The Top Credit Card Spending Bonuses (updated January 31, 2015)

There are a few updates and corrections from the last time I wrote about top credit card spending bonuses. I have always strongly recommended that financial institutions give more spending bonuses for reaching minimum spend requirements. The reason is because if the bonuses are reasonable enough, there is more incentive to retain a credit card year after year, rather than cancelling a credit card after the first year (for credit cards where the first year annual fee is waived).

For example, let’s say you are paying a $120 annual fee. If there is incentive where you can get the annual fee waived if you spend $10,000 after one year of having the credit card, that is definitely an obvious incentive to retain the credit card. Another incentive would be to give away more bonus points for reaching certain minimum spend requirements in a calendar year

Currently, it is fairly slim pickings in Canada in terms of top spend bonuses. Below is a list of the current top offers:

American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card

• $120 annual fee
• Earn 1 point for every $1 spent on all purchases
• Spend $30,000 a year (anniversary year of having the credit card) to receive an automatic upgrade to Starwood Gold Preferred Guest membership
• Spend $40,000 a year (anniversary year of having the credit card) to receive a Free Weekend Night Award

American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card

• $150 annual fee
• Earn 1 point for every $1 spent on all purchases
• Spend $30,000 a year (anniversary year of having the credit card) to receive an automatic upgrade to Starwood Gold Preferred Guest membership
• Spend $40,000 a year (anniversary year of having the credit card) to receive a Free Weekend Night Award

Capital One IHG Rewards Club World MasterCard

• $120 annual fee
• Earn 5 points for every $1 spent spent at any hotel within the IHG family of hotels
• Earn 2 points for every $1 spent on all other purchases
• Spend $10,000 to receive 5,000 bonus points (no limit on how many times you can earn the 5,000 bonus points)

Capital One Delta SkyMiles World MasterCard

• $120 annual fee
• Earn 3 points for every $1 spent on Delta purchases
• Earn 2 points for every $1 on all other purchases
• Spend at least $25,000 (in the anniversary year of having the credit card) to earn 10,000 bonus points

Capital One IHG Rewards Club Platinum MasterCard

• No annual fee
• Earn 2 points for every $1 spent spent at any hotel within the IHG family of hotels
• Earn 1 point for every $1 spent on all other purchases
• Spend $10,000 to earn an annual bonus of 5,000 points

MBNA Best Western Rewards Platinum Plus

• No annual fee
• Earn 1.5 point for every $1 spent on all purchases
• Spent $6,000 in a calendar year to receive a one tier elite status upgrade within the Best Western Rewards program