October 19, 2026
Credit Card Bonus Category Spending Caps: Which Cards Have Them and How to Avoid Losing Points
Episode Description
There’s a good chance one of your best rewards cards quietly stopped paying its full bonus rate months ago, and never said a word about it.
It’s called a bonus category spending cap, and more of the cards you carry probably have one than you’d expect. These limits are one of the quietest ways to leave points on the table, and they catch even seasoned points travelers off guard.
In this episode, I walk through which popular cards have these caps and which don’t, how to tell whether you’re close to hitting one, and what to do when you are, because there are more ways around a cap than most people realize. The goal isn’t to collect more cards for the sake of it, it’s to keep the money you’re already spending earning at the rate you signed up for. If you’ve ever picked a card for one great category and funneled all your spending to it, this episode will help you make sure those points are still landing where you think they are.
Turn your expenses into points and save tens of thousands of dollars a year on your wishlist travel. Don’t miss out! Click here to know more about my comprehensive online program, Points Made Easy.
What You’ll Learn from this Episode
- Why some of the most rewarding credit cards quietly stop earning bonus points after a certain amount of spend
- Which popular cards have bonus category caps, and which issuers have none at all
- How to tell whether you’re close to hitting a cap, and when each one resets
- Why the calendar-year and cardmember-year cycles make caps so easy to miss
- How to keep earning at your bonus rate after you’ve maxed a category out
- Why the multiplier on a card matters less than how much of your spend it rewards at that rate
Featured On the Show
- Paze Merchant Directory
- Follow me on Instagram
- Get on the waitlist for the Points Made Easy Course here!
- If you have any questions or you want me to dive deeper into a specific topic, email me here: podcast@pointmetofirstclass.com
Click here to download the full episode transcript
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Point Me to First Class is the show for professionals and business owners with higher-than-average personal or business expenses, who want to learn to leverage these expenses into credit card points they can spend on travel.
Each week, I share valuable tips, tools, and strategies to help you uplevel your skills earning and redeeming credit card points, so you can expand your travel and expand your experiences.
