minimum spend - includes foreign transaction fees?
May 3, 2015 | 7:19 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: SEA
Posts: 2,556
minimum spend - includes foreign transaction fees?
If someone has a $3,000 minimum spend (in order to get a miles/points bonus) on a credit card and they spent $2,900 on regular purchases and paid $100 in foreign transaction fees, have they met the spend…or are the foreign transaction fees considered to be something other than purchases (and therefore do not count as part of the minimum spend)?
May 3, 2015 | 8:57 pm
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: SEA
Posts: 2,556
The T&C state "Miles may be earned on purchases made by primary and employee card members". Not clear if the transaction fee is considered to be a part of the purchase. Will call the card issuer (but often each agent spoken to gives a slightly different answer), but also wanted to hear of others' experiences with this.
May 4, 2015 | 6:02 am
#5
Join Date: May 2009
Location: South Park, CO
Programs: Tegridy Elite
Posts: 5,677
The T&C state "Miles may be earned on purchases made by primary and employee card members". Not clear if the transaction fee is considered to be a part of the purchase. Will call the card issuer (but often each agent spoken to gives a slightly different answer), but also wanted to hear of others' experiences with this.
If in doubt and if for some reason the T&Cs are unclear, just assume the fees don't count - which again, is a safe bet.
May 4, 2015 | 10:39 am
#8
Moderator: American AAdvantage
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
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That's usually the case, AFAIK.
Last edited by JDiver; May 6, 2015 at 12:47 am Reason: Typo
May 4, 2015 | 6:49 pm
#9
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 26,113
it's minimum PURCHASES, not minimum SPEND
If someone has a $3,000 minimum spend (in order to get a miles/points bonus) on a credit card and they spent $2,900 on regular purchases and paid $100 in foreign transaction fees, have they met the spend…or are the foreign transaction fees considered to be something other than purchases (and therefore do not count as part of the minimum spend)?
Everyone makes the mistake of calling it "minimum spend", and that's what gets them into trouble.
I've never seen a promo that actually uses the term "minimum spend". It always spells it out as "make $XXXX in purchases within YYY time" (or similar wording). "Purchases" should not be ambiguous, but "spend' is more ambiguous, so by rephrasing the promo from "minimum purchases" to "minimum spend", and then thinking of it as "spend" rather than as "purchases", that's what IMHO leads to this erroneous thinking of things other than "purchases" counting in the "spend", which would never occur if people called it "minimum purchases".
(You may "spend" your money on paying fees, you may "spend" your money on paying interest, but it should very clear that you don't "purchase" fees and you don't "purchase" interest.)