An easy way to meet minimum spending requirements using purchases you've already made

July 12, 2021

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3 min read

An easy way to meet minimum spending requirements using purchases you've already made

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Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here – Chase Sapphire Preferred Card

Like just about everyone I know, I recently applied for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, to take advantage of the card's best-ever 100,000-point bonus.

It's a heck of a deal — after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening, I'll have 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points, worth $2,000 according to TPG's valuations.

While I shouldn't have much trouble hitting that $4,000 mark — hotel stays, restaurant purchases and flight bookings will get me there, while also earning 5x total points on all travel and 3x points on dining — I discovered a new "trick" to help me quickly close the gap.

It's simple as can be: I moved a handful of posted transactions from other cards to my Chase Sapphire Preferred Card.

To start, I called up two hotels I stayed with last month, and also messaged Lyft regarding a recent airport ride. In all three cases, I asked if I could move the transaction to a different card — I didn't face a hint of resistance.

For those three transactions, the whole process took roughly 10 minutes, including submitting a request through the Lyft app and calling up both hotels — one of which sent me a credit card authorization form to fill out online.

All three of the merchants charged my Sapphire Preferred card within a few minutes, and two have already processed refunds to my original card — which appear as pending transactions online.

For now, I only "moved" charges from the past few weeks, but I imagine I could ask to change the payment method for some older transactions, too.

Of course, this solution isn't limited to the current Chase Sapphire Preferred Card offer — you could use this option to meet minimum spending requirements with other cards, too.

Just be careful to avoid refunding charges that were previously used to earn a welcome bonus or statement credit on another card, as the move could land you in hot water with another issuer.