Awhile ago Citi added new restrictions to who is eligible for the sign up bonus on their cards, we call this the 24 month rule (and you can read more about this here). Basically you won’t be eligible for a sign up bonus on a card if you’ve opened or closed another card within the same “family” in the last 24 months. E.g if you’ve opened a Citi Prestige card within the last 24 months you wouldn’t be eligible for a bonus on the Citi Premier.
Thankfully not all offers contain this 24 month language (there were recently some public links, those have now expired). In our detailed post on this rule we briefly mentioned that one of the ways to get around this rule was by using a pre-approval link that doesn’t contain the 24 month language.
Citi let’s you check for pre-approval offers (more on this here) and sometimes these offers do not contain the restrictive 24 month language. If this is the case, then you should be eligible for and receive the sign up bonus even if normally you wouldn’t be eligible. Just keep in mind the standard Citi application rules. If you’re thinking about applying for a Citi card, then make sure you read these things everybody should know first.
There are also similar work arounds for the Chase 5/24 rule and American Express once per lifetime rule.
Thanks to Gonzohawk for reminding me to remind you about this
