Credit Card Bonuses With Low Minimum Spend Requirements (Under $500 & $1,000)

Not everybody is able to spend a huge amount on their credit card every month, some offers required spending of $10,000/$5,000 or even $3,000 in three months and that’s simply not realistic for a lot of people. You can argue that you could manufacture spend (even through simple methods as funding a new bank account), but not everybody is interested in learning that.

I still think that credit card bonuses can be valuable for people in this situation, previously I put together a list of credit cards that have no minimum spend requirements and I thought similar lists would be useful for low minimum spend requirements. I’m going to split this into two sections:

• Minimum spend requirements that are under $500 within three months or 90 days
• Minimum spend requirements that are under $1,000 within three months or 90 days

As always, I’m sure I’m going to miss lots of bonuses so please let me know what I did miss in the comments below. I’ve tried to put these in order in terms of what I think are the best to worse offers. I have also only included an offer if it’s the best offer available (e.g there is a $150 offer on the Blue Cash Everyday card that requires $500 in spend, but I didn’t include it as there is another offer for $250 for $1,000 in spend).

The majority of the offers are coming from Barclaycard & Bank of America, as Chase & American Express seem to favor bigger bonuses with bigger spend requirements.

$500 & Under

Nationwide

• Chase Freedom Unlimited: $150 after $500 in spend, another $25 for adding an authorized user. Best if you apply in branch and then get matched to the $300 after $500 in spend offer.
• Chase Freedom: $150 after $500 in spend, another $25 for adding an authorized user.
• Chase Disney: $200 in Disney gift cards after $500 in spend.
• Barclaycard Frontier Airlines: 40,000 points after $500 in spend. Annual fee of $65 not waived.
• Bank of America AAA: $100 after $250 in spend.
• U.S. Bank Cash+: $100 after $500 in spend.
• U.S. Bank Cash 365: $100 after $500 in spend.
• Capital One Quicksilver: $100 after $500 in spend. No annual fee.
• Chase AARP: $100 after $500 in spend. Keep in mind bonus sometimes goes as high as $200.
• American Express Lowe’s Business Card: $100 back upon approval with no requirements. No annual fee.

Location Restricted

• TD Cash Rewards: $150 after $500 in spend. Restricted to the following states: CT, DC, DE, FL, MD, ME, MA, NC, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, SC, VT, & VA
• TD Ameritrade Client Rewards Credit Card: $100 after $500 in spend. Restricted to the following states: CT, DC, DE, FL, MD, ME, MA, NC, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, SC, VT, & VA

$1,000 & Under

• Bank of America Alaska Airlines: 30,000 mile & $100 statement credit after $1,000 in spend. Annual fee of $75 is not waived. Basically $25 + 30,000 points.
• Barclaycard JetBlue Plus: 30,000 points after $1,000 in spend. Annual fee of $99 not waived first year.
• American Express Hilton HHonors (No Annual Fee): 75,000 points after $1,000 in spend.
• TD Aeroplan Visa Signature Credit Card: 25,000 miles after $1,000 spend. Annual fee of $95 is waived first year
• Virgin America White: 15,000 points after $1,000 in spend. Annual fee of $149 not waived.
• Barclaycard Choice Privileges 32,000 Points After $1,000 In Spend + $25 After First Purchase. No annual fee.
• Variety of Wells Fargo cards offering $150 back after $1,000 in spend. Different benefits and rewards structure on each card as well.
• Bank of America Travel Rewards: 20,000 points after $1,000 in spend within 90 days.
• Various Wells Fargo Cards: $150/15,000 points after $1,000 in spend.
• Virgin America Black: 10,000 points after $1,000 in spend. Annual fee of $49 not waived.
• FNBO Best Western Premium Mastercard: 50,000 bonus points after $1,000 in spend. Annual fee of $59 is waived.
• Citi Expedia+: 15,00 points after $1,000 in spend.
• Fidelity Visa: $100 after $1,000 in spend, also earns 2% cash back on all purchases.
• Citi Premier: 15,000 ThankYou points after $1,000 in spend (or 10,000 + $100 statement credit with $1,000 in spend and $100 Live Nation purchase)
• Total Rewards Visa Card: 10,000 points after $750 in spend. You can also get up to three nights free.
• Schwab Investor Card From American Express; $100 after $1,000 in spend. Must be Schwab customer.
• Barclaycard JetBlue Card: 10,000 points after $1,000 in spend. No annual fee.
• Chase United MileagePlus Explorer card: 30,000 miles after $1,000 in spend. This one isn’t recommended due to the fact the bonus can go as high as 75,000 miles + $50.

YMMV:

• Blue Cash Everyday: $250 after $1,000 in spend within three months and 10% back on Amazon purchases (up to $200 back). Card also has no annual fee to worry about.
• Blue Cash Preferred: $250 after $1,000 in spend within three months and 10% back on Amazon purchases (up to $200 back). Same offer as above but for the Preferred card that doesn’t have the $95 annual fee waived.
• American Express Green/Gold Card: 25,000 American Express Membership Rewards points after $1,000 in spend.

Business:

• Bank of America Alaska Business Card: 30,000 miles after $1,000 in spend. Annual fee of $75 not waived. Not as good as the personal offer, but still worth considering.
• Barclaycard JetBlue Business Card: 30,000 points after $1,000 in spend. Annual fee of $99 not waived.
• Barclaycard Hawaiian Airline: 35,000 miles after $1,000 in spend. $89 annual fee.

Cards Not Included

• Chase IHG 65,000 points after $1,000 in spend. Possible to get matched to 80,000 but requires $2,000 in spend.
• Bank of America Cash Rewards: $100 after $500 in spend. Offers for $200 come around so frequently that I’d recommend waiting for those.

Our Verdict

Hopefully people find this list useful, I’ll keep it updated if readers help me out (if not, I’ll periodically completely refresh the post). Sometimes you want to grab a bonus but don’t have much spending capacity left (or don’t have much to start with) so this should help with that.

If there is interest I’ll do a list of the best current credit card sign up bonuses, much like our list of the best bank account bonuses.