At the end of 2017, Doctor of Credit announced the Bank of America 2/3/4 rule. Prior to that, it was possible to signup for Bank of America cards once every quarter. While the 2/3/4 rule is more restrictive than previous, they could be considered more reasonable than similar rules imposed by other banks.
What is the Bank of America 2/3/4 Rule?
While it may seem complicated initially, the Bank of America 2/3/4 rule should be one of the easier approval rules to work with. At most, Bank of America will only approve:
- two cards within a two month period
- three cards within a 12 month period
- four cards within a 24 month period
It’s important to note that the time periods are rolling so they don’t just reset after every 2, 12, or 24 months.
Unlike the Chase 5/24 rule, the Bank of America 2/3/4 rule only applies to cards that are issued by Bank of America. It also looks like the restriction only applies to personal cards and not business cards however, that could always change.
What should I do?
If you are just starting to apply for your first round of credit cards, spend some time studying up on other bank’s restrictions. It’s also good to note that while the rules can be restrictive, sometimes there are exceptions to the rules.
After you have a base understanding of the rules, you can start putting your application strategy together. If you are looking for a good example, Ian wrote a great post at the beginning of 2017.
If you already have a few credit cards under your belt, these same suggestions still apply. You will also need to go back through your records and map out your application dates to ensure you won’t get stuck with an unnecessary denial due to the Bank of America 2/3/4 rule and others.
Have you run into any issues with the Bank of America 2/3/4 rule?
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Are business cards included in the computation and restrictions?
From what I can tell, they don’t seem to. The post from Doctor of Credit (linked at the beginning of the post) mentions a number of data points that seem to indicate that business cards don’t count against the 2/3/4.
Agreed. Wife and I each denied for Alaska personal last week but both approved for Business version.
We applied for personal Alaska cards about 3 months ago and the denial letter said that we have been granted enough airline affiliated cards from Bank of America. KInda supports that Business does not count.
Just to be clear, are you saying we can still apply for a business card as often as before? No restrictions? One every quarter?
Yes – it appears that there are no current known rules on business cards with Bank of America
Is it best or even essential to close my current Alaska business card before applying for a second one? I got the current one about 5 months ago.
It’s hard to say. YMMV but from what I can find, nothing has changed in regards to applying for BoA business cards. In doing a search on FlyerTalk, there seem to be a limited number of data points because lots of people had been cancelling cards before reapplying.