13 Legitimate Ways to Meet Credit Card Minimum Spends

Many premium travel credit cards offer welcome bonuses for new customers, but they are usually contingent on meeting a certain level of spending in 3-6 months. Most cards require spending $1,000-$1,500 in 3 months, which is fairly doable for most people.

On the other hand, cards such as the American Express Platinum Card or the BMO World Elite MasterCard ask for $6,000 and $3,000 in the first 90 days respectively, which can feel difficult to meet unless you start spending more than you usually do.

I personally don't believe in changing your spending habits for the worse for these more premium cards. However, with some maneuvering, you can re-arrange your payments without increasing your spending.

Here are thirteen (13) legitimate ways to meet your minimum spend, without compromising your regular spending habits:

1. Charge your every day expenses to your new card (groceries, dining, gas, etc.)

✔ No additional fees

✔ MasterCard, Visa, Amex

This is an obvious tip for sure, but start using your new credit card right away for your every day expenses! Most grocery stores and restaurants take at least MasterCard and Visa, and gas stations will accept any form of payment. The amounts may seem small, but they definitely add up over time.

2. Time your large purchases around minimum spend

✔ No additional fees

✔ MasterCard, Visa, Amex (depends on the store)

Are you buying new furniture? Booking flights and hotels for your next vacation? The easiest and most natural way to meet minimum spends is to make sure your large purchases fall within the three or four month window to grab the welcome bonus.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of examples:

• General shopping
• Electronics (cell phone, TV, laptop, gaming consoles)
• Home renovations, furniture, appliances
• Vacation (flights, hotels, use the card while you're on vacation)
• Deposit on new car (some dealers take up to $3,000 on credit card)

3. Offer to pay for group activities and have your friends pay you back

✔ No additional fees

✔ MasterCard, Visa, Amex (depends on the store)

Are you going to a big group dinner? Or perhaps booking a trip with your friends? A great way to meet credit card minimum spends is offering to foot the bill for the entire group and have your friends pay you back. Of course, this method depends on having reliable friends who will eventually reimburse you.

4. Prepay your mobile phone, Internet or TV bill

✔ No additional fees

✔ MasterCard, Visa, Amex

Rogers, Fido, Bell, Telus and other similar service providers allow you to prepay your bill. They don't really have a maximum amount you can prepay, although obviously you should prepay only what's required to meet the minimum spend.

This is one of the easiest ways to meet minimum spend on Amex cards, as almost all telecom companies take Amex as a form of payment.

5. Pre-load your reloadable transit card

✔ No additional fees

✔ MasterCard, Visa, Amex

In Ontario, you can load your PRESTO card up to $990. If you spend a lot of time on transit systems that accept credit card payments, consider beefing up your balance as it counts as a transaction on your credit card. 

In the PRESTO example, the balance is protected against loss or theft if you register an account to manage your PRESTO card. PRESTO also takes Amex as a form of payment, so another easy way to meet Amex spends.

6. Pay for home and auto insurance with your credit card

✔ No additional fees

✔ MasterCard, Visa, Amex

Most insurance providers will encourage you to use pre-authorized debit (PAD) via your bank account to pay for home and auto insurance, but most accept credit card as a form of payment.

7. Purchase through food delivery and beverage apps (especially places that don’t accept Amex in person)

✔ No additional fees

✔ MasterCard, Visa, Amex

All food ordering apps such as UberEATS and Ritual allow you to pay by credit card, including Amex. In fact, you can even pay by Amex for restaurants that don't take Amex in person, such as many bubble tea places! Ritual is great for pickup orders since they almost always charge the same price as the restaurant.

Coffee apps such as Starbucks and Second Cup allow you to add money to your account via credit card to earn rewards. If you're a coffee drink, it's a win-win!

8. Buy gift cards to places you normally shop at

✔ No additional fees

✔ MasterCard, Visa, Amex (depends on the store)

Do you frequently buy things on Amazon.ca? Maybe you drink a lot of Starbucks, or watch Netflix? If the answer is yes, consider buying a gift card to these places, which will count towards your minimum spend. You can then slowly use up the gift card balance over time. 

If you want to be extra clever, buy these gift cards at a grocery store with a card that offer a high multiplier on grocery spend. As an example, both the Amex Cobalt and Scotiabank Amex offer 5 times the points on grocery spend. You could buy a gift card using Amex at a Longo's, Metro, Sobeys, and Food Basics. (Note that grocery stores under the Loblaws brand, such as Loblaws and No Frills, only take MasterCard and Visa; Costco only takes MasterCard in store, but you can pay with Visa on their website.)

9. Pay for your medical or dental benefits directly instead of going through insurance

✔ No additional fees

✔ MasterCard, Visa, Amex

If you work full-time and have medical and dental benefits, the normal process is for your provider to bill the insurer directly for payment. However, you can also request to pay the amount upfront and submit the claim for reimbursement yourself. Many places do take Amex given that claims are usually hundreds of dollars.

10. Charge reimbursable work and professional expenses to your card

✔ No additional fees

✔ MasterCard, Visa, Amex

This will depend on your job and employer’s policy around expense reimbursement, but those of us who have business dinners, travel and meal reimbursements will find this an easy way to meet credit card minimum spend requirements.

11. Make charitable donations

✔ No additional fees

✔ MasterCard, Visa, Amex

Many registered charities will accept credit card donations, which is a great way to give back to your community while meeting minimum spend requirements. 

12. Buy prepaid or reloadable MasterCard/Visa gift cards.

✔ Small fee  ($3.95-$6.95) to activate cards

✔ May take Amex

Many places such as Shoppers Drug Mart or 7-Eleven have $100-$500 prepaid MasterCards or Visas available for purchase, which are normally used as gift cards. However, both these places take Amex, so if you've got a hefty spend to meet, you could pay for the gift card now and spend the balance later. This is a great way to meet Amex minimum spend, since these prepaid cards work like any normal MasterCard or Visa and can be used at places that don't accept Amex.

13. Pay your taxes and utilities through a bill payment app

✔ 2.5-2.85% fee

✔ MasterCard, Visa, Amex (depends on payment method)

We're getting into the non-free ways to meet minimum spend, so this should only be done if you've already used up the options above. Some municipalities have started accepting credit card payments for a fee for property taxes, which you’ll have to check on their website. There are also apps that offer credit card payments for income taxes, property taxes and utilities for a fee.

Paysimply: Paysimply is specifically for paying taxes to the Canada Revenue Agency, municipalities, utilities and tuition. MasterCard, Visa and American Express are accepted credit cards and come with a 2.5% fee.

Plastiq: With Plastiq, there is a flat 2.85% fee no matter what type of card you use. Note that you can also pay your mortgage with Plastiq, but it only accepts MasterCard. This is one of the best ways to meet American Express minimum spends, as Plastiq is used by more vendors than Paysimply.

Note that all of these methods assume you can actually pay off the credit card bill even if you're accelerating some of your normal spending. Always ensure you can actually pay off the balance of your credit cards each month - that's how you make travel rewards a part of your lifestyle!