Issuer rules glossary

Chase generally won't approve you for most of their cards if you've opened 5+ personal credit cards across any issuer in the last 24 months.

Since June 23, 2025 each Chase Sapphire product's welcome bonus is once per lifetime per product - the old 48-month family rule is retired. A follow-up change on January 22, 2026 made each bonus independent of which Sapphire cards you currently hold. Ink cards carry their own lifetime rules.

Amex limits new credit card applications to 2 per rolling 90-day window, and to 1 every 5 days. Charge cards (Platinum, Gold, Green) are exempt from both, up to a 10-card charge limit.

Amex pays the welcome bonus on each card product once per person, by default for life. Closing and re-opening doesn't reset anything.

Citi's three Strata cards pay their welcome bonus only to people who have never held that card. Its Double Cash, AT&T Points Plus and AAdvantage cards pay theirs at most once every 48 months per card, counted from when your previous bonus was received.

Bank of America limits applications to 2 new cards in 2 months, 3 in 12 months, and 4 in 24 months - counting their personal cards only.

On a BofA business card, you may be declined if your business has held another BofA business card in roughly the past 24 months - but if approved, the welcome bonus is fully re-earnable.

Capital One generally approves at most 1 new card in any rolling 6-month window - and personal and business cards share the same timer.

Capital One pays the Savor, Quicksilver and their student versions once every 48 months PER PRODUCT, counted from when the bonus was received.

The REI Co-op Mastercard gift-card welcome bonus is for people who have never held the card, and no waiting period is published.

Capital One says its business welcome bonuses may not be available to anyone who holds or has held a Capital One business card, with no waiting period anywhere.

Bilt pays a welcome bonus on Bilt Blue, Bilt Obsidian and Bilt Palladium only to people who have never held any of the three, and it publishes no waiting period.

Cardless pays each of its airline welcome bonuses once, and the scope of "once" changes by brand: Avianca and LATAM share a bonus across their pair, while Qatar, TAP and Avelo each stand alone.

The Crypto.com card tiers are one product with one welcome bonus, paid once. Upgrading a tier inside the offer window pays the difference between tiers, not a second bonus.

TD pays its public online welcome offer once per customer, it publishes no waiting period, and it words the bar more broadly than we enforce it.

HSBC says you may not qualify for its credit card offer if you already have an HSBC credit card. We do not apply it, and this page is why.

Discover says its first year match is exclusively for new cardholders, and then never says what a new cardholder is. We publish the sentence and encode nothing from it.

Navy Federal lets each member hold 3 of its credit cards as primary cardholder, and approves only 1 new card per member in any 90 day period.

Wells Fargo generally won't approve a second card application within 6 months of the previous one - personal and business cards both count.

Barclays says its welcome bonuses are for applicants who have not previously been cardmembers of that card, and it publishes no waiting period at all.

Holding a Chase Marriott card opened in the last 30 days blocks the welcome bonus on Amex's personal Marriott cards (Brilliant, Bevy). One-directional - the reverse is not documented.