We often get questions about whether or not someone who doesn’t spend much can do this hobby. Can low-spenders travel with points and miles? Absolutely! Ideally, you want to be paying about $1,000 a month on items you can put on a credit card to meet your minimum spend.  Be sure to think of all the ways you can possibly put purchases on your credit card. Here are some other suggestions.

 

Enlist the Help of Family

Maybe you can’t meet certain minimum spends, but your family has expenses that you can put on your card and be reimbursed for. Readers always tell me how their parents use their credit cards to purchase things like a new couch. The parents aren’t interested in this hobby, but are happy to help their children.

 

 

Pick Up the Tab

When you go out to eat or on vacation, volunteer to pick up the tab for the restaurant, groceries, or even the flights, and have your travel companions Venmo you their share. When my daughters and I travel, we always let the person who is meeting minimum spend pick up the tab and reimburse them.

Team coaches can volunteer to put the new team uniforms on their credit cards and get reimbursed. Teachers can buy school supplies and get refunded. Leaders of church groups can pay for activity expenses, etc. Can low-spenders travel with credit card points and miles? Yes, with a little help from their friends!

 

 

Pick Credit Cards with Low Minimum Spends

There are credit cards with low minimum spends, so tackle those first if necessary. Get in the groove of earning and using points/miles slowly, then see if you can figure out how to get the cards that require a bigger minimum spend.

When you go to our best offers page, you can “Filter By Bonus Spending.” You can see that some cards require a minimum spend of less than $1,000 in three months. However, the cards with better bonuses usually require at least $2,000-$4,000.

 

 

 

Cards with Low Minimum Spends

Our favorite cards, the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Capital One Venture X both have a minimum spend of $4,000 in the first 3 months. See if you can use some of our methods above to get those bonuses.

Here are some credit cards with lower minimum spend that might interest you:

• Chase Ink Cash—35,000 points after you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months + an additional 40,000 points after you spend $6,000 in 6 months. The minimum spend on this card is typically $6,000 in 3 months, but they’ve doubled the amount of time to hit it!
• Chase Freedom Flex —the minimum spend is only $500, and you get $200 cash back or 20,000 Ultimate Rewards (you’ll need a Chase Sapphire Preferred, Reserve, or Business Ink Preferred Card to be able to transfer those points out to airline and hotel transfer partners).
• Delta Gold Card—Only do this if the offer is 70K miles. It usually has a $2,000 minimum spend, and the annual fee is waived the first year.
• Barclays Aviator Red Card—60,000 AA miles and only one purchase on the card is needed. This is the easiest minimum spend to hit in points and miles. The annual fee is $99.
• Capital One VentureOne Rewards Card—20,000 Venture Miles (worth $200) after a $500 minimum spend and no annual fee.
• American Express Green Card—40,000 American Express Membership Rewards after spending $3,000 in the first 6 months (that’s just $500/month).
• Hilton Honors American Express Card—100,000 Hilton Honors points after spending $2,000 in 6 months. 100,000 points may sound like a ton, but this will probably get you one nice stay or two okay stays at a Hilton.
• Marriott Bonvoy Bold Card—Only apply if the offer is 60,000 Marriott points after spending $2,000 in 3 months. It has no annual fee.
• Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Card—The bonus on this card fluctuates, but the standard offer is 50,000 Southwest points after spending $1,000 in 3 months.

 

Bottom Line

The more spend you can put on a credit card, the more points and miles you’ll earn. However, you can still save on vacations and travel if you spend less. Can low-spenders travel with credit card points and miles? Absolutely! Free is free, and even if you do it on a smaller scale, it is amazing! If you have other tricks for low-spenders, please share them!