To receive the signup bonus you must spend $X within so many months. What date do the credit card companies consider the start date, when are approved for the card or when you activate the card?

If there are no set standard for all credit card companies which companies have start date of application approval and which have activiation of the card?

I've been told application date.... which is good to assume for conservative purposes at least

+1

Everyone I have gone through has been application/approval date.

I also call and double check when it expires so I can mark it down. With chase, they always count a month as 31 days so my 3 months for CSP was 93 days.

When I asked Amex they told me the date I received it . They couldn't explain how they calculated this from date sent...

Did they provide you the exact date you have to complete the spend requirement by?

Many have reported that it's the date of approval. Better safe than sorry.

I suggest emailing customer service for each card so you have a firm date in writing from the bank.

Amex told me its from the day I activate it, which makes me wonder if holding on to it for a while to delay the start is a good idea (especially if you have other spends). In any case, the most I've needed for a 3-month spend req is 2 months ... Don't like to risk it.

With Citi it's application date. I have 50,000 less reasons to believe that

I suggesting for the email.

I don't even worry about applicaiton date vs activation date, because I worry about other posisbilities:

Do they count purchase date or posting date? (And what if the merchant post-dates the purchase?!? )

Do they mean post to the website within X months, or post to your statement within X months? (If post to your statement, it's actually less than X months, because it has to be on your statement that closes before X months are through.)

There are very few reports of people waiting until the very last moment and reporting their results. (Most people don't want to risk losing the bonus just to be a good FT guineau pig!) But that's exactly what you'd need to know "for sure" how it works at each bank.

And since I most definitely am more interested in getting the bonus than being an FT guinea pig, I only sing up for spend offers that I can comfortably do in the alloted time, and then I do complete them plenty early enough on the most conservative and paranoid interpretation possible (so that they post to the monthly statement that comes out before the X months from the application date has passed).

I guess one reason I'm paranoid is that I churn Citi more than any other bank (in part because it has the cards that can be churned most frequently), and Citi is known for counting days incorrectly! If they err in one direction on the "60 day" count (between pairs of applications), which they do, they're likely to err in the other direction on the spend threshold end date!