Two years ago (Jan 2016), I applied for and received the Disney Visa Card and loved getting the rewards for extra savings for my trip. After my family went to WDW in Jan 2017, I canceled the card so as not to incur the annual fee, and we weren’t sure when we were going to be able to go to WDW again.
Good news! We are planning a trip for Jan 2019. I applied for the card again, (after 24 months of applying for it the first time) and I got a letter saying that I couldn’t get the perk because I had received the perk within the last 24 months. I’m confused! It has been longer (just) than 24 months since I received the card!
Has anyone had this experience? Have you been able to get the card again? I’d love for my spending to make me more WDW money!
If it is like other credit cards, they may have some fine print somewhere to ensure people don’t get the card, then cancel it to avoid the annual fee, then apply for it again, etc.
Personally, I would avoid any and all credit cards that have an annual fee.
EDIT, the below is wrong. Read on past this for explanation (didn’t want to delete it because I felt it would confuse the thread)
Unfortunately, it’s not 24 months from application of card, but 24 months of having ownership. So, by their count, you’ve only been card free for about 12-13 months.
If you would want to get the card with another round of bonuses, you would have had to apply in Feb of 2019. Now that you have applied and have been approved (without bonuses), now THAT might also not work.
Your best bet is to have someone else in the family apply for the card. If you are going do that, wait until you get a referral email. Then you might be able to cash in on the current referral reward ($100) as well as a get the $200 sign up bonus.
Randall’s answer doesn’t fit with my experience - unless something has changed in the last several months, Chase should give you the bonus if it has been 24 months since you received last it.
Last year I cancelled a card I had for more than 24 months (probably somewhere more than 30 months). The same day I cancelled it I reapplied and received the card and the bonus. (We also got an extra $50 by using my wife’s referral link since we both have cards.)
I would go back and double check the timing and make sure it has been 24 months - I didn’t play it too closely with Chase, so don’t know what their policy is on starting the clock. Maybe they count from the day you actually receive the bonus, which might have been up to 3 months after your original approval(?)
I agree with Randall that if you’ve already been approved and received this card, that might also take you out of the running for trying again next year if it turns out you just missed the window by a few months.
Some alternative things you can try: as I understand it (please double check online and/or with Chase for this), but they treat their regular and Premier cards as separate entities. So you could get the Premier instead and hopefully obtain the bonus from that card. (But, the Premier DOES have an annual fee, which I like to avoid too, or at least get when they waive it for the first year.)
Also, both spouses can apply for their own card(s), which is what my wife and I have done to double up on rewards. This is true even if one person is stay at home and not earning their own salary, as my wife is.
You could also try other cards - the Barclay Arrival has a great bonus worth about $500 in travel reimbursements (used to be $600) , or check into the Chase Sapphire.
Although I’ve hit rewards cards hard in the last year, I’m still learning myself.
I just Googled a bit and found one post where someone was trying to verify the timing of the bonus - the responses seem to think that the 24 month bonus clock does start on the day the bonus is earned.
So, if that is correct an example might be:
If you were approved for your card on 1/1/2016
You earned your sign on bonus on 3/30/2016
Then you can earn another bonus if you get approved for a new card some time after 4/1/2018
(I would always suggest you build in some leeway just in case.)
Fight it. I would call and complain, threaten to cancel the card if they don’t give you what you think you’re do. These companies will try and get away with what ever you let them. If you don’t get anywhere ask to speak to a supervisor. I worked retail for many years, the company had return policies which we had to follow. If the customer called the company and complained they got their way and we got dinged for a complaint even though we followed policies. I would just say forget it and call for the customer so I would not get a complaint and also make the customer happy. Good luck and don’t take no for an answer.
