Skip to main content
ARE YOU A VENDOR?

Post content has been hidden

To unblock this content, please click here

J
Expert May 2018

Getting “free Money” By Paying Wedding Expenses with Credit Cards

J, on December 31, 2017 at 6:14 PM Posted in Planning 1 24
Saved
Reply
My fiancé and I think we have a pretty good idea for paying off wedding expenses that I wanted to share with everyone. Neither of us had opened a credit card in a while and since we knew we’d be spending a lot on our wedding and we both have good credit, we looked into cards with good points programs. After some research, we each ended up getting Chase Sapphire Preferred cards and now we have over $1,600 between the two of us in travel points that we can use for our honeymoon (you get a crazy sign up bonus as long as you spend the minimum required amount within the first three months, which is pretty easy when you are paying for a wedding). We got this bonus just by using our credit cards to pay our daily expenses and by putting wedding expenses on them for about the past six months (our country club wedding venue randomly counted as a “dining” expense so we got bonus points!). And we still have a lot more to pay off when our wedding gets closer so will get even more points! We don’t carry a balance since the interest rates are really high, we just put the charges on our cards and then pay them off right away (and the wedding expenses are paid for with cash our parents kindly gave us, so the points are basically “free,” lol!!). If you are interested in doing something like this, of course it’s a good idea to do some research and find out which card is best for your situation. For example, if you need to stretch out your wedding payments you could also look into finding a different card that has zero APR for the first year because you can carry a balance for a while without having to worry about getting charged interest until the first year is over. Anyway, I know this won’t work for everyone, but I hope this might help some of you out since there’s so much to think about with wedding planning and I think credit cards points can be very helpful but are probably pretty easily overlooked!

24 Comments

Latest activity by Erin, on December 28, 2022 at 11:38 PM
  • Miaaa
    Super January 2018
    Miaaa ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content

    I've put a few wedding expenses on my credit card (also a chase sapphire preferred) and I pay it off every month. I've had the card longer than I've been planning the wedding and after about a year and half, i had up to 1000 dollars to spend on travel through the points I accumulated. As long as you're paying off the card, it's not a bad idea!

    • Reply
  • Kelsey
    VIP September 2017
    Kelsey ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content

    I just wrote a post on my blog about this exact thing that I posted here last week, but it got reported because people thought I was promoting (no ads or anything on my website, but okay lol).

    My husband and I are going to New Zealand at the end of January, which is costing us just $75 each. This is normally a $2,900 flight PER PERSON, so we saved close to $6,000 doing this.

    We each signed up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Chase United MileagePlus card, met the minimum spend amounts, and had all out points within one year. We did all this while planning the wedding and I just booked our flights at the start of this month.

    We also never paid a cent of interest and paid off the cards, in full, every month.

    We are currently building a house, so spending $6k on flights would have KILLED me considering that money could have gone to our construction loan down payment. Credit cards are amazing tools if used correctly and I'm so thankful for how much we saved.

    • Reply
  • J
    Expert May 2018
    J ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content
    Oh, hopefully my post won’t get deleted! I’m definitely not trying to promote anything. I can edit it to remove the name of my credit card, if that helps, but I don’t see how to edit posts on the app? Is it possible on the full site?

    And yes, definitely pay off the balance each month! Maybe set a reminder in your phone if you think you might forgot.
    • Reply
  • muriel
    Champion June 2018
    muriel ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content
    View Quoted Comment
    Links to blogs get removed on most Forums.


    • Reply
  • firstoneat56
    Master August 2017
    firstoneat56 ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content
    Yes! This is a fabulous tool as long as you pay off the card each month. Unfortunately, my venue charged an additional fee to use a credit card so we didn’t charge it. However, I negotiated reducing the minimum down from 75 to 70 since I would lose out on points, and it ended up being a bigger savings for us. I have been using an no fee Amazon Visa since Amazon has existed and I can’t tell you how many free things I have gotten with my points.

    When end we booked our hotel room for the wedding, it was an IHC hotel and they were running a special that you get $50 back with the first purchase so I got the card, paid for the room and essentially got the room for $125 instead of $175.
    • Reply
  • Kelsey
    VIP September 2017
    Kelsey ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content

    Jackie - No you're fine, it was because I posted a link to my site. It had images that pertained to the post content and wedding wire is god awful with images (though they seem better since the update), which is why I did it (otherwise I would have just copy/pasted the content).

