News hit yesterday that the Barclaycard Arrival Plus® World Elite Mastercard® is being pulled indefinitely. (Related: Last Chance to Apply for the Barclaycard Arrival Plus Card). This is a great card although it comes with a $5,000 minimum spend requirement to earn the 70,000 bonus miles. Compared to what else is out there, this is an average to high requirement. If you do not think spending this amount is obtainable, but really want to get the card, there is a quick way to meet the minimum spend. Update: This card is no longer available to new applicants.
This is also the best welcome offer we’ve seen for the card worth a fixed $700 towards travel. With this card, you’ll earn 2x miles on every single purchase. Not only that, when you go to redeem your miles, you’ll receive a 5% rebate back on your points. Ultimately this means you are earning 2.11% back on all purchases.
Plastiq
Plastiq is an online bill payment system where you can pay bills via credit card where the merchant will note take credit cards directly. There are some restrictions with what you can and cannot pay through Plastiq, and a lot of it depends on the credit card used. Fortunately, Mastercards, which the Barclaycard Arrival Plus card is, allows you to pay many merchants, including your mortgage. For those that currently have a mortgage on their house, which is most (unfortunately), use Plastiq to meet that minimum spend and you are smooth sailing onto earning those bonus miles! Here is a handy guide on other expenses you can pay with Plastiq and a Mastercard, but other popular ones include: rent, taxes, utilities, contractors, college tuition, after school programs, pre-school, summer camp, accountants, etc.
Plastiq has been one of my favorite ways to earn points and miles over the past few years and hit minimum spend bonuses, but it is not free. Plastiq does charge a 2.5% fee on all charges, although many times throughout the year they run special offers with Mastercard credit cards specifically. We’ve seen promotions where you pay as low as 1.5% so be on the look out to see if any such promotions come out this summer. Note: Plastiq sends a check to the merchant typically within a week of initiating the payment. I use Plastiq monthly (if not more) and have never had an issue.
The Math
If you are a new member to Plastiq you’ll earn 500 fee-free dollars after your first $500 spend, so spend the $500 first and then you will pay no fee on your next $500. This means if you spend a total of $5,000 through Plastiq with your Mastercard, you are ultimately spending $112.50 on fees (you’ll only be paying fees on $4,500 due to the new member promo). Feel free to leave your Plastiq referral link in the comments section below for other readers to use.
With the Barclaycard Arrival Plus® World Elite Mastercard® you earn 2x miles on all purchases. This means, you’ll earn 10,000 miles, worth $100, on your $5,000 purchase with Plastiq. Ultimately, you are only paying $12.50 to meet your entire minimum spend requirement!Â
Overall…
It might be your last opportunity ever to apply for the card. Do not let the minimum spend requirement deter you from applying for this card, as Plastiq is an easy and extremely inexpensive way to do so!
Learn more about the Barclaycard Arrival Credit Card:
- My Recent Credit Card Approval: 70,000 Points with the Barclaycard Arrival Plus
- Best Ever 70,000 Miles with Barclaycard Arrival Plus!
- Redeeming Your 70,000 Miles from the Barclaycard Arrival Plus Best Ever Offer
- Top 8 Questions for the Barclaycard Arrival Plus Card
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Good information thanks for sharing
About every miles and points blog out there lists Plastiq as one way to meet minimum spend. Plus another 5 ways. To say you can *quickly* meet the minimum spend with Plastiq alone is a gross overstatement and really only applies to those with large mortgages.
I like some of the other posts here, but unfortunately this one is only marginally helpful to about 2% of your readers…
Here is my referral code for anyone interested to sign up 🙂
https://apps.plastiq.com/cardholder_ui/create?userId=1357041&validationCode=T38IYli6TTXKs4ySAjQ8N&referralCode=880223