Large Expense Coming Up Soon? How To Get a Credit Card Quickly

As much as we can try to plan for the future, the unforeseeable is inevitable. Perhaps it’s an unforeseen medical bill, insurance premium, emergency car or home repairs, or any other large expense with an impending payment deadline.

As every points and miles enthusiast knows, large expenses are the best opportunities for earning thousands of points on your spending. There’s nothing better than leveraging a large expense to get you closer to your welcome offer’s minimum spend on a new credit card.

If you’re not working toward earning a welcome offer when a large expense suddenly rears its head, your first instinct will be to think about which new credit card you could apply for and charge the expense to. However, not all credit card approvals happen in seconds and even if they do, it can take time until your new card arrives in the mail. In the worst case, you might have to use an alternative payment method to pay off the impending expense, causing you to lose out on a great points-earning opportunity.

In moments like these, knowing which cards to apply for can help increase the odds of getting your card before it comes time to pay your upcoming expense. Let’s take a look at the best ways to get a credit card quickly and prevent you from losing out on potentially hundreds of thousands of welcome offer points.

Disclaimer: Avoid Last-Minute Card Applications

Before checking out which credit cards are best to apply for before a large expense, it should be said that you never want to leave credit card applications to the very last minute.

While some issuers do offer the chance of an instant decision on your card application, not every issuer does this, and even if they do, you’re not necessarily guaranteed approval—if your application goes under review instead of receiving approval, this could easily prevent you from charging your upcoming expense to your new card.

And even if you do get an instant approval, if you can’t access your card details in time and shipping can’t be expedited, you can forget about charging that upcoming expense to your card.

Although you can sometimes get a new credit card just in time to pay the upcoming expense, you shouldn’t go into the application expecting it to work. Instead, you should hope for the best and prepare for the worst—in other words, you need a plan B regarding how you’re going to cover the expense.

With that said, let’s look at credit card issuers that offer the possibility of instant card details as well as instant card approvals and expedited shipping.

American Express

If you fit their criteria, American Express will often approve your credit card application instantly. However, in certain cases, your application may be declined or go into pending status. You can check the status of your application online or by calling 877-239-3491 for personal card applications and 800-567-1085 for business card applications.

Once you’re approved, American Express gives you instant access to your new card’s details, as long as they can verify your identity.

Instant card details are available for all American Express cards except the Amazon Business Card and Amazon Business Prime Card.

You’ll get immediate access to your card details following your application approval or through a link provided in your welcome email. That will enable you to use the card for immediate spending.

Keep in mind that while your instant card number will be the same as your normal card number, the four-digit identification code will be different. So, if you’re planning to use the card for recurring direct debits, you’ll need to update these details once you have your physical card.

Likewise, you’ll typically be able to use co-branded cards for purchases with their respective brands only. For instance, you’d only be able to use your co-branded Marriott Bonvoy American Express card for purchases with Marriott until the physical version arrives.

If you can’t get instant access to your card details for some reason or if you need the physical card to make the payment, you’ll need to wait until it’s shipped to your address.

For premium cards such as The Platinum Card® from American Express and the American Express® Gold Card—as well as both business versions of these cards—you’ll automatically enjoy expedited shipping, meaning the card should arrive within one to three days. For all other cards, standard shipping of seven to 10 days applies, although you can request for the shipping to be expedited.

Capital One

Your credit card applications with Capital One can be approved instantly. However, as with Amex, there’s always the chance that your application is denied or goes into pending status. You can check your application status by calling this number: 800-903-9177.

If you’re approved, certain cardholders will be eligible to access their new Capital One card number through the Capital One app. However, this feature is available to certain cardholders only, whose identity can be verified by Capital One and who typically already have an existing account with Capital One. Therefore, you can’t reliably predict whether or not you’ll be eligible for instant access.

Similarly, Capital One also gives you the option of creating virtual card numbers that you can use to get instant access to your new card as a payment method.

You can create a virtual card number through the Capital One assistant, Eno. You can add Eno to your desktop browser and sign in using your Capital One account credentials. You’ll be able to generate a virtual card number for the specific purchase you’re making, which has the added benefit of protecting your actual card number.

Alternatively, you can click the “Get Your Virtual Card” button in the Capital One app, located under your credit card balance. You can also add your Capital One credit card to Google Pay and select to use the virtual card option.

