Never Miss a Bonus: How to Track A New Card’s Minimum Spending Requirement

Have you ever created a spreadsheet to ensure you spent the required amount to earn that big welcome bonus on your new travel rewards card ? Or, even worse, failed to spend enough in time to earn those points? Gulp.
Work smarter, not harder. If you're lucky, the bank behind your credit card will have a welcome bonus tracker that makes it easy to see your progress. If not, there are plenty of ways to stay on top of your spending to see how close you are to earning that new, big welcome bonus.
Just remember: Credit cards are serious business . You should never apply for a credit card if you're already in debt, and never charge more to a credit card than you can afford to pay off immediately. However many points and miles you can earn, they're not worth it.
Let's take a look at some ways to keep track of your welcome bonus spending progress.
 

 
Track it Online with Many Banks
Some credit card companies make it quite easy to track your minimum spend progress through your online account.
Our Credit Cards Editor, Jackson, recently picked up the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey Visa® Card . And with that card, he can easily track his progress towards meeting the card's minimum spend through his Wells Fargo online account. It's prominently displayed in the app along with all his recent transactions. Wells Fargo also provides a (slightly less comprehensive) bonus tracker on the desktop version of its site. 
 

 
With American Express , it gets a little more complicated. While they don't necessarily have a designated welcome bonus offer tracker, there is a workaround: Simply view your card benefits under “Rewards & Benefits.”
As you can see below, Amex tracks my spending on *amex platinum*  towards complimentary guest access into Amex's Centurion Lounges . It might not show how much I need to spend or the deadline to do so, but I'm using that to ensure I spend the $8,000 within six months of opening the card to earn the massive 175,000-point bonus .
 

 
Many Amex credit cards have these progress bars that show how much cardholders need to spend to earn certain perks like unlimited guest lounge access , free hotel nights , or complimentary hotel status . Although many of these perks have absurdly high spending requirements that many cardholders won't bother to pursue, it doubles as a neat workaround to track welcome bonus spending on some of Amex's travel cards since it displays your cumulative spending.
From Amex's Delta co-branded card to the bank's portfolio of hotel cards with Hilton and Marriott, you're going to want took for the trackers that record your total spending on a card – not just specific statement credits and spending categories. 
For example, my *Hilton Surpass* gives me a free night certificate if I spend $15,000 a year. I probably won't do that, but it's a good way for me to track my total spending on the card each year.
 

 
Instead of waiting for those bonus points to hit my account – which happened immediately for me but can take longer for others – I would know exactly when I spent enough on the card. 
 

 
Another way to keep track of your spending with American Express – or any bank, for that matter – is to simply fire up the online chat feature within your account. Messaging with an Amex rep to confirm your current spending and the amount of time left is a surefire way to make sure you don't miss out on earning your new card's welcome offer. 
Fortunately, other banks like Chase and Capital One come with built-in welcome bonus offer trackers that make it easy to stay on top of your spending.
With Chase, all you have to do is click on your specific card in the Chase app or access the Chase Ultimate Rewards page to view your progress. Thrifty Traveler Co-Founder Nick, for example, is more than halfway toward meeting the minimum spending requirement on his new *Ink Cash* .
 

 
Our chief flight deal analyst, Jon, was able to easily view the remaining spending required to hit the welcome bonus offer on his Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® . He just logged in, clicked on rewards, and selected his specific card. 
 

 
Instead of trying to be your own accountant, check your online credit card account to track your welcome bonus spending!
 
Track With a Spreadsheet
Sometimes, doing it yourself is just the easiest (and most certain) method of all. I just snagged the *bonvoy brilliant* because of its current welcome offer: bonus_miles_full
Although spending an average of $1,000 a month is manageable for many cardholders, the problem isn't meeting the minimum spend requirement – it's keeping track of your progress. Since credit card billing cycles start and end on a random monthly date, it can be hard to get a status report of your total spending at any given time.
Read more: How to Change Your Credit Card Bill Due Date (& Why You Should)
That's where spreadsheets come in. You could simply input each transaction – or export and copy them over from your online account – and track the sum as you spend on your new card.
 

 
This is exactly what I did when my new Bonvoy Brilliant card arrived. As you can see, I hit my minimum spend with just a little room to spare. Had I not entered my purchases on the spreadsheet, I likely would've kept swiping this card when there are other far more rewarding options in my wallet.
 
Stay Organized & On Deadline with Travel Freely
It's crucial not to miss the deadline for meeting your new card's minimum spending requirement. 
Nothing's worse than spending thousands of dollars only to come up a few hundred dollars (or less) short of earning a big bonus. And in many cases, that might be the only chance you get. 
Depending on the bank, simply having the card once could make you ineligible for another try at the bonus later on – or you'll have to wait for several years. And with Amex's new “family restrictions,” you might not be eligible for other new card bonuses either. Talk about a double whammy! 
That's where Travel Freely comes in.
Travel Freely is an online tool that automates your credit card organization. It keeps you up to date with many of the most important dates and reminders for all your credit cards. To get started, you'll need to some simple information your new card: What card it is, when you opened it, and what the bonus offer is. Travel Freely will take it from there:

It'll automatically track how much time you have to meet a minimum spending requirement in order to earn your welcome bonus.
You'll get an email alert 45 days before your annual fee is due on each card, giving you ample time to decide whether to keep that card or cancel it.
Based on how many cards you've added to your Travel Freely account and when, it will calculate your current Chase 5/24 status. That's critical, as Chase will deny you for almost any credit card if you've opened five or more credit cards in the last 24 months – from any bank, not just Chase.  Read more on the Chase 5/24 rule !
Considering picking up a new credit card? Travel Freely will even time out when you are most likely to get approved, using a 90-day window from your last approval.

One of our favorite parts about Travel Freely is that it allows you to track both open and closed credit cards for up to two users. So if you're in two-player mode – managing credit cards for both yourself and a spouse or significant other – it makes it easy to track both in one place.
Notably, Travel Freely doesn't keep any sensitive information about any of your credit cards. When you add a card to your dashboard, you simply enter the date on which you opened it and the welcome offer bonus. You never enter your credit card number or account information – or any other personal information, for that matter.
Read more:   Travel Freely: The Best Way to Keep Credit Cards Organized
 
Bottom Line
It's one of the most important pieces of earning points, but it doesn't take much to track your welcome bonus spending. All of the tools that you need are at your disposal.
If you're into spreadsheets, there's no shame in that game. For others, it'll be easiest to track your spending by using the online tools provided by the bank.