Just got a rewards CC.. what are the best ways to get to your intro rewards goal?

Water bill, electric, can pay just about anything on a credit card (with a fee) using Plastiq.

You can also contribute large sums to a START account using a credit card.

Welcome to 2014

I pay most things that do not have a fee for using card. Insurance helped me meet my spending limits when I got my cards.

Get married?

In all seriousness, gift cards for grocery store/Walmart/lowes/amazon, if you need to beef up spending to hit initial rewards.

You should have come here BEFORE getting your card. I am now part of a community that talks about accumulating points. We had a bathroom renovation and another decent big spend this year plus our regular spending. We have accumulated 400k Amex and about 600k Chase points. I am pretty good but but not great at doing this as well

Pulled my house out of escrow so I could pay property taxes and home insurance myself.

Sure, there's a fee on the property tax side (outside of some potential workarounds), but if I get 2cpp I'm pretty much even ir slightly ahead. If you count the fact I'm also getting interest on the money all year before payment, I'm ahead of where I was before being out of escrow.

I accept the tradeoff (vs just accumulating interest and paying cash)because 10,000 or 30,000 points here or there can be the difference between having a redemption or not. Or having status (that I actually use).

I've also paid energy bills way in advance, especially 4th quarter when Chase does 5x PayPal. My provider accepts PayPal so I end up not having an electric bill for half the year as it whittles down my "deposit."

Daycare accepting CCs is clutch. Buying GCs strategically is good as well.

Some methods I don't have the time or energy for at the moment.

The problem is people call travel rewards "free trips." It isn't. It's either heavily discounted in some way, for example you paid $100 all in with CC fees included for something you would have bought for $300, OR you use points to upgrade your enjoyment of the trip.

I fall in the latter category many times. I'm probably still technically saving a ton, but I'm also shifting money that would have gone to the hotel to more fun stuff or nicer restaurants, etc. I'm very aware of that and don't pretend otherwise.

anything that doesn't charge a CC fee and falls within your reward category.