Chase 24 Month Welcome Offer Glitch: It Doesn't Make Any Sense

November 15, 2023
Mark Ostermann

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November 15, 2023
Mark Ostermann

Travel on Point(s) is an independent, advertising-supported website. This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites like Cardratings.com. This compensation does not impact how or where products appear on this site. Travel on Point(s) has not reviewed all available credit card offers on this site. Reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any partner entities.

Chase 24 Month Welcome Offer Glitch

I received and email report from a ToP Facebook Group member about a Chase 24 month welcome offer glitch that is keeping them from earning 80,000 plus points. At first I thought it might be a random occurrence, but Derrick said he had seen a similar data point or two in the group during the year. While this seems to be on the rare side I figured it was worth pointing out so people are aware of the potential issue. If you have a similar data point to share please come forward and let us know.

Table of Contents

Chase ‘s 24 / 48 Month Rule Explained

As most of us know by now, Chase has a few rules that we need to navigate when applying for their credit cards. The most infamous rule is the Chase 5/24 rule. The other major one is their 24 / 48 month rule. This is the rule we need to focus on here.

The 24 / 48 month rule means you can not earn a welcome offer on the same card if you have received one over the last 24 / 48 months. Some cards also fall under family rules where this stretches out across every card in the same family. That is true for the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve for example. That means if you got a bonus on one or the other within the last 48 months you are now ineligible for either card until that window is up. The length of this rule, and whether there is a family rule or not, depends on which card you are going for.

Chase's Welcome Offer Denial Intricacy

Another intricacy of Chase's credit card system is you will not be approved for a Chase card if you are not eligible for the welcome offer. That is nice in the fact that it doesn't give you a card where you can not earn the welcome offer. Although, sometimes you may just want the card because of the earning structure or perks. That is one area where American Express comes out a bit ahead of Chase. They will let you know if you are not eligible for the welcome offer and then let you decide if you want to proceed with the application or not.

I mention this application quirk because it and the 24 month rule are going hand in hand for our Chase 24 month welcome offer glitch. Our reader details their recent experience applying for a Freedom Flex card for their spouse.

The reader wanted to grab the new Freedom Flex offer for their spouse. They knew they could maximize the 5x earning on gas and grocery in the first year with the currently increased offer. It had been well past 24 months since the spouse last earned a welcome offer on their Flex card.

The one problem they did have was they still had the Freedom Flex open. You will not get approved for a Chase personal card if you currently have the same card open. They went ahead and product changed the Flex to a original / classic Freedom to take care of that issue.

After that was handled, and waiting a few days, they submitted their application and were denied. They called and were told they were still within the 24 month window. They figured this was because of the product change and decided to wait a bit longer. After giving it some breathing room they applied again and were once again denied. It was like déjà vu and they were told once again they were not eligible because it was in the 24 month window.

No One Knows What Is Causing The Chase 24 Month Welcome Offer Glitch

Since then the reader has spent several hours on the phone with Chase trying to get to the bottom of this. They have escalated, talked to supervisors and opened multiple cases. One thing is for sure, everyone agrees that it has been well past 24 months since they opened the previous Freedom Flex. Even the Chase supervisors!

The problem is no one knows how to fix this Chase application glitch. Chase reconsideration admitted this is an issue with others, but said they could only file another escalation. Our previous data point could never get around this either. Will more time clear it up? Are they blocked from getting another Freedom Flex forever? No one knows!

That is where you come in. If you have had a similar thing happened when applying for a Chase card please let us know over in the ToP Facebook Group. Especially if you figured out a way to get around this blockage and get approved.

Chase 24 Month Welcome Offer Glitch: ToP Thoughts

I don't know what to say about this Chase 24 month welcome offer glitch. It has to be extremely frustrating to deal with for our reader. That is the problem with these banks and their subpar IT though. They have no way to work outside the lines and correct the problem efficiently for their customer. The cog is just too big and the wheel spins much too slowly.

Hopefully we can get some feedback from others on this issue. Especially if it is someone that has the Midas touch to turn these denials into approvals.