Seek and Ye May Find a Better Sign-Up Bonus
A few minutes can yield thousands of extra points and miles
A key strategy of the points and miles game is taking advantage of sign-up bonuses (SUBs) after applying for a new credit card. Some can be quite generous and provide enough points or miles for a roundtrip ticket to Europe or several nights at hotels. Several SUBs I have picked up over the past decade have been worth more than $1,000 in free travel.
When using a new credit card that offers a SUB, the gravest sin is to not reach the spending threshold the issuer requires to award you the bonus. When you apply for a new card that offers a SUB:
- Be sure that you will be able to put enough purchases on the new card in the allocated time. Most personal cards have bonus spending thresholds that are easily achievable; thresholds for some premium business cards might be more challenging for smaller businesses.
- Be prepared to meet the threshold at least two weeks before the time the issuer gives you. If the issuing bank gives you three months to meet the spending threshold, complete it in 2.5 months. This is because the period the issuer gives you (typically 3-6 months) begins when you are approved, not when you receive and activate the card. There is often a gap of 7-10 days between approval and receipt of the card.
- Bear in mind that the annual fee charged by the issuer does NOT count toward your spending threshold.
And now, an important secret about SUBs. All SUBs are not created equal.
It is common for issuers, especially American Express to offer one, common sign-up bonus at the primary site for a credit card but higher offers at other sites. Some current examples include:
- The main offer for the Amex Gold card is a 60,000-point SUB, but some people are finding 80,000-point SUBs.
- The standard offer for the Amex Platinum is an 80,000-point sub, but I have run across 100K and 120K point SUBs.
- I have seen very different offers for the Chase Freedom Flex card. Some offer a modest flat bonus where some offers include 5X points on groceries for the first year (an offer that would be worth significantly more for some households).
Because the more generous offers are not standard, they require some digging and different people will get different results. My practice, when applying for a new card, is to spend about five minutes looking for better SUB offers by:
- Trying different search engines when researching a specific card.
- Performing a search for the card in incognito mode.
- Using a different device than the laptop I work on most (phone, another computer).
Sometimes, the offers with a higher SUB are identical to the standard offer in every other respect. However, they might differ in that the spending threshold for the bonus is higher or perhaps the higher SUB offer requires you to pay the annual fee for the first year while the standard offer waives the annual fee for the first year. If there are such differences, you need to decide if the value of the higher SUB is compelling enough to take it.
When you start your search, it is important that you be ready to apply if you find an attractive offer. Strong offers might disappear if you leave the website and come back later. It is important to have your Social Security number and household income information available (or an EIN if you are applying for a business credit card and your business has an EIN).
When we create a Travel Rewards Optimizer plan for you, our guidance is based on the assumption that you will be able to procure standard sign-up bonuses. But, of course, we encourage you to spend a brief amount of time hunting for a better offer.
If you have your own stories about finding higher SUBs, we would like to hear about them.
We are ready to help you turn your routine credit card spending into the travel of your dreams.
