Credit card sign-up bonuses are one of the easiest ways to earn large quantities of frequent flyer points for relatively minimal outlay. During special promotions, many banks offer tens or even hundreds of thousands of bonus Qantas points, Velocity points or bank reward points to new customers who sign up for credit cards.

With so many points on offer, it’s easy to see why enthusiastic points collectors take credit card churning seriously! This is the art of applying for a card, collecting the bonus points and then cancelling it.

But there are a few catches.

Firstly, applying for too many credit cards within a short space of time could harm your credit rating. If you go too hard, this could limit your future access to credit, including for things like home loans.

Secondly, most banks only offer sign-up bonus points to new customers. This means that if you already have a credit card, you won’t earn another sign-up bonus by transferring to a new card or applying for a second one with the same bank.

Credit card exclusion periods

The ineligibility for sign-on bonus points doesn’t just affect a bank’s current customers. Most banks won’t award sign-up bonuses to customers who have recently cancelled their card/s with that bank either.

If you recently cancelled a card with a particular bank, you may even be ineligible for bonus points when applying for a different card offered by that bank to the one you previously had.

This is fair enough, as banks design these offers to attract new customers. The banks don’t really want to encourage churning as this costs them money.

The amount of time that you need to wait after cancelling your card, before you’re eligible for another sign-up bonus with that same bank, is known as the exclusion period.

When banks run promotions offering bonus points to new credit card applicants, the exclusion period for previous customers is usually stated in the offer terms & conditions. It’s typically 12-24 months, but this varies by bank.

Previous customers can still apply for a new credit card during their “exclusion period” – they just won’t earn the bonus points.

What are the sign-up bonus offer exclusion periods for each bank?

Here are the current credit card exclusion periods for the major Australian banks:

Recent changes to Westpac and St.George exclusion periods

Westpac previously excluded customers who’d held a credit card with that bank within the previous 12 months from earning another sign-up bonus. Westpac has just extended that exclusion period to 24 months.

The same applies to St.George, Bank of Melbourne and Bank SA customers. All three of those banks are owned by Westpac and offer the same credit card products as each other. Anyone who’s held a card with any of those three banks during the past 24 months is now ineligible for a new sign-up bonus.

Other things to keep in mind

There are a few other things worth noting when it comes to eligibility for credit card sign-up offers…

ANZ credit cards

ANZ allows existing or recent holders of an ANZ Frequent Flyer Black or Frequent Flyer Platinum card (which both earn Qantas points) to apply for a new ANZ Rewards card, and still receive the sign-up bonus. The ANZ Rewards Black and ANZ Rewards Platinum cards both earn ANZ Rewards points, rather than Qantas points, and are treated as separate products.

This also applies in the opposite direction. In other words, if you have a card that earns ANZ Rewards points, you may still be eligible for bonus Qantas points with an ANZ Frequent Flyer card offer.

Citibank credit cards

Citibank credit cards don’t typically have advertised exclusion periods. However, it’s still a good idea to read the terms & conditions of each individual offer.

In the past, some AFF members have reported that Citibank rejected their applications because they already had (or recently applied for) another credit card issued by Citibank. There is some discussion about Citibank applications and exclusion periods in this AFF thread.

Virgin Money credit cards

Virgin Money’s sign-up bonus offers typically include the wording in the fine print:

Offer is not available to existing Virgin Money Credit Card holders (including upgrades).

At the time of writing, there is no specific mention of points not being available to past customers.

HSBC credit cards

For the purpose of eligibility for sign-up bonuses, HSBC treats its Star Alliance credit card differently to other cards. You can still be eligible for the Star Alliance Gold fast-track with the HSBC Star Alliance card, even if you’ve recently held a different HSBC card. You just can’t be transferring directly from another HSBC card, or have held this exact card within the past 18 months.

American Express referrals

If you already have an American Express card, you can still earn bonus points if a new cardholder signs up using your referral link.

In addition, there is nothing stopping your spouse or partner from applying for their own Amex card and earning their own bonus points, even if they’re listed as an additional cardholder on your own Amex card.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.