Sign-up bonus
Also known as: Welcome offer, SUB
A one-time reward — points, miles, or cash — that a credit card issuer pays a new cardholder for meeting a minimum spend requirement within a defined window. The most economically important feature of a new card; the bonus typically exceeds five years of ongoing rewards on the same spend.
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Sign-up bonuses are the customer acquisition cost the issuer is willing to pay for a new approved cardholder. US issuers compete intensely on this lever because the lifetime value of a cardholder — interchange fees, interest income, and ancillary product cross-sales — is substantial, and they will pay $500 to $1,500 in upfront bonus value to acquire one. The bonus is conditional on the cardholder meeting the minimum spend requirement (MSR), which is typically $3,000 to $6,000 within 3 months, and on the account remaining open for at least a billing cycle after the bonus posts.
The economic significance of sign-up bonuses for the US credit card consumer is that the bonus dwarfs everything else about the card in year-one math. A $750 Chase Sapphire Preferred bonus is worth more than five years of the card's ongoing rewards at typical spending levels. The fee, the interest rate, the rewards structure, and the ancillary benefits all matter, but in year one they are second-order to the bonus. A reader with planned spending that hits the MSR organically — a tax payment, a wedding budget, a planned home purchase — should virtually always route that spending through a card with a strong sign-up bonus rather than maximizing rewards on an existing card.
Issuers have rules about how often the same cardholder can earn a sign-up bonus on the same product. American Express has historically applied a once-per-lifetime rule on most cards (you cannot earn the AmEx Gold bonus twice, ever). Chase ended its long-standing 48-month Sapphire bonus rule in 2025 and now leans on a proprietary eligibility determination rather than a fixed month count, so each Sapphire welcome bonus is effectively once per lifetime. Citi uses family-based bonus-timing rules that vary by offer, with no single number applying to every card; Capital One does not advertise specific spacing but has approval-velocity practices that have the same effect. The rules are issuer-specific and they evolve, which is why high-velocity readers track the current language carefully.
The sign-up bonus opportunity should be planned against issuer application policies, not earned haphazardly. The Chase 5/24 rule means that readers who want access to Chase's premium bonuses need to hit Chase first, before other issuer applications push them over 5/24. AmEx's 2-in-90 rule limits AmEx applications. Capital One's approval policies favor cardholders who do not show high recent application velocity. The math behind sequencing — get the highest-bonus card you qualify for now, then space carefully — is documented in the credit cards hub. The cost of mis-sequencing is the lost bonus value of any card you cannot access for the next 24 months.
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- MSR (Minimum Spend Requirement) MSR is the amount of qualifying spending a new cardholder must complete within a defined window — usually 3 months — to unlock the credit card sign-up bonus. Failing to hit the MSR forfeits the bonus entirely.
- Chase 5/24 rule An unwritten Chase application policy: if you have opened five or more credit cards (from any issuer) in the previous 24 months, most Chase cards will be automatically denied regardless of credit profile. The rule is the most discussed gating constraint in US credit card optimization.
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