Credit card bonus offers: When and how to take advantage of them

Did you know that fully refundable airline ticket purchases can be used to meet spending requirements for credit card bonus offers?

If you receive a great credit card offer where you receive 100k-150k in bonus points after a certain amount of spending, you should consider it. Particularly if you have a strong credit score. You may be thinking you don’t need any additional credit, and you don’t want to damage your good credit score. But if you stand to gain 100K-150K in free points (equivalent to $1,000 to $1,500), it may be worthwhile.

If you don’t need your high credit score for a home or car purchase in the near future, why not take advantage of the point offer? This can be particularly beneficial to someone who already owns their home and isn’t planning to make any major purchases on credit for the next year or so. But then the concern might be how to meet the high spending requirement of $10,000-$15,000 in a few short months. This is often easy to address.

You can easily make a purchase for the required amount, and then return the purchased item. Fully refundable airline tickets are a great solution for this. A refundable first-class ticket to Asia, for example can easily run over $10,000. Call the airline, choose a date sufficiently far away, and request a ticket class that is fully refundable. Once you meet the credit card promotional spend amount, and your points register, simply cancel the tickets. Credit card companies typically do not remove points after you return an item. Particularly not after statement has been issued?