What is a welcome offer (sign-up bonus)?
A welcome offer — also called a sign-up bonus — is a one-time reward for opening a card and spending a set amount within the first few months. It's usually the single most valuable thing a card gives you, and the easiest to overvalue.
Plain-English explainer · updated 2026-10-09
How the spend requirement works
A typical offer reads like "75,000 points after $5,000 in purchases in the first 3 months." You earn the bonus only if you hit the spend in the window — real purchases, not fees or interest. Miss it by a dollar or a day and you generally get nothing. So the first question isn't "how big is the bonus," it's "can I hit this spend with things I'd buy anyway?"
How to value a bonus honestly
A points bonus is worth the points times what they're really worth — not the headline dollar figure a marketer picks. 60,000 points at a conservative 1.25 cents is $750, not the "$1,200" a best-case blog might quote. Then subtract the annual fee. We rank every current offer this way on our best welcome offers page: bonus valued conservatively, minus the fee, nothing inflated.
A bonus you can't hit is worth zero
The most expensive mistake is chasing a big bonus with a spend requirement you can't reach cleanly — then buying junk, or worse, carrying a balance at 25% APR to "make" the spend. That doesn't earn the bonus; it pays for it. We never count an unearned bonus in any savings math, and neither should you.
Once per lifetime, and other limits
Issuers restrict how often you can earn a bonus — Amex is famously once per card per lifetime, others use 24- or 48-month windows, and rules like Chase 5/24 can block approval entirely. If you're opening several cards, the order and timing matter. See how churning works for the full picture.
Put it to work
Which card should this spending actually be on? The demo re-scores a year of realistic spending against every card in a wallet — free, no signup. See it on sample data →
More basics:
How rewards work · Points vs cash back · Transferable points · How churning works · What is 5/24? · Are annual fees worth it? · Authorized users · Glossary · all guides →