Building Your Personal Credit Card Strategy
Earning a Bonus Again
People often wonder how someone can keep opening cards year after year without running out of cards to open and bonuses to earn.
Yes, there are a lot of card options that can keep someone booking with points for years. But sometimes you can earn bonuses on the same card more than once, provided certain conditions have been met.
Conditions for Re-Earning Bonuses May Include:
- a certain amount of time (usually 24 or 48 months) must have elapsed since the last bonus was earned;
- the cardmember must not have the same card open when reapplying; and
- a certain amount of time must have elapsed since the cardmember closed the card.
Each card has different rules as to whether you can earn the welcome offer multiple times. Banks don't always notify you when you apply that you're ineligible for a bonus.
Resource: Bank and Card family rules
We keep every bank's eligibility rules in one place, and we update it as the rules change.
Card Eligibility Rules Explained — All Banks →If you think you are eligible for earning a bonus again, double- and triple-check the terms and conditions and confirm with the bank and/or your tracking system. It's a common mistake for someone to reopen a card, meet the minimum spend, and not receive the bonus, only to find out it's been 24 months since they last opened the card when the rules say 24 months since the bonus was last received.
If you have recently closed or downgraded a card so that you can qualify to re-earn a welcome offer, wait a couple of weeks before applying.