However, keep in mind that, just like instant card details, not everyone is eligible to create a virtual card number before their physical card arrives. Typically, those with existing Capital One card accounts have a greater chance of being able to create virtual cards before the arrival of their physical cards, but there are still exceptions to this rule.

If you’re unlucky, you’ll need to wait seven to 10 days for your physical card to arrive—unless you applied for the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, in which case shipping will be expedited.

Bank of America

Typically, the only Bank of America credit card that you’ll be able to use instantly is the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® Credit Card.

In a minority of cases, those with existing Bank of America credit cards or checking accounts may receive instant card numbers for other newly-opened Bank of America cards. However, this tends to be the exception and not the rule.

Chase

You may be lucky and have your Chase credit card application approved instantly. Otherwise, you can call Chase at 800-432-3117 to check the status of your application.

If you’re approved for a new Chase credit card, you might be able to begin spending with your card before your physical card arrives through Chase’s Spend Instantly feature.

You can do this by downloading the Chase app, logging in and adding your new card to a digital wallet. You can choose from Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay. When you’re at the checkout, you’ll then be able to pay with your new Chase card using your digital wallet.

However, keep in mind that Mastercard, Amazon and Chase Business credit cards can’t be added to a digital wallet before the physical version of your card has arrived. That means you won’t be able to add the following cards to your digital wallet before you have the physical version in your actual wallet:

• Aeroplan® Credit Card
• Amazon Visa
• Prime Visa
• Chase Freedom Flex℠
• Disney® Premier Visa® Card
• IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card
• IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit Card
• Any Chase small business cards

On the plus side, you can request for Chase to expedite the delivery of your new credit card upon approval without any additional fees for the service, ensuring that your card will arrive within two days.

Citi

If you’re approved for a Citi card, you might be able to use it instantly, depending on which card you applied for as well as other factors.

However, Citi small business cards and co-branded American Airlines AAdvantage cards are excluded from this privilege. You’ll need to wait until they arrive in the mail, which can take seven to 10 days.

Cards such as the Citi Double Cash® Card, Citi Custom Cash® Card and Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi should be available to you instantly, all other things remaining equal.

That said, Citi will let you view your card number only once, so ensure you note it down or take a screenshot of it. Likewise, some users have reported that you won’t receive your entire credit limit when using your Citi card without having yet received the physical version.

Considerations For Last-Minute Applications

If you have an upcoming expense impending, it’s easy to rush into a new credit card application without fully assessing the situation. However, it’s crucial to consider several factors before you click that submit button.

Let’s cover the main considerations to make before applying for a card last-minute.

How Big Is the Expense?

The first point to consider is how big your upcoming expense will be.

Credit cards differ widely in minimum spend requirements for welcome offers, with business cards tending to have higher minimum spending thresholds.

If you’re planning to spend at least $8,000 or more, you should look for cards with a similar minimum spending threshold. This enables you to earn more points per dollar spent. Moreover, if you hardly ever spend such a high amount of money in a single payment, leveraging the one time you do spend a lot can enable you to earn a lucrative welcome offer that you wouldn’t otherwise typically earn.

For example, the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card has a typical welcome offer of 90,000 to 120,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $8,000 on the card within the first three months of card membership. Spending $8,000 in just three months can often be a push for the average household, so applying for the card when you know that a big purchase is coming up is a great way to secure the welcome offer.

Likewise, The Business Platinum Card® from American Express has one of the highest minimum spending thresholds of any card on the market. You’ll typically be required to spend between $15,000 and $20,000 in the first three months of card membership to earn 75,000 to 150,000 Membership Rewards points. If you have an expense that is close to or equal to this minimum spending threshold, you’ll get the biggest bang for your buck.

The American Express® Business Gold Card also has a minimum spend of typically $15,000 with the opportunity to earn 70,000 to 100,000 Membership Rewards points.

You could find even higher targeted-offers by using the CardMatch tool.

Here’s an example to illustrate the benefit of having the minimum spend align with the value of your upcoming expense. Let’s say your upcoming expense is a $20,000 medical or emergency house repair bill. If you charged that spending to the Amex Business Platinum when the welcome offer was around 100,000–150,000 points for a minimum spend in the $15,000–$20,000 range, you’d be looking at an effective points multiplier of 7.5X per dollar spent.

If you were to instead charge this expense to the Ink Business Preferred when the welcome offer was $8,000 for 120,000 points, you’d earn a points multiplier of 15X points per dollar spent on the first $8,000 spent but then a meagre 1X points per dollar spent on the remaining $12,000.

