New, Lower $3,000 Spending Requirement on SPG Cards

August 21, 2014
|In SPG
|By Scott Grimmer

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Longtime reader Scott forwarded me an offer for the Starwood Preferred Guest personal and business credit cards that I’ve never seen before. Instead of the normal $5,000 minimum spending requirement in 6 months, these cards come with a $3,000 minimum spending requirement in the first 3 months.

Screen Shot 2014-08-21 at 3.07.30 AM

Both cards come with 25,000 bonus Starpoints after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months. That is a lower total spending requirement, but actually works out to more per month ($1,000) than the standard offer of $5,000 in 6 months ($834.)

This offer seems targeted in the sense that it was emailed to Scott, but I can open it in my browser. In my experience, banks always honor the terms of the offer that you apply for.

  • How do these offers compare to the standard offer?
  • Are you eligible for these offers if you’ve had Starwood cards before?
  • Should you wait for a 30k offer on the Starwood cards?
  • What are the best uses for Starpoints?

What is different about these offers?

Other than the minimum spending requirement and time frame, these offers appear identical to the other publicly available SPG card offers.

  • Earn up to 25,000 bonus Starpoints
  • 2 points per dollar on SPG stays, 1 point per dollar elsewhere
  • $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $65.

Who is eligible?

You can get both SPG cards on the same day no problem if you’ve never had either card before.

If you’ve ever had the personal SPG card before, you are ineligible to earn the sign up bonus on the card again. This is a new American Express policy as of May 1, 2014 for personal card sign up bonuses.

Screen Shot 2014-08-21 at 3.07.38 AMIf you’ve had the business SPG card before, accrued experience suggests that you can get the bonus again if your old SPG business card has been closed for at least one year.

Should You Wait for a 30k Offer?

About once a year, American Express offers both SPG cards with a 30,000 point sign up bonus instead of the standard 25,000. The deal came up in August 2013 and June 2014.

My speculation is that we won’t see another 30k offer until 2015, so I wouldn’t wait for one if you have your eye on the card.

Best Uses for Starpoints

Here is my Starwood primer, so you can understand how to use Starpoints for transfers to airline miles, hotels, and all the other great uses.

Here are some in-depth articles on top uses:

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