When I write about credit card signup bonuses people often ask if they can get the same card again. The real question in most cases is whether they can get the signup bonus despite having had the same card before. In almost all cases it is possible to get a new signup bonus for a card you’ve had before, but each card issuer has different rules that must be negotiated to make it happen.
Obviously credit card issuers don’t want people signing up for the same card over and over just for the signup bonus. They can’t make money that way. And for those who just want the points, it’s not really necessary. At the time of this writing, our Best Credit Card Offers page lists over 4 million points and miles available through signup bonuses! On the other hand, it’s perfectly reasonable to have cancelled a card in the past and to consider returning to being a cardmember in part or entirely because of the signup bonus allure. There’s nothing wrong with that, and in most cases the bank does want to entice you back.
Our Best Credit Card Offers page has separate sections for each credit card issuer. At the top of each section there are application tips which summarize the known rules that must be followed. For example, the Chase App Tips section looks like this at the time of writing (see the Best Credit Card Offers page for up-to-date tips):
| Chase App Tips |
Must wait 24 months after previous bonus to signup for same card, but no wait required for Ink biz cards | Better offers may be available. Click for details. | Difficult to get approved if you’ve opened 5 or more cards in past 24 months | Hard inquiries combined into 1 when approved same day | Usual max 2 new cards per month (but rule seems to vary) |
| Call (888) 338-2586 to check your application status If denied, call reconsideration here:1-888-270-2127 for both personal and business cards; or 800-527-7415 for the Ritz card |
|||||
The App Tips cover topics beyond whether or not you can get a signup bonus again, but the key info you need should be there.
In many cases, there are no hard rules against getting the same card again, but the real limiting factor is whether you can get approved for a new card from that bank. If you have good credit and only sign up for a new card once a year or so, this shouldn’t be a problem. Those who regularly sign up for lots of new cards, though, will have trouble getting approved with certain issuers.
To make things simple, what follows are the rules for each major card issuer for getting a signup bonus for a card you’ve had before, along with any relevant rules regarding getting approved in general…
American Express
- How to get the signup bonus for same card:
- Watch for targeted offers without lifetime restrictions. Search your targeted offer for a section titled “Offer Terms” and search for words like these: “Welcome bonus offer not available to applicants who have or have had this product.” If nothing like that is found anywhere in the offer terms, you should be good to go. See also: 8 ways to get the best targeted Amex signup bonus offers.
- Or, wait 7 years since you cancelled the previous card. Amex doesn’t have a published rule about this, but anecdotally they seem to “forget” that you’ve had a card after 7 years.
- Note: Applying for an Amex business card with a second business, even with a distinct Tax ID (EIN), does not circumvent the once per lifetime rule.
- How to get the signup bonus for similar card:
- Similar cards are fine to get if you’ve had the other card before. For example, if you had the Delta Gold card before, you can still get the bonus on the Delta Platinum card.
- Business and personal cards are considered different products, so you can get the bonus on one even if you’ve had the other. For example, if you previously had the Delta Gold consumer card, you can still get the bonus on the Delta Gold Business card.
- How difficult is approval?
- Amex is generally pretty easy on approvals, but they have a hard limit you should be aware of: Amex allows each person to have no more than 5 credit cards (but they allow unlimited charge cards). If you already have 5 Amex credit cards (both personal and business cards count), then you would have to cancel some before applying for new cards.
American Express application tips and signup offers can be found here.
Bank of America
- How to get the signup bonus for same card: BOA doesn’t have any known restrictions for this, but it’s usually a good idea to close the card before applying for the same one again.
- How to get the signup bonus for similar card: BOA doesn’t have any known restrictions for this.
- How difficult is approval? Business cards tend to be pretty easy to get, but BOA limits personal card approvals as follows: No more than two approvals per rolling two months; no more than three approvals per rolling twelve month; and No more than four approvals per rolling twenty four months. If you fall under these limits, BOA tends to be pretty easy on approvals.