    • Reply
  • Mary
    Dedicated June 2018
    Mary ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content
    FH and I did the same thing with the chase sapphire credit card and our flights to Europe for our honeymoon were practically free.
    • Reply
  • APhusker
    Just Said Yes August 2018
    APhusker ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content
    View Quoted Comment
    Kelsey, can you send me a link to your blog privately? I’d like to read more
    • Reply
  • Kelsey
    VIP September 2017
    Kelsey ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content

    iwantprivacy - I can't click on your profile (I assume your username has something to do with that haha) but feel free to PM me (can we PM now?)

    • Reply
  • Bea
    Savvy March 2019
    Bea ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content
    @kelsey how do you PM someone I would like to check out your blog also
    • Reply
  • Bea
    Savvy March 2019
    Bea ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content
    Thanks for this great advice Jackie
    • Reply
  • Bride2B
    Expert June 2018
    Bride2B ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content

    Absolutely this is the right thing to do! Credit cards are great tools. I use mine for EVERYTHING and get hotel points for it. (So literally as soon as I got an offer letter to my first job, the first thing my mom said was "yay now you can get either a hotel or airline card and start getting points!") Like PPs said though, it's extremely vital to pay it off each month, which it sounds like you plan to. I was raised that you should always pay your card right away, and I didn't realize until graduate school what that "minimum payment" was, and that people were using it.

    • Reply
  • Cassie
    Super April 2018
    Cassie ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content
    I do the same thing. Everything goes ok my credit card and I pay it off in full every month. Super amazing 😀
    • Reply
  • Orchids
    Master March 2018
    Orchids ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content

    Yay! I have a card with a decent cash back rate so I've been putting all the wedding expenses on that card and then paying it off out of our wedding account. I've gotten about $200 cash back so far. Smiley smile

    • Reply
  • B
    Savvy February 2018
    Breanna ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content
    We are doing the exact same thing with Chase. It is a great idea. We actually do this for everything. Everything goes on a credit card, we pay it off every month. We don't pay any interest, therefore; we get all these perks for free on things we are going to purchase anyway. And like OP said, if you need to stretch out paying something off, just get something with 0% APR.
    • Reply
  • Yoomie
    VIP October 2018
    Yoomie ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content
    FH and I had the exact idea. After researching, we chose Capital One Venture Card as our joint card because it gives double miles and a lower annual fee of $65 a year (the first year is waived; spend 3K in first 3mos, get 40K miles). We use this card to put our wedding expenses on. Seeing how well this worked for us with our joint and wedding expenses, I also signed up for the Chase Sapphire as my personal credit card ($99/yr, spend 4K in first 3mos, get 50K miles). In 2017, we didn't pay for a single flight.
    • Reply
  • 6-1-18
    Expert June 2018
    6-1-18 ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content
    We did this too and got our honeymoon flights to Europe basically for free! But my venue is all-inclusive and charges a fee to use a credit card, so unfortunately I can't use it there. I just use it for everyday stuff. After the bonus the points add up really slowly though, which sucks because I was hoping to use it for a few hotel nights.
    • Reply
  • Nemo
    Master August 2018
    Nemo ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content
    FH does this and also has the Chase Freedom card that you can use in tandem to earn even more points. Definitely check it out, it’s a cool system to use it together and rack up extra points based on what the cash back bonus category is for that quarter.
    • Reply
  • Red Queen
    VIP May 2018
    Red Queen ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content

    I'm getting my entire catering bill for free with points off my credit card. Credit cards are absolutely smart tools. You earn free money and build credit. As long as you don't treat them like ways to buy things you can't afford, they're great.

    • Reply
  • Patricia
    Dedicated August 2018
    Patricia ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content
    I ABSOLUTELY love this post. Sometimes when I tell people I put everything on my Wedding C.C. my Everyday Amex, I opened it for the purpose of receiving points from my many wedding ppurchases they think I'm nuts! I was debating on a 2nd C.C. to open to pay for the honeymoon/pay-off and it looks like the Chase Sapphire has raving reviews from brides. Thank you ladies!
    • Reply

You voted for . Add a comment 👇

×

Related articles

The Best Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals for Your Wedding
Wedding Services The Best Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals for Your... The holiday season is the perfect time to score wedding deals. These Cyber...
These Are The 20 Most Romantic Piano Wedding Songs
Wedding Songs & Music These Are The 20 Most Romantic Piano Wedding Songs Piano music sets the tone for the most romantic day of your life.
The Ultimate Guide to Greek Wedding Dances
Speeches & Traditions The Ultimate Guide to Greek Wedding Dances Rompi Rompi to Mavi Mavi, kick off your shoes and get ready to review classic...
Read more articles
WeddingWire celebrates love ...and so does everyone on our site! Learn more

Groups

Show more

WeddingWire article topics