Before Year-End, Don’t Forget This Easy Medical Bill Payment Trick (I Used It to Unlock a 75,000-Point Marriott Card Bonus!)

October 11, 2018 By Million Mile Secrets

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Do you contribute to a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) at your job? If so, you likely have to use the funds in your account before the end of the year. Some employers allow you to carry over $500 to the following year. But most plans are use-it-or-lose-it.

Many FSA plans issue a debit card you can use to pay for eligible medical expenses (co-pays, prescriptions, etc.), but you don’t earn rewards when you use a debit card. That’s why I ALWAYS pay medical expenses with my own personal credit card. Then, I submit a receipt to the FSA provider for reimbursement.

I recommend checking with your FSA plan provider to ensure you’re eligible to pay with a personal card. But I recently did this to pay a $2,650 medical bill. The purchase helped me meet minimum spending requirements on the Marriott Rewards® Premier Plus Credit Card. So I was able to take advantage of the card’s 75,000-point sign-up bonus! That’s enough points for a free night at ANY Marriott hotel, even luxurious Ritz-Carlton or St. Regis hotels.

Paying a Large Medical Bill With My Own Card Helped Me Unlock a Huge Marriott Card Bonus! The Points Are More Than Enough for a Free Night at ANY Marriott Hotel, Even the Luxurious St. Regis New York!

I’ve been making eligible FSA purchases with a personal credit card and submitting reimbursement requests for several years. It’s a painless process. You just have to submit receipts and proof of payment to the FSA provider. And I typically get a reimbursement check within 2 to 4 weeks.

Chase Marriott 75,000-Point Offer

Link: Marriott Rewards® Premier Plus Credit Card

I’m a loyal Marriott fan because I enjoy taking advantage of my Platinum status perks, like late checkout and room upgrades. And having the Chase Marriott card in my wallet will help me continue to earn Platinum status each year.

Plus, when you sign-up for the Marriott Rewards® Premier Plus Credit Card, you’ll earn 75,000 Marriott points after spending $3,000 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening. This means you’ll have at least 81,000 Marriott points after meeting the minimum spending requirements (75,000-point sign-up bonus + at least 6,000 points from minimum spending).

With the Chase Marriott Premier Plus, you’ll also get:

Free night award (at hotels costing 35,000 Marriott points or less) every year after your account anniversary
Earn 6 Marriott points per $1 spent at participating Marriott & Starwood hotels
Earn 2 Marriott points per $1 spent on all other purchases
Automatic Silver Elite Status (20% bonus points on paid stays, late check-out when available)
Gold Elite Status (25% bonus points on paid stays, lounge access / free breakfast, guaranteed late check-out, room upgrades when available) when you spend $35,000 on purchases each account year
Starting in 2019, 15 elite night credits each calendar year
Points in your loyalty account never expire as long as you make a purchase with the card every 24 months
NO foreign transaction fees

The card’s $95 annual fee is NOT waived the first year.

Note: If you’ve opened 5 or more credit cards from ANY bank in the past 24 months (excluding certain small business cards and Chase business cards), Chase will NOT approve you for many of their best travel rewards credit cards. And the Chase Marriott Premier Plus card WILL count toward your 5 card limit.

Apply for the Chase Marriott Card to Earn Valuable Points You Can Use

Marriott is the largest hotel chain in the world (based on the total number of rooms). This means folks with the Chase Marriott Premier Plus card have lots of ways to earn bonus points on paid stays at these brands:

Is a Flexible Spending Account part of your minimum spending strategy? Leave a comment below!

Million Mile Secrets

Contributor

Million Mile Secrets features a team of points and miles experts who have traveled to over 80 countries and have used 60+ credit cards responsibly to accumulate loyalty points and travel the world on the cheap! The Million Mile Secrets team has been featured on The Points Guy, TIME, Yahoo Finance and many other leading points & miles media outlets.