- Other gotchas: If you get approved for a BOA offer, you may be approved for a lesser card: a Visa Platinum card rather than a Visa Signature card. These cards come with smaller signup bonuses.
Bank of America application tips and signup offers can be found here.
Barclaycard
- How to get the signup bonus for same card: The only known Barclaycard restriction is with the Arrival card: if you have the Arrival or Arrival+, you must close it before applying for a new Arrival or Arrival+ card. With co-branded products (such as AA cards), Barclaycard doesn’t have any known restrictions: it’s even possible to open the same card while you still have the previous one open.
- How to get the signup bonus for similar card: Only known restriction is with the Arrival/Arrival+ cards. You can’t get one if you already have the other open.
- How difficult is approval? Barclaycard can be very tough with approvals. If you have a history of applying for cards with Barclaycard just for the signup bonuses and/or you have lots of recent credit inquiries on your credit report, they are likely to deny your application.
Barclaycard application tips and signup offers can be found here.
Capital One
- How to get the signup bonus for same card: Capital One doesn’t have any known restrictions against getting the same card again.
- How to get the signup bonus for similar card: No known issues.
- How difficult is approval? Very difficult, plus you must wait 6 months from any previous Capital One application before applying for a new card from this bank.
Capital One application tips and signup offers can be found here.
Chase
- How to get the signup bonus for same card:
- In most cases you must wait 24 months after previous bonus to signup for same card and cancel the old card before applying new.
- Ink Business cards do not have the 24 month rule. There doesn’t even seem to be a requirement to close the old card before applying new. It’s definitely possible to keep the old card with a different business, but I haven’t personally tested trying this with the same business.
- How to get the signup bonus for similar card:
- In most cases it is fine to get a similar card (e.g. you can get the bonus for the Freedom even if you have the Freedom Unlimited).
- One exception is with Chase Sapphire products. The applications for the Sapphire Preferred and the Sapphire Reserve state: “The product is not available to either (i) current cardmembers of any Sapphire credit card, or (ii) previous cardmembers of any Sapphire credit card who received a new cardmember bonus within the last 24 months.” In other words, if you’ve received a bonus for either product, you must wait 24 months before applying for another Sapphire product. And if you have either the Sapphire, Sapphire Preferred, or Sapphire Reserve, you must cancel that card (or product change it to a Freedom card) before applying new for the Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve.
- How to get approved: Chase tends to be fairly lenient with approvals, especially after calling for reconsideration if denied. That said, they have one of the toughest hard and fast rules in the business: 5/24. You can circumvent 5/24 if you find that you are pre-approved in-branch.
| Chase's 5/24 Rule: With most Chase credit cards, Chase will not approve your application if you have opened 5 or more cards with any bank in the past 24 months. To determine your 5/24 status, see: 3 Easy Ways to Count Your 5/24 Status. The easiest option is to track all of your cards for free with Travel Freely. |
Chase application tips and signup offers can be found here.
Citi
- How to get the signup bonus for same card: To apply for a card within the same brand, you must wait 24 months after opening or closing account. For example, if you opened or closed the Premier card within the last 24 months, then you can’t get the bonus for the Prestige card. Product changing does not count as an open/close event if you keep the original account number. If you are issued a new account number then it will count as both a close and open event.
- How to get the signup bonus for similar card: See bullet above. Note that business cards are handled separately from personal cards, so you do not need to wait 24 months to get an AAdvantage business card, for example, if you recently opened or closed an AAdvantage personal card.
- How to get approved: Keep within these overall Citibank signup rules: Max 1 personal card per 8 days; Max 2 personal cards per 65 days; Max 1 business card per 95 days.
Citibank application tips and signup offers can be found here.
Discover
- How to get the signup bonus for same card: You must wait over 12 months from the previous application.
- How to get the signup bonus for similar card: No known restrictions.
- How to get approved: You may have no more than 2 Discover cards open at one time.