I have multiple Chase credit cards and have been doing the every 2 year, get the bonuses again thing for probably 6 years now. It is 24 months since you received the bonus, not 24 months after you were approved. I think you probably only missed it by a month or so. They are very strict on this. The Disney Visa gives you very little rewards, and you can have 5 Chase cards at a time so I recommend you get a different one and cancel the one you got (cancel before the yearly fee is due a year from now). I currently have 2 Southwest cards, a Disney visa (the free one), and a Chase Sapphire reserve. I have also had the Chase Marriott one. Like @JJT, we are all about maximizing free travel with these cards. As long as you have stellar credit, and pay off your cards every month (no exceptions, never carry a balance), the bonuses you can rack up from 1-5 cards every 24 months is significant. Over the years my husband and I have gotten so many Southwest miles, it is ridiculous. Free money is good! Anyway, just wanted to let you know my experience and encourage you to apply for a different Chase card.
Thank you everyone! For right now, I’m thinking about just continuing to use my Amazon Chase card. I get 5% back on Amazon purchases and 2% back on everything else (I think) and using the cash back I get to save into the travel fund. We’ll see how that works!!!
For our last trip, I was able to use the Capital One card to get around $500 off of our ticket purchase. That was a big deal! I’m hoping to become a DoD employee soon and I’m hopeful for a discount that way. I have heard there are discounts (not quite as deep as active or retired military of course) for civilian employees.
So kinda piggy-backing off of this… If I cash out my points and get the a gift card with the reward points, is that considered under the ‘bonus’ umbrella and thus I can’t reapply w/bonus for 24 months?
Or can I cash out my points, cancel the card, and then immediately reapply so long as I’m past the original 24 month period.
@Randall1028 I believe the answer to your scenario is Yes.
To clarify, I’ll include a steps below and you can tell me if I’m on the same page as you.
But first: Note that when you earn the Disney Visa bonus by spending $500 in 4 months, they send you a $200 card that is independent of the rewards you earn with the card - I consider that as the bonus that starts the clock.
So, this is how I understand it and was my scenario last year:
Get new Visa card, spend at least $500 in 3 months, earn bonus.
They send you $200 bonus card. 24 month clock starts on statement you earn it.
By spending the $500, you also have earned “regular rewards”. You can cash them in now (if you have more than $10 earned) or continue to earn them up until your trip. These should not count towards any 24 month clock.
Some time after 24 months pass from the statement you earned the BONUS (in item 2 above), you can request any remaining earned rewards on card. Once rewards card arrives you can cancel the credit card, then immediately reapply for a new card.
Other notes:
I would build in a little timing cushion on that 24 month period to be safe and wait at least another month past when you think you earned the bonus. You never know with bank statement date math.
Sorta unrelated but good to know: While the $200 sign-on bonus comes in the form of a gift card, if you earn a $50 referral (it might be $100 now) from someone else who signs up with your referral link, those rewards go right into your rewards account and do NOT come on a separate card.
My wife and I refer each other back and forth to double dip.
If you get the card and earn the bonus in 3 months, get the bonus, cash out the rewards - I would not suggest just cancelling the card right away (especially if it is the one with no annual fee.) I would ride the card out for the 24 months so that Chase doesn’t check of your name off on the chart as someone just playing bonus games.
awesome thanks! Based on my current situation, my “bonus” 24-month time should be up around August/September time and I’ve had the card the entire way.
But I was planning on cashing out the reward points around July for this current trip (into that weird gift card thingy they do), and then canceling and reapplying for the card after this trip (around October).
Ooh just remembered, another good tip I should have mentioned:
If you want to be sure you have your rewards card in hand before your trip, but don’t want to leave any rewards on the table you can request the rewards a few months before your trip, but leave at least $10 in rewards in the account (the minimum amount you can request.) Then you can request the remaining rewards right before your trip and they just go onto the card you already have.
The first trip I requested my rewards I made a rookie mistake and requested the whole amount a few months before. By the time our trip came I had $9 more in rewards and couldn’t request them.
I still mourn the loss of the churros it would have provided.
Alternative to that of course is just waiting until you get to WDW and stop at a GS location where they can issue a card on the spot - but I’m not one for using vacation time for administrative stuff if I can help it.