While there are more factors to consider, you should try, where possible, to have the minimum spend align with the value of your impending purchase.

If your upcoming expense is closer to the $2,000 to $6,000 range, then you’d be better off looking at cards such as the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, The Platinum Card® from American Express, the American Express® Gold Card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve®.

That said, this shouldn’t be your only deciding factor. If your upcoming expense is higher than the minimum spend on a prospective card, but the card offers valuable ongoing perks that you could utilize, it could still be worthwhile applying for one, instead of a card with a minimum spend closer to the value of your upcoming expense that offers fewer ongoing perks.

That brings us to the next consideration.

Does the Card Offer Ongoing Value?

Welcome offers are one of the most valuable aspects of travel rewards cards. And when you have a large expense on the horizon, opening a card with a lucrative welcome offer is a great way of leveraging your inevitable expenses to earn you thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of points.

However, you shouldn’t consider the welcome offer of the card in a vacuum. Instead, you need to assess the value of the card holistically. Once you’ve earned the welcome offer, the card’s value will be determined by the degree to which you can maximize its bonus spending categories and perks. This will also allow you to continue to offset the card’s annual fee.

While you could cancel your card within the first year of card membership or after one year, you should generally avoid this as much as possible. Card issuers are very sensitive to cardholders who are trying to “game” the system—by opening cards to earn their welcome offers and then closing them straight after—and will take action against you.

American Express is particularly sensitive to being “abused” in this way. You’ll find the following in its terms and conditions of most of its cards:

Therefore, it’s generally wise to plan to keep any Amex card—or any other card from any other issuer—for a minimum of two years and to put consistent spending on it. Otherwise, you may land in Amex’s pop-up jail or have your other card accounts frozen.

Application Rules: Do You Qualify?

Just because you’ve decided on the card you want doesn’t mean you’ll qualify for it. Your credit score can be squeaky clean and you can still get a rejection.

One of the most common reasons for this is that you’ve violated one of the card issuer’s (unofficial) application rules.

The most famous of these is Chase’s 5/24 rule, which restricts new card applications if you’ve opened five or more cards with any issuer in the last 24 months (excluding business cards). Given that Chase offers some of the most valuable cards on the market, you always want to ensure that you’re in a position to apply for a new card.

American Express also restricts you to no more than two Amex card approvals every 90 days and allows you to earn its welcome offers only once in a lifetime. Typically, a lifetime refers to a period of approximately seven years. However, do keep in mind that Amex restricts you from earning the welcome offers on certain lower-annual fee cards within certain card families if you’ve already earned the welcome offers on the higher-annual fee cards of the same family to discourage downgrading.

So, before you hit that submit button, ensure that you’re eligible for both the card and its welcome offer.

Can You Afford the Upcoming Expense?

It may seem like an obvious question, but it’s important to consider whether or not you can afford to pay the upcoming expense.

You should never carry a balance on a credit card, as you’ll be hit with double-digit interest rates that will annihilate the value of any rewards you’ve earned. You also risk being led down the spiral of minimum payments and ever-accumulating interest charges, causing you to rack up massive debts over time.

Therefore, if you can’t pay off your upcoming expense in full, you should instead look for a card with a 0% APR introductory period of 12 to 24 months. These cards enable you to pay off your balance without accumulating interest over the duration of the introductory APR period. If your upcoming expense is significantly out of your budget, this is a better strategy to consider.

Of course, if you’re applying for a 0% APR credit card just before your upcoming expense payment is due, you still run the risk of not getting it on time. For this reason, it’s smart to have a backup plan in place in case it doesn’t arrive before the payment is due.

Final Thoughts

Life is full of surprises, good and bad. While you can turn an upcoming expense into a points-earning extravaganza, you do run the risk of having your new credit card arrive late if you apply just a few days before the payment is due.

Therefore, where possible, it’s always best to plan ahead and apply well before any large expenses are due.

If you do find yourself short on time with an upcoming expense looming, consider applying for an Amex or Chase card, as you’ll have the best chance of receiving your card number instantly once you’re approved. Likewise, Capital One also offers instant card numbers to some of its members as well as the ability to create virtual card numbers for one-off payments.

And if you can’t afford to pay your upcoming expense in full, consider charging it to a 0% APR credit card and paying it off incrementally before the introductory window closes.

Just remember that success isn’t guaranteed when making last-minute applications.