Which Credit Card Issuers Will Expedite Your Signup Bonus Points Or Miles?

There are a lot of reasons as to why you might want your loyalty points from a credit card to be expedited, there might be a limited time transfer bonus, you might want to book upcoming flights or hotels or any number of other valid reasons. Thankfully some credit card issuers actually let you get these points faster than you normally would, let’s take a look at each card issuer and see what their rules are.

American Express

American Express is a little bit weird as when you’ve meet the minimum spend requirement and the statement has closed, your points will usually going into ‘pending’ (e.g they can’t be used or transferred). Typically the points then become available for use the following month.

It is possible to get American Express to expedite these pending points, there are a couple of rules you need to follow though and some customer service representatives will say it cannot be done. In cases like those, hang up and call again (HUCA) or use a different method to ask (e.g if you’ve been calling, try sending a message and vice versa). Here are the rules:

• You must have paid your statement balance in full
• Points must be pending (e.g you must have reached the minimum spend requirement and your statement must have closed)

Points skipping pending

Sometimes people’s points won’t go into pending status and will be automatically be available for use after hitting the minimum spend requirement (only the sign up bonus points, points from the actual spending still need to wait for the statement to close to become available).

I’m not sure why this happens, but I assume it has something to do with your account status with American Express. Maybe holding a premium card (e.g American Express Platinum?) causes this to occur, or maybe you’re identified as a profitable customer. Who knows, feel free to theorize in the comments.

Update: pretty sure this happens when you already have a card that earns those points/miles. For example if you already have a membership rewards earning account and sign up for another card with a membership rewards bonus these points will not go into pending.

Points Advance

In the past it was possible to borrow points from American Express, the amount of points you were able to borrow depended on the card you held and wanted to borrow for (ranging from 5,000 to 60,000 points). This program ended officially on June 30th, 2013. You might still be able to borrow points, but as the program has been discontinued don’t rely on being able to do so.

Bank of America

Have not seen any evidence that this is possible with Bank of America, please share any experiences you have in the comments below.

Barclaycard

With Barclaycard branded cards (e.g Barclaycard Arrival+) the sign up bonus will post with the transaction that causes you to meet the minimum spend requirement (this includes the Sallie Mae credit card). Co-branded partner cards will have their points post after the statement closes. Unsure if changing the statement date will expedite the points or not (please share your experiences in the comments).

Thanks to FI by 40 for this information.

Capital One

Again, no idea. Share your experiences in the comments.

Chase

Technically Chase doesn’t allow you to expedite your points posting, what you can do is change your statement balance date and move it forward. Because bonus points are based on your statement date, this means you can get those points faster than you normally would.

Obviously if you’re using this tactic with Chase, you need to remember that sign up bonuses will not post until you’ve reached the minimum spend requirement. There is no point in moving your statement date forward if you won’t have reached that minimum spend requirement.

You can also use this tactic in reverse, let’s say that you wanted your points to post later than normal you could ask Chase to change your statement date to further in the future to achieve this goal. People often want to do this when they are aiming for a Southwest companion pass.

Citi

American Airline Miles

Reader, John F reports he was able to call American Airlines who then called Citi to verify that he had meet the minimum spend requirement. American Airlines then let him borrow the 100,000 points so that he could book his ticket before the points posted.

Bring Statement Date Forward

Some people have had success with getting their points from Citi earlier than expected, by using the same method as discussed in the Chase section (bringing your statement close date forward). The problem is that just as many people have had this cause the complete opposite effect in that their statement close date was actually extended, meaning it would take longer for the points to post than if you’ve had done nothing.

I’m not really sure why/how this happens, but when you’re talking to a Citi representative they should be able to tell you the date (and month) of when they are moving your statement close date to. If anybody else has any other experiences or knowledge in this matter please share in comments. I’ll be testing this myself soon.

Hilton Award Certificates

It also might be possible to get your Hilton award certificates to post sooner than expected by prepaying your balance in full (e.g so nothing is owing) before your statement closes. Otherwise you usually need to wait ~7 days.

Discover

Discover doesn’t have any miles or loyalty point earning cards. The only reason why I can see you’d want your points expedited is to get them doubled before the end of your first year on the Discover it Miles card. I’m unsure if this is possible. Share your experiences in the comments

US Bank

A lot of people might want to get their annual bonus points expedited before the devaluation to the Club Carlson program and the removal of the last night free night benefit. According to this thread, nobody has had success in getting that done yet.

Again, any experience share in the comments below.

Wells Fargo

Another bank with no real travel partners, not sure if it’s possible to get sign up bonuses expedited or not. Share your experiences in the comments.

Smaller Issuers

NFCU

• Does not expedite according to this data point: 1

Final Thoughts

As you can see, it’s possible for some card issuers and we don’t have information on other card issuers. Posts like this rely on you the reader to make them better, so if you have ANY experience with any of the card issuers please comment below so we can improve this page and the website as a whole.