This financial advisor opened 3 credit cards to pay for his wedding—why he doesn’t recommend that strategy for everyone

Generally, opening up a new credit card with a generous welcome bonus requires you to spend a certain amount of money on the card within the first couple of months of opening the account. 

While wedding planning, Ma opened a Starwood Preferred Guest® American Express Luxury Card. It came with the change to earn 25,000 Starwood points in his first six months of having the card (10,000 points after his first purchase, plus 15,000 points after spending $5,000 within six months). The card has since been folded into the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card.

Ma and his wife also both opened a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card individually to help cover the costs. At the time, Ma estimates that the welcome bonus on the Preferred Card was 50,000 points after spending $2,000 to $3,000 after three months. Today, the card offers 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months, which can be worth up to $750 toward travel when redeemed through Chase Ultimate Rewards^®.

Spending thousands of dollars in a three-month period can be a lot for the average consumer, but paying for a wedding presented Ma with a unique opportunity. He already had a lot of additional expenses and by opening new credit cards, he could earn travel rewards that would significantly decrease the cost of the honeymoon.

But you really have to plan ahead. You need to apply for the credit card, be approved and have the card handy to charge the expenses as they arise. Not to mention it’s important to have a pay-off plan as well.

“In one transaction, we were able to meet the minimum spend required for each card,” Ma says of paying for the wedding venue. “At the same time, we earned around 180,000 in travel points, which we used to pay for a large portion of our honeymoon in Italy.”