48 From Bonus

Understanding the 48 From Bonus rule:

Several banks have instituted this rule on selected cards, which only allows you to receive a welcome offer every 48 months. Fortunately this rule applies to each card individually and not entire families of cards. So you are eligible to receive the signup bonus on ALL affected cards should you choose. You do have to adhere to each banks’ other rules though.

Citibank

There are four Citi cards impacted by this rule:

• Citi Double Cash
• Citi Custom Cash
• Citi Strata Premier
• Citi Strata Elite

Below is the language for the Citi Double Cash:

The language is the same for all four affected cards, but there is one important caveat regarding the Citi Strata Premier. That card went through a rebranding in 2024 and used to be the Citi Premier card. The terms say that if you received a signup bonus for the Citi Premier in the last 48 months, you are ineligible to receive another one on the Citi Strata Premier.

American Airlines (Citi)

There are also three co-branded personal American Airlines cards that have this rule:

• Citi American Airlines AAdvantage Platinum
• Citi American Airlines AAdvantage Executive
• Citi American Airlines AAdvantage Mileup

Below is the language in the “Pricing and Information” link on the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite credit card:

This means you cannot receive the signup bonus for this specific card if you’ve received it within the last 48 months or if you upgraded a different card to this card and earned a bonus.

The American Airlines Citi Business card also has this same rule. It’s the only business card offered by the airline. This card has been rebranded in recent years, so if you’ve had previous versions of the card and received the signup bonus in the last 48 months, you are still ineligible for the welcome offer. You must wait 48 months as outlined in the terms for the card below:

Important to know:

You can see the language is largely the same for all three “families” of cards. The bottom line is that you cannot receive a signup bonus from the same card if you’ve received one in the last 48 months or if you converted another Citi card AND received a bonus.

Capital One

Not all Capital One cards have this rule. In fact only five out of all the Capital One cards offered apply this rule:

• Capital One Quicksilver
• Capital One Savor
• Capital One Venture Reward
• Capital One Venture X
• Capital One VentureOne Rewards

But it is a rule that is stated in multiple places within those five affected cards’ pages. If you go to the Venture X page, for example, you will see the following language in the “View important rates and disclosures” link and in the footnotes from the “early spend bonus.”

From the footnotes:

Capital One has historically been one of the strictest banks when it comes to credit card approvals. Various rules have been reported about the number of cards you can hold at once and how long you have to wait between approvals. None have been documented on their site, though, and all have been inconsistently enforced.

This 48 month rule is stated in various places for the five applicable cards, making it black and white and one to pay attention to.

Wells Fargo

This rule affects three cards in the Wells Fargo lineup of cards:

• Wells Fargo Active Cash
• Wells Fargo Autograph Journey
• Wells Fargo Autograph

Like all other cards with this rule, it only impacts each card individually, not collectively like other family rules. Unlike some of the other unwritten rules, this rule is clearly stated in the “Important Credit Terms” for all three cards:

Important to know:

This means that if you currently have the card or opened one in the last 48 months that you may not be eligible for a signup bonus on that particular card. That doesn’t mean you can’t get other Wells Fargo cards, though, as long as you adhere to their other rules. They also have a 1/6 rule that states that you may not be able to open any new card if you’ve opened one in the past six months. So as long as you space out your applications every six months and don’t apply for the same card twice in a 48-month period, you should be eligible for the card and to receive the signup bonus.

Chase Sapphire

The two Sapphire cards (Chase Sapphire Reserve and Chase Sapphire Preferred) have a similar rule as this one, but it differs in one important way. If you get EITHER the Reserve or the Preferred, you are not eligible to receive the signup bonus on EITHER card for 48 months. If you load your Chase Sapphire or Reserve card into the Points Navigator system, it won’t trip this 48 from Bonus rule. We have a separate Sapphire 1/48 rule that it will trip. We wanted to at least mention it in this rule, so we could clarify the difference between the two.

Important to know:

All cards mentioned below (in the Cards Subject to this Rule section) have the rule that states you cannot receive the signup bonus FOR THAT CARD if you have already received one in the previous 48 months. You ARE ALLOWED to get each card individually though. The difference with the Sapphire rule is that it applies to two cards - if you get the bonus from the Reserve you cannot get the bonus for the Reserve OR the Preferred for 48 months, and vice versa.

About Approval Rules

Collecting credit card points is largely driven by understanding and abiding by bank rules regarding approval (or disapproval) of cards.  So here’s what you need to know:

• Approval rules are rarely fully publicized by the banks
• We use our own research and data points from other users in creating the rules listing
• Our goal in sharing/using the rule listings is to provide you guidance to avoid getting declined
• There can sometimes be exceptions to the rules, but we try to take a more cautious approach in advising you.