{
 "schemaVersion": "1.0",
 "updated": "2026-09-14",
 "title": "Issuer application rules of thumb",
 "disclaimer": "These are unofficial patterns reported publicly by cardholders and the points community \u2014 not issuer policy, not underwriting criteria, and not a promise of approval or denial. Issuers do not publish their application rules, they change them without notice, and every application is decided on your full credit profile and income. Treat everything here as context for a decision you make yourself.",
 "howWeUseIt": "Credit Upside uses this file only to ANNOTATE recommendations with eligibility context. It never hides, reorders, or down-ranks a card. Ranking stays a pure value calculation.",
 "coverage": "Eight issuers with rules that are consistently and specifically reported are modelled here (Chase, American Express, Citi, Bank of America, Capital One, Barclays, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo). Each rule carries a confidence: 'high' where the issuer prints it or the community reports it identically, through 'moderate', down to 'low' where reports disagree. Every other issuer is deliberately absent rather than guessed at \u2014 the app says so instead of inventing a rule.",
 "dataLimits": [
  "We can only count accounts you have linked or entered here, and only where an open date is known.",
  "Cards opened at issuers you have not linked, cards you have closed, and authorized-user accounts on someone else's credit are invisible to us. Your real counts can only be higher, never lower.",
  "Plaid does not return an account open date, so linked accounts have no open month until you tell us one."
 ],
 "issuers": [
  {
   "issuer": "Chase",
   "aliases": [
    "Chase",
    "JPMorgan Chase",
    "Chase Bank"
   ],
   "headline": "5/24",
   "summary": "Chase very rarely approves a personal card application from someone who has opened 5 or more new personal credit cards \u2014 from any issuer \u2014 in the past 24 months.",
   "crossVelocity": {
    "label": "5/24",
    "maxNewAccounts": 5,
    "windowMonths": 24,
    "counts": "New personal credit cards from ANY issuer, including cards where you are only an authorized user. Business cards from most issuers (Chase's own included) do not add to the count once open, but you still have to be under 5/24 to be approved for one.",
    "effect": "Applications at or over the limit are typically auto-declined regardless of score or income.",
    "confidence": "high"
   },
   "families": [
    {
     "key": "chase_sapphire",
     "label": "Sapphire",
     "match": [
      "sapphire"
     ],
     "bonusEveryMonths": 48,
     "text": "Chase pays a Sapphire welcome bonus once every 48 months, and will not let you hold two Sapphire cards at the same time. Holding one Sapphire card usually means no bonus on the other."
    }
   ],
   "notes": [
    "Widely reported: roughly one new Chase card per 30 days, and about two per 90 days.",
    "Chase business cards do not report to personal credit, so they are usually a way to add cards without raising your 5/24 count \u2014 the count still gates the application itself.",
    "If a card was opened by someone who added you as an authorized user, calling reconsideration and asking for it to be excluded sometimes works."
   ]
  },
  {
   "issuer": "American Express",
   "aliases": [
    "American Express",
    "Amex",
    "American Express (Canada)",
    "American Express (Mexico)"
   ],
   "headline": "One welcome bonus per card, per lifetime",
   "summary": "Amex pays each card's welcome bonus once per lifetime. If you have ever held that specific card, expect the offer to be worth $0 to you \u2014 even years later, and even if you closed it.",
   "bonusRules": [
    {
     "label": "Once per lifetime, per card",
     "scope": "card",
     "text": "Amex's terms say you may not be eligible for a welcome offer if you have or have had that card. It is per specific card, not per family \u2014 holding the Gold does not block a Platinum bonus.",
     "confidence": "high"
    }
   ],
   "selfVelocity": [
    {
     "label": "2 per 90 days",
     "maxNewAccounts": 2,
     "windowMonths": 3,
     "confidence": "moderate",
     "text": "Commonly reported: at most two new Amex cards approved in any 90-day window, and at most one every 5 days."
    }
   ],
   "popup": {
    "label": "Pop-up risk",
    "text": "Amex often shows a pop-up before you submit telling you that you are not eligible for the welcome offer on this card. It appears more often the more Amex cards you have opened recently. The pop-up appears BEFORE the hard pull \u2014 read it and back out rather than applying blind.",
    "confidence": "high"
   },
   "notes": [
    "Amex generally allows about 5 open Amex-issued credit cards at once; charge cards are counted separately and more loosely.",
    "Applying through a referral or a targeted offer does not get around the lifetime-bonus language."
