Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.TPG reader Matthew asks:“Most airline credit cards I see say, “Please allow 6 to 8 weeks for Credits to post to your account” for their sign-up bonuses. If I want to travel within those 6-8 weeks (i.e. go home for Thanksgiving), is there any way to expedite that process, or specific cards that don’t have that mandatory hold period?“Most credit card bonuses post when your statement closes after you have hit the minimum spending threshold required to earn that bonus. In order to get the sign-up bonus as quickly as possible, hit that minimum spending threshold as quickly as possible to get your points sooner. Banks also tend to be pretty flexible if you call them up to ask them to switch your statement closing date because a lot of people do this to synchronize their statements all coming in at once. You can ask them to bump it up sooner, and that way the points hit your account faster.In order to get the sign-up bonus as quickly as possible, hit that minimum spending ASAP.Some issuers are better about this than others. American Express, for instance, imposes a one-month pending phase between earning the bonus and receiving the points in your account, but you can always call them up and say that you’ve hit your minimum spend, you’ve paid off your statement and you’d like the points immediately because you need them, and they might be willing to work with you.Above all, be proactive and polite, and remember, it never hurts to ask!
