What is Minimum spend requirement?
A minimum spend requirement is the amount you have to charge to a new credit card within a set time window to earn its sign-up bonus. The issuer sets both a dollar target and a deadline, usually 3 to 6 months from the day your account opens. Hit the target in time and the bonus posts to your account. Fall short and you get nothing extra, just the normal points or cash back on whatever you bought.
How it works
Take the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Its offer is 100,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That works out to about $1,667 a month. Spend the full $5,000 in time and the 100,000 points land; stop at $4,999 and you earn only the ordinary points on those purchases, no bonus at all. A few rules trip people up. The clock starts on your account-opening date, not when the card arrives in the mail. Only purchases count, so balance transfers, cash advances, annual fees, and (usually) gift-card or wallet reloads don't move you toward the target. Returns get subtracted, so refunding a $500 item after you cross $5,000 can pull you back under the line. Requirements vary a lot by card. Wells Fargo Active Cash asks for just $500 in 3 months (about $167 a month) to earn its $200 bonus, easy to clear on everyday spending. The Amex Platinum wants $12,000 in 6 months (about $2,000 a month) for its 175,000-point welcome offer, which takes real planning or a big planned purchase to reach.
Why it matters when picking a card
The minimum spend tells you whether a bonus is actually within reach for you. A headline like "175,000 points" means nothing if you can't naturally put $12,000 on the card in six months. Before you apply, divide the target by the number of months in the window and compare that number to what you already spend. If it fits your normal budget, the bonus is close to free money. If it doesn't, buying things you don't need just to qualify can cost more in interest and wasted spending than the bonus is worth. Watch the window as closely as the dollar figure. $4,000 in 3 months is much tighter than $4,000 in 6 months even though the total is identical. The cleanest way to clear a high requirement is to time a big expense you were going to have anyway (a tax bill, a flight, a home project) so it lands inside the window.