Spending requirement, when does clock start
 

Newb question here.

Does clock start (3 months for example) when you are approved? Or is it when you call to activate card after receiving? Is this generally same across the board of differ depending on institution?

Welcome to Flyertalk.

In general the clock begins ticking when the application is approved, but you can determine the exact date by sending customer service a message after you activate and setup the account online. It's best to do this in writing, rather than by telephone, so that you have a written commitment.

Parallel discussion here, regarding American Express (USA):

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...uirements.html

Not uniform across all card providers or even among differ programs. But in general =which is MOST of the time, its day one when the application is approved.
But in some cases when I call to activate the card, sometimes the rep will tell me its day one from when I activated the card as they understand it could take up to 3 weeks from applic. to receiving card if it was in pending for approval.
Hope this helps

Ok, now this is getting confusing. Yesterday, in that other thread, it seemed like from the date of application, and now for activation..no consensus yet??

Not confusing at all. MOST of the time or in general, its almost always from when application is approved. But in some cases, some reps will start when card is activated as NOT all applications are approved right away and could take weeks before actually receiving the card- it happened to me a few times. So just saying that not all cases are set in stone.

Thanks for clarifying, sharka. I will check with rep when I activate cards from my first aor.

I called about my citi aa a couple days ago. They assured me it was from the day of activation. Can't comment on other cards yet.

Edit: also, i had a friend sign up for the chase continental card back in 2010. He never activated it. He still earned the first purchase bonus (50k) when the yearly fee was charged a year later.

wow. i can't imagine not going after the first purchase bonus until a year later

Lol, Guess some people dont really need the miles.