   ]
  },
  {
   "issuer": "Citi",
   "aliases": [
    "Citi",
    "Citibank",
    "Banamex"
   ],
   "headline": "1 card / 8 days, 2 cards / 65 days",
   "summary": "Citi limits how fast you can apply: about one new Citi card every 8 days, and no more than two in any 65-day window (often described as roughly an 8-week gap between applications). It also pays a card's bonus only once every 48 months.",
   "selfVelocity": [
    {
     "label": "1 per 8 days",
     "maxNewAccounts": 1,
     "windowDays": 8,
     "confidence": "high",
     "text": "A second Citi application inside 8 days is typically auto-declined."
    },
    {
     "label": "2 per 65 days",
     "maxNewAccounts": 2,
     "windowDays": 65,
     "confidence": "high",
     "text": "A third Citi application inside 65 days (about 9 weeks; the community shorthand is 'wait 8 weeks between Citi cards') is typically auto-declined."
    }
   ],
   "bonusRules": [
    {
     "label": "48-month family rule",
     "scope": "family",
     "months": 48,
     "text": "No welcome bonus if you opened OR closed a card in the same Citi family within the past 48 months. Closing a card does not reset the clock \u2014 it starts it.",
     "confidence": "high"
    }
   ],
   "families": [
    {
     "key": "citi_premier",
     "label": "Strata / Premier",
     "match": [
      "strata",
      "premier"
     ],
     "bonusEveryMonths": 48,
     "text": "The Strata and Premier cards are treated as one family for the 48-month bonus rule."
    }
   ],
   "notes": [
    "The 48-month clock runs from the account's open or close date, whichever is later \u2014 not from when you last got a bonus.",
    "Citi counts applications, not approvals, toward the 8-day and 65-day limits."
   ]
  },
  {
   "issuer": "Bank of America",
   "aliases": [
    "Bank of America",
    "BofA",
    "BoA"
   ],
   "headline": "2/3/4 and 7/12",
   "summary": "Bank of America caps how many of its OWN cards you can open (2 in 2 months, 3 in 12 months, 4 in 24 months) and separately declines applicants who have opened roughly 7 or more new accounts anywhere in the past 12 months.",
   "selfVelocity": [
    {
     "label": "2/2 months",
     "maxNewAccounts": 2,
     "windowMonths": 2,
     "confidence": "high",
     "text": "At most two new Bank of America cards in any 2-month window."
    },
    {
     "label": "3/12 months",
     "maxNewAccounts": 3,
     "windowMonths": 12,
     "confidence": "high",
     "text": "At most three new Bank of America cards in any 12-month window."
    },
    {
     "label": "4/24 months",
     "maxNewAccounts": 4,
     "windowMonths": 24,
     "confidence": "high",
     "text": "At most four new Bank of America cards in any 24-month window."
    }
   ],
   "crossVelocity": {
    "label": "7/12",
    "maxNewAccounts": 7,
    "windowMonths": 12,
    "counts": "New accounts across all issuers in the past 12 months. Reports say this counts more than credit cards \u2014 auto loans and other new tradelines can push you over.",
    "effect": "Commonly reported as an auto-decline for applicants without a Preferred Rewards relationship.",
    "confidence": "moderate"
   },
   "notes": [
    "Preferred Rewards members (qualifying balances at Bank of America or Merrill) are widely reported to get more leeway on both rules, and get a 25\u201375% bonus on rewards earned.",
    "The 2/3/4 rule counts Bank of America cards only; the 7/12 rule counts everything."
   ]
  },
  {
   "issuer": "Capital One",
   "aliases": [
    "Capital One",
    "CapOne"
   ],
   "headline": "Three hard pulls, one card per ~6 months",
   "summary": "A single Capital One application typically triggers a hard inquiry at all three bureaus, and Capital One usually approves at most one new card every 6 months or so.",
   "hardPull": {
    "label": "Three bureaus, one application",
    "bureaus": [
     "Experian",
     "Equifax",
     "TransUnion"
    ],
    "text": "Capital One is the one major issuer that routinely pulls all three credit bureaus for a single application. That is three hard inquiries from one application, and they stay on your reports for two years. Use Capital One's own pre-approval tool first \u2014 it is a soft pull.",
    "confidence": "high"
   },
   "selfVelocity": [
    {
     "label": "1 per ~6 months",
     "maxNewAccounts": 1,
     "windowMonths": 6,
     "confidence": "moderate",
     "text": "Widely reported: Capital One approves roughly one new card per applicant every six months."
