but I'd rather this be closer to $500 than $5000.

What else can I do?

Jer
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8 Answers8

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Are you in the US? One thing you can do is prepay taxes at a rate of a 1.8% fee. Much lower than paypal. I would do this on what is "left over".

Here are somethings that I would tend to do in your case:

  • Pre-buy gifts. Do your Christmas shopping now. Even if you don't know what to buy, you can get gift cards to the stores you are likely to buy from.
  • Pre-buy non-perishables. This would include cleaning supplies, and wrapping for gifts.
  • Pre-buy auto maintenance. You'll probably have to change your oil two or three more times this year. If you DiY get GC to your favorite auto parts store, if you have it changed does your service station offer GCs? What about tires, etc?
  • On your utilities that do not charge a fee for CCs, why not pay extra? If your cell phone is 100/mo, why not pay for the next 12 months or so? Then use that $100 to replenish savings.
  • if you are paying car or renter insurance monthly, you can prepay them also and save some $30 on car insurance alone.

Those are some of the things I would be looking at.

Do you care to share the details of your offer?

Community
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Pete B.
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The gift card for specific stores has no fee. In our budget of nearly $500/mo for supermarket, it would be easy to just buy 10 x $500 cards, and then be careful with them. A look at your past 12 mo of spending should provide a hint what GCs might work for you.

Else, for a $4.95 fee, I've bought $500 generic Visa cash cards. When my new credit card offered a 10% cash bonus for spending, I spent. Took us nearly 18 months to burn thru 500 cards. But a net $4500 gain was sweet.

Update - the cash card racks all appear to have a sign that these cards may no longer be bought with a credit card.

JoeTaxpayer
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There are a couple pretty good answers here already, but I wanted to add that, depending on your location, many grocery stores sell gasoline. Gift cards for those grocery stores can be used for gas and groceries and usually do not include any fees. Since we all need to eat and most of us need to fill the tank on a regular basis, this seems like the best way to run up the bill without purchasing frivolous items.

As another poster mentioned, pre-paying bills is another great way to go. Some places such as health clubs may even offer you a discount for paying in full, essentially "earning" you more money down the road.

Dryden Long
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This isn't exactly the answer you were looking for, but it is something else to consider.

Rather than just running money through the card to get the bonus, have you considered spending that $5,000 in the form of good debt? In other words, can you purchase some asset that will create more cashflow than you would be paying on the card with the $5,000 balance?

The idea is instead of running up the balance and paying it back off to get the bonus, maybe you could buy an asset for $5,000, create positive cashflow with the opportunity for long term capital gains, and get the credit card bonus. You could even turn around and use the bonus to pay back part of the credit card balance, thus reducing the payments and widening the profit margin on the asset.

Aaron Wright
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I think you're not considering the opportunity cost of giving up your money early. I'm not sure what the total money you have to spend, but spending extra on things you're going to buy later might not be the best choice.

Consider you could just get a credit card that does 3% (6% with fee) on groceries, 3% on gas, etc. So you can make some money there without spending it all up front.

Also, you could be turning that money into more money by investing it. Assuming you're not going to just carry a balance and pay interest on the card, you have this cash on hand to invest.

One more thing, I'm not sure of your financial situation but I don't think something like spending an extra 5k is a pittance to you (since you wanted $500 so badly). Having the cash at hand has its own advantages even if you're just sitting on it.

In short, consider if you want to follow through with this plan. You can still keep the card.

Carlos Bribiescas
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What is the interest rate on the balance you'll be carrying? Even at a modest interest rate of only 10% (many cards can be double that) means you'll pay $500 in interest if you carry the $5000 balance for a year. At 20% you'll pay $500 interest in just six months. You also mentioned this would be $5000 MORE than you usually spend in this time, so I imagine your balance could be higher.

Sensible
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Do you own your own home, or some land?

Buy materials and/or completed outbuildings (sheds, etc)

Do a small renovation on your house

Do some landscaping, gardening, etc

warren
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You could buy some bitcoins with your credit card and then convert them back to physical money.

Ramchandra Apte
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