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The Guide to Citi’s Credit Card Application Rules
Citi application rules have varying timelines and affect specific cards differently.
Ariana is a travel rewards expert who has been covering points, miles and free travel for over seven years. She previously served as managing editor for FlyerTalk and Frugal Travel Guy. When she's not contributing to NerdWallet, she runs her own travel hacking blog, PointChaser.com.
Mary Flory leads NerdWallet's growing team of assigning editors at large. Before joining NerdWallet's content team, she had spent more than 12 years developing content strategies, managing newsrooms and mentoring writers and editors. Her previous experience includes being an executive editor at the American Marketing Association and an editor at news and feature syndicate Content That Works.
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This page includes information about the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®, Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard®, Citi Rewards+® Card, Citi Rewards+® Student Card, Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card by Citi, Citi Custom Cash® Card, Citi Premier® Card, Expedia® Rewards Card from Citi, Expedia® Rewards Voyager Card from Citi, and the AT&T Access Card from Citi, currently unavailable on NerdWallet. The information about the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®, Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard®, Citi Rewards+® Card, Citi Rewards+® Student Card, Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card by Citi, Citi Custom Cash® Card, Citi Premier® Card, Expedia® Rewards Card from Citi, Expedia® Rewards Voyager Card from Citi, and the AT&T Access Card from Citi has been collected by NerdWallet and has not been provided or reviewed by the card issuer.
Citi has an impressive lineup of rewards credit cards with generous welcome bonuses. Whether you’re looking to stock up on transferable Citi ThankYou points or AAdvantage miles, Citi has multiple cards to choose from. The downer? Citi has also begun restricting the welcome bonuses on some of these credit cards. In some cases, if you’ve had a Citi card in the last 48 months, you will not be eligible for another welcome bonus on a similar card.
So, how many Citi cards can you have? There’s a lot that's important to know if you’re contemplating applying for a Citi card any time soon. Here's what you need to know about Citi's credit card and application rules.
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What is Citi’s 48-month rule?
Citi’s 48-month rule restricts certain credit card welcome bonuses to once every 48 months. So if you apply for one of the affected credit cards now and decide to cancel the card in two years, you will not be eligible to reapply and receive the bonus again until 48 months after your first application.
Citi credit cards affected by 48-month rule
The good news is that basically all Citi credit cards are impacted by the 48-month rule. An easy way to identify impacted cards is to look for a disclaimer on the card page stating the following: “American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles are not available if you have received a new account bonus for a [card name] account in the past 48 months.” Here's a list of credit cards impacted by this rule:
Citi's 8/65 rule states that applicants are ineligible to apply for more than one Citi credit card in eight days, and not more than two credit cards in 65 days.
If you’re ineligible for a Citi welcome bonus because of one of the above-mentioned rules, all is not lost. You can still get around these rules and figure out ways to continue earning points and miles in large quantities.
The information related to Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® and Citi Custom Cash® Card has been collected by NerdWallet and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer or provider of this product or service.