Discover application rules and signup offers can be found here.
US Bank
- How to get the signup bonus for same card: No known restrictions.
- How to get the signup bonus for similar card: No known restrictions.
- How to get approved: Approval can be tough.
US Bank application tips and signup offers can be found here.
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Question: I had a PayPal credit card and I got shut down as they claimed I was using my MC for business purposes. It’s been close to a year, how long do you think you should wait to reapply again for the same Paypal MC?
Sorry, I don’t know
Realize this is an old post, but I assume you get notified of any new comments and this seems to be as close to any post I could find on your site to address my question of downgrading a premium card vs. cancelling and applying for the lower fee card. Would love to get your thoughts…
I am coming up on my 3rd anniversary with my Chase Sapphire Reserve card and am ready to cancel before the $450 annual fee hits. I am under the 5/24 limit, I’ve moved my relatively few remaining Ultimate Rewards points to my wife’s Freedom card, and my FICO score is excellent and I’m not too concerned about the impact on my credit score of cancelling a card with credit history and credit line, which cover the only reasons I can find mentioned online for downgrading instead of cancelling a card and reapplying.
As I see it, the benefit of cancelling and then applying for a new lower fee card, like the Freedom Unlimited or Sapphire Preferred, is that I should get a substantial sign-up bonus after qualified spend that I won’t get by downgrading my current card. I’m trying to figure out if there is any reason not to do this and why the notion of always downgrading instead of cancelling seems to be so prevalent. The sign-up bonus is a lot to give up by downgrading instead of cancelling and applying for a new card.
Related to this, I do think the CSR benefits are worth the $450, but the sign-up bonus of switching cards is too much to pass up, plus I can reapply after 48 months have passed from my sign-up bonus on the CSR and get it again in just over a year, in my case. On top of that, I believe I can actually have my wife get the CSR immediately and get the bonus and pretty much be able to take full advantage of the benefits.
I would appreciate you pointing out if you see any issues with this approach, You might also consider writing a post exploring the pros and cons of downgrading vs. cancelling and applying for a new lower fee card as well as the options for increasing the frequency of sign-up bonus eligibility by switching between spouses.
Thanks for this thoughtful question. It’s fine to cancel and apply for a new card. But then you give up the chance to collect additional useful cards. You don’t have to give up a new signup bonus when you downgrade. For example, you could downgrade to the no-fee Freedom card, then sign up for the 60K Sapphire Preferred offer (as long as it has been 48 months since you received a bonus on the Sapphire Reserve). Then, when you are done with the Sapphire Preferred, you could downgrade it to a second Freedom card (so that you have more 5X capacity from that card), and so on. I’m not saying that you should do it this way, just that it’s an option.
Appreciate the response. Let me clarify my question a bit using your example… You mention downgrading to the no-fee Freedom card and then applying for the CSP. My question is really about the sign-up bonus on the no-fee Freedom card in this case. If you downgrade, you won’t get the bonus on the no-fee card, right? It looks like you can currently get either a $200 bonus after qualified spend (https://creditcards.chase.com/all-credit-cards?CELL=6TKV) or a 15K ultimate rewards points bonus (https://frequentmiler.com/CF/#Goto).
I’m guessing the reason you would suggest downgrading to the no-fee card and applying for the CSP with the 60K bonus is because you are thinking about the 5/24 limit and wouldn’t want to use up a 5/24 slot with the relatively small bonus on the no-fee Freedom card if you’re trying to maximize bonus points, is that right? Otherwise, it seems you would be unnecessarily foregoing the bonus on the no-fee card. Thanks!
Wow, thanks for pointing out that there is a better public offer for the Freedom card than we knew about. We will update our site with the $200 (really 20,000 points) offer today.
Yes, partially I was recommending the 60K offer over the 20K offer because the former is a better candidate to take up a slot, but also downgrading to the Freedom doesn’t remove the possibility of getting the card. You would just need to product change to something else before applying for the Freedom in order to be able to get that bonus.