    }
   ],
   "notes": [
    "Many reports put the cap at about two open Capital One personal cards at a time; business cards are counted separately.",
    "Capital One is also reported to decline applicants with a lot of recent new accounts, without publishing a specific threshold.",
    "Because of the three-bureau pull, the cost of a Capital One application is higher than it looks \u2014 check pre-approval before you spend the inquiries."
   ]
  },
  {
   "issuer": "Barclays",
   "aliases": [
    "Barclays",
    "Barclaycard",
    "Barclays US",
    "Barclays Bank Delaware"
   ],
   "headline": "6/24, and one card at a time",
   "summary": "Barclays is widely reported to decline applicants with roughly six or more new credit cards from any issuer in the past 24 months, and to approve about one Barclays card every six months.",
   "crossVelocity": {
    "label": "6/24",
    "maxNewAccounts": 6,
    "windowMonths": 24,
    "counts": "New credit cards from ANY issuer in the past 24 months, the same population Chase's 5/24 counts.",
    "effect": "At or over the limit, applications are usually declined regardless of score.",
    "confidence": "moderate"
   },
   "selfVelocity": [
    {
     "label": "1 per 6 months",
     "maxNewAccounts": 1,
     "windowDays": 180,
     "confidence": "moderate",
     "text": "A second Barclays card inside about six months is usually declined; reconsideration rarely moves it."
    }
   ],
   "bonusRules": [
    {
     "label": "Once per card",
     "scope": "card",
     "months": 24,
     "text": "Barclays generally pays a given card's welcome bonus once; holding or recently closing that card normally rules the bonus out.",
     "confidence": "moderate"
    }
   ],
   "families": [],
   "notes": [
    "Barclays is the issuer most often reported to decline for a thin or very new relationship rather than for score.",
    "Reported thresholds vary more here than at Chase or Citi; treat the 6/24 figure as a pattern, not a policy."
   ]
  },
  {
   "issuer": "U.S. Bank",
   "aliases": [
    "U.S. Bank",
    "US Bank",
    "USB",
    "U.S. Bancorp"
   ],
   "headline": "About 1 card per 6 months",
   "summary": "U.S. Bank is reported to approve roughly one new card every six months, and to look harder at applicants with many recent accounts. It has no published cross-issuer rule.",
   "selfVelocity": [
    {
     "label": "1 per 6 months",
     "maxNewAccounts": 1,
     "windowDays": 180,
     "confidence": "moderate",
     "text": "A second U.S. Bank card inside about six months is commonly declined or held for review."
    }
   ],
   "bonusRules": [
    {
     "label": "Once per card, 24 months",
     "scope": "card",
     "months": 24,
     "text": "A card's welcome bonus is generally paid once per 24 months per card.",
     "confidence": "low"
    }
   ],
   "families": [],
   "notes": [
    "Applicants with an existing U.S. Bank deposit relationship report noticeably better outcomes.",
    "The 24-month bonus rule is reported inconsistently and is marked low confidence for that reason."
   ]
  },
  {
   "issuer": "Wells Fargo",
   "aliases": [
    "Wells Fargo",
    "Wells Fargo Bank"
   ],
   "headline": "1 card / 6 months, bonus once per 15 months",
   "summary": "Wells Fargo is reported to approve about one new card every six months, and its terms state a welcome bonus is not paid if you have received one on a Wells Fargo card in the past 15 months.",
   "selfVelocity": [
    {
     "label": "1 per 6 months",
     "maxNewAccounts": 1,
     "windowDays": 180,
     "confidence": "moderate",
     "text": "A second Wells Fargo card inside about six months is usually declined."
    }
   ],
   "bonusRules": [
    {
     "label": "15-month bonus rule",
     "scope": "issuer",
     "months": 15,
     "text": "No welcome bonus if you have had one on any Wells Fargo consumer credit card in the past 15 months. Unlike most rules here, this one is written in the issuer's own terms.",
     "confidence": "high"
    }
   ],
   "families": [],
   "notes": [
    "The 15-month rule is printed in Wells Fargo's own offer terms, which is rare \u2014 most rules on this page are community-reported patterns.",
    "Wells Fargo is also reported to weigh recent inquiries across all issuers more heavily than most."
   ]
  }
 ]
}