A reader commented recently that they were told by a Citi rep about a 14-day grace period for signup bonus on their AA Platinum card. For example, if you have to spend $3,000 in 3 months, you’ll actually get 3 months plus 14 days from the approval date to meet the spend requirement. The thinking is that it takes a few days until you get the card so they add on a bit.
I don’t recall ever hearing about this before, but I was able to confirm this with my contact at Citi.
With the Citi /AAdvantage Platinum Select MasterCard, we’re pleased to offer customers 50,000 AAdvantage bonus miles after $3,000 is spent in purchases on the card within the first three months of account opening. We know that customers are eager to receive the card after sign-up and so Citi strives to ensure the card is received in a timely manner. The bonus period does begin when the card is approved, however, we realize that it may take a few days for customers to get the card in hand. As such, Citi adds 14 days on top of the specified duration for bonus miles on Citi /AAdvantage credit cards to provide customers with the best possible experience as a new cardmember.
We then confirmed with them that this is true with regards to ALL Citi cards…
For Citi consumer credit cards that offer an introductory bonus offer of miles or points, Citi adds an additional 14 days (on top of the stated time period) for cardmembers to reach the specified amount of spend.
and all business cards as well…
Yes, for Citi business credit cards that offer an introductory bonus offer of miles or points, Citi adds an additional 14 days (on top of the stated time period) for cardmembers to reach the specified amount of spend.
Of course, we always try meeting spend requirements early, but it’s useful to know that there is 14-days there as a backup.
In general, I’ve been finding Citi much more forthcoming than other issuers with regards to signup bonuses. They send out emails reminding you about it and Julian at FrequentMiler reports that on some cards they even have a way to track your spend toward the signup bonus by looking the ‘Miles Summary’ tab.
Other Card Issuers
After hearing that Citi offers a 14-day grace period, I set out to verify if any other issuers offer this. I contacted Chase, Amex, and BofA.
- BofA told me that they also have a grace period to give the customer time to receive and activate the card. Based on what we’ve written previously, it appears that BofA starts the 3-months at the time of card activation.
- Chase indicated in their reply that there is no additional grace period. It’s just 3 months from account opening.
- Amex confirmed with us on Twitter that they do not offer any special grace period.
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