When creating an EIN simply for the purpose of getting a second set of business cards from a bank, do you select “sole proprietorship” or “LLC” when creating the EIN? Or does it not even matter.
I wouldn’t create an EIN unless you have a business for it. In most cases that will be a sole proprietorship.
Does BOA allow to apply for another card that you already have without canceling first card? Such as Alaska personal card or Air France card.
It depends on the card. The Alaska card terms now have language disallowing that. Some other cards allow you to get a second if you’ve had the first open at least 24 months. See this post:
https://frequentmiler.com/new-boa-anti-churning-24-month-language-on-some-cards-as-tr-pr-cr/
Great post Greg. would you happen to know if i can get 2 United Explorer card(s) under the same name? or can i get a Explorer card and a Club card?
One Explorer and one Club should be no problem, separate products there.
However, Chase won’t approve you for a second card that you already have. You would need to close or product change the Explorer card you currently have in order to get another.
If for some reason you actually want to have two Explorer cards (I can’t think of any reason why you would…), you could theoretically open an Explorer and a Club and then later downgrade the Club to a second Explorer, though they may require you to have it open for a year before downgrading.
[…] right (see what I did there?) you can often get the same card again. For details on this, see: Can you get the same credit card again? See also: Take the stress out of credit card bonus hunting: Travel […]
Hi guys, I got a sigh-up bonus via Hyatt Chase Credit Card 24 months ago. I still keep this card.
How long should I wait after I close this card to get the second bonus?
Thank you,
Nina
I’d wait a couple of weeks at least.
Great post, thanks for the info. A year ago I needed bridge loans for a home purchase so one thing I did was take out Chase’s Slate card w/ no balance transfer fees or interest for 15 months. At the time it was the only card that I’m aware of that had such an offer. Now BoA has one, too, so I just initiated a transfer from Chase -> BoA. Any idea how the above article would apply to Chase Slate – wondering if I could roll the BoA balances back into Slate (and then who knows, just keep doing this for as long as they’ll let me).
The Slate offer doesn’t have any rules against having had the card or the balance transfer deal before. So, I think that as long as you can get approved you should be able to do it again.
[…] Can you get the same credit card again? […]
How soon can I apply for BoA Alaska after closing it? Also, should I move the credit line to another card before closing or let it go, to hopefully get it back when reapplying? Would hate to only get the lower tier card.
It’s unclear whether BOA cares whether you’ve cancelled the previous card, but to play it safe wait a month after cancelling so that it shows as cancelled on your credit report. The key thing to beware of is the app rules: No more than two approvals per rolling two months; no more than three approvals per rolling twelve month; and No more than four approvals per rolling twenty four months.
[…] like this vary across banks (here’s a good post from Frequent Miler summarizing churning policies across all banks). But the net of it given Citi’s policy is that we want to avoid resetting the 24 month clock […]
[…] is a good reference up to date post: Can you get the same credit card again? It is mind boggling how more difficult this has become, we are becoming like Europe […]
Great post! If me and my wife are partners of the same business, can each of us apply separately and get a sign-up bonus?
Yes
If you were an authorized user on someone’s AMEX (ie Hilton Surpass) does that mean you are not eligible for a bonus on that card if you sign up yourself?
No, being an authorized user doesn’t affect your ability to get that card and bonus for yourself (this is true for all issuers).
I currently have the Preferred and Freedom. I will be getting the Reserve as soon as I go under 5/24 later this year. It’s been over 2 yrs since I got the bonus for the Preferred. So I should still PC my Preferred or close it, before applying for the Reserve? Or else I don’t get the bonus?
The Preferred is from Fairmont PC last Aug, and Freedom is = Preferred-Sapphire-Freedom (pc’ed last Aug also and more than 3 yrs old)
That’s correct. You need to get rid of your Preferred one way or another before applying for the Reserve