A very rookie question as I’m new to this but: I have signed up to a new credit card, and met the minimum spend. When should I expect bonus points? Are there any tricks I should be aware of (i.e do I also need to pay off the balance before the minimum spend period ends etc.)
Sorry if this has been asked before - I tried to search the forum but, naturally, credit cards triggers a tonne of results.
Hi and welcome
One of the main rules of pointhacking is: You always pay your credit card bill (due/closing amount) in full before the due date. Otherwise, any interest charged negates the benefits of the points earned. (Maybe you could argue that for sign up bonuses it is worth paying interest. I haven’t done the calcs. But it is a dangerous habit.)
General process is: Apply credit card-> meet qualifying spend → wait for signup bonus to arrive → decide to keep or cancel card. Rinse and repeat.
Hi, thanks for the reply. Apologies - I’ve probably worded my question poorly.
I guess what I meant is what is/are the typical conditions required to trigger the payment of the signup bonus to arrive.
That is, is it triggered immediately after the qualifying spend is met? Or at the end of that statement period (i.e if you meet the qualifying spend halfway through the 2nd month, the bonus arrives at the end of the month)? Or only after payment (i.e if you meet the qualifying spend halfway through the 2nd month, the bonus arrives only after complete payment of the 2nd months statement)?
Using your general process, I have met qualifying spend and am waiting for the signup bonus to arrive and want to ensure any additional conditions are met before cancelling the card.
The answer might be that I should trawl through the T’s and C’s, but figured I’d post here in case there are some common errors people make when doing this.
Every card is different in when they pay the signup bonuses. E.g. Amex is nearly the next couple of days after meeting qualifying spend, some will be the next statement, some will be X number of weeks/months as per T&C.
If your qualifying spend is indeed qualifying spend (e.g. not cash advance, some cards don’t earn points for government spend), it should be just a matter of time. A quick check is, if the transaction earn points, it should be a qualifying spend.
Perfect - I’ll check the Ts and Cs to ensure my spend qualified, and to know when to expect the bonus. Thanks for the help.