Citi welcome bonus rules
Citi · last reviewed 2026-09
Summary
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.
High confidence: the issuer publishes this rule in its own terms, and it matches what applicants report.
What it does
Citi runs two different welcome bonus rules, and each card's own page says which one it follows. On the Citi Strata, Strata Premier and Strata Elite, the bonus is not available if you currently have or previously had that card, and there is no waiting period: once you have held it, that card's bonus is gone for good. On the Double Cash, the AT&T Points Plus and the AAdvantage cards (MileUp, Platinum Select, Globe, Executive and Business), the bonus is not available if you received that same card's bonus in the past 48 months. In both cases Citi can still approve the application and ship the card; the bonus never posts.
How it works
- Each product is evaluated on its own. Holding a Strata Premier does not block the Strata Elite bonus, and an AAdvantage bonus does not block a Double Cash bonus.
- Products Citi names together count together: the Strata Premier page also names the Citi Premier it replaced, and the Strata page also names the Strata Student. The Strata Elite page names only the Strata Elite, so a Citi Prestige does not block it.
- On the Strata cards the bar is about holding the account, not about the bonus. Closing the card does not restore eligibility, and neither does never having earned its bonus.
- On the 48-month cards the clock runs from when the previous bonus was received, not from when the card was opened or closed. On the Double Cash and AAdvantage cards conversions count too: converting a card whose bonus you earned in the last 48 months into one of them blocks its bonus. The AT&T Points Plus page does not say this.
- Citi's pages do not say whether these rules follow the person or the business. We apply them per person, including on the AAdvantage Business card, so forming a new business entity does not reset them in our checks.
- Citi's velocity rules are separate from the bonus rules: 1 card per 8 days, 2 per 65 days on the personal side, and 1 business card per 95 days govern whether the application is approved at all.
What to do
- Before applying for a Strata card, check whether you have ever held that card, or the card it replaced (the Citi Premier, for the Strata Premier). If you have, you will get the card without the bonus, so you pay any annual fee with no bonus to offset it.
- If you might apply for a Strata card later, product changing into it first ends your chance at its welcome bonus.
- For the 48-month cards, wait until month 49 from when your last bonus was received before applying again, with a small buffer, since the exact posting date controls.
Want to see how this rule affects your card portfolio? Open the Application Calendar (PointBagel Pro) - it tracks the issuer rules we encode against your real applications and tells you when each one clears.