Sequencing Credit Card Applications Around Waiting Periods — How the Clocks Stack
By Craig McNamara · Published on 26 July 2026
I published a companion piece today on what every bank's waiting period actually is — the verified numbers and the fine-print traps. This post is the other half: once you know the rules, how does the order of applications change what's possible?
The short answer: waiting periods are per-bank clocks that run in parallel. Starting one clock doesn't pause any other. So over any fixed stretch of time, the number of bonuses that fit isn't fixed — it depends on the sequence. This is arithmetic, not advice; here's how the math works.
The three properties of a clock
Every exclusion clause has three properties that matter for sequencing:
- Length — how long the clock runs. Mostly 24 months at the big banks, 12 at BOQ and Virgin Money, 18 at Amex, zero at MyCard.
- Breadth — how many cards one clock covers. Westpac's terms say the offer is "not available if you've held an Altitude Platinum or Altitude Black card with Altitude Rewards, Qantas or Velocity in the last 24 months" (Westpac offer terms) — so every Altitude variant shares one clock. Amex is the widest: "Card Members who currently hold or who have previously held any Card product issued by American Express Australia Limited within 18 months prior to signing up for their new Card are ineligible for welcome Bonus Points offers" (Amex bonus points FAQ). One clock, the entire lineup.
- Independence — which clocks don't touch each other. St.George's terms exclude anyone who holds "an Amplify, Amplify Platinum or Amplify Signature card issued by St.George, Bank of Melbourne or BankSA, or who have held one in the last 24 months" (St.George offer terms) — three brands, one clock. But Westpac isn't named in it, and Amplify isn't named in Westpac's. Same corporate group, two independent clocks.
Sequencing is just managing a portfolio of these clocks: which ones are you willing to start, and when.
The current clock map
These are the waiting periods I track in this site's database, extracted from each issuer's live offer terms (always-current version on the eligibility rules page):
| Clock | Length | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| Amex | 18 months | Every Amex-issued card — one clock for the lineup |
| ANZ | 24 months | "an ANZ Rewards or ANZ Frequent Flyer credit card" — both families, one clock |
| CommBank | 24 months | "any activated Awards card type" |
| NAB | 24 months | NAB rewards cards |
| Westpac | 24 months | Altitude Platinum/Black in Rewards, Qantas and Velocity flavours |
| St.George / Bank of Melbourne / BankSA | 24 months | The Amplify family across all three brands |
| Qantas Premier | 24 months | See below — it's not like the others |
| Bankwest | 24 months | Bankwest Qantas Mastercards |
| BOQ | 12 months | |
| Virgin Money | 12 months | |
| MyCard (ex-Citi) | 0 months | Holding block only — no post-close wait |
The two clocks that punish a bad order
Most clocks only care about their own bank. Two don't, and they're the reason sequencing exists as a topic.
Amex's clock is one slot per 18 months. Because any Amex card in the window blocks the bonus on every other Amex, holding an entry-level Amex burns the same slot as the biggest bonus in the lineup. The math treats "an Amex application" as a single scarce resource — whichever card it's spent on, the whole lineup locks for 18 months.
Qantas Premier's clock reaches across banks. Part of its current bonus is restricted to applicants who "have not earned Qantas Points on a credit or charge card into their Qantas Frequent Flyer account within the previous 24 months from card application" — that's from the offer's own fine print, and it's why I label the offer that way in the database. Read that again: not held a Qantas Premier card — earned Qantas Points on any credit or charge card. An ANZ Frequent Flyer card, a NAB Qantas card, a Westpac Altitude Qantas card — any of them earning points into your Qantas account starts this clock. Every other clock in the table is started by that bank's cards; this one is started by everyone's.
That asymmetry mechanically fixes its position: in any sequence that includes Qantas Premier's restricted bonus tier, it has to come before the first Qantas-earning card from anywhere else — otherwise it isn't available for 24 months.
A worked example
Take a hypothetical points collector starting with no recent card history, interested in Qantas points. Compare two orderings of the same four cards over the same period.
Ordering A — biggest bonus first:
| Month | Action | Clocks started |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | ANZ Frequent Flyer card | ANZ (24mo) — and Qantas Premier's cross-bank clock |
| 5 | Qantas Premier | Blocked — Qantas Points earned on a card within 24 months |
| 5 | Westpac Altitude Qantas | Westpac (24mo) |
| 10 | Amex Qantas card | Amex (18mo) |
The Qantas Premier restricted tier doesn't fit until month 24+. Three bonuses land in the window; the fourth waits two years.
Ordering B — broad clocks first:
| Month | Action | Clocks started |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Qantas Premier | Qantas Premier (24mo) |
| 5 | ANZ Frequent Flyer card | ANZ (24mo) |
| 10 | Westpac Altitude Qantas | Westpac (24mo) |
| 15 | Amex Qantas card | Amex (18mo) |
Same four cards, same spacing, all four bonuses fit — purely because the clock that other cards can start went first. The independent clocks (St.George/BoM Amplify, Bankwest, the 12-month BOQ and Virgin Money clocks, MyCard's zero-wait) are all still untouched in either ordering and slot in wherever.
The general principle that falls out: broad clocks before narrow ones, and a clock's start date is a cost you pay with every application — the cheapest applications to make early are the ones nothing else depends on.
Spacing is a separate constraint
The clocks say which bonuses are available; they say nothing about how fast to apply. Every application is recorded on your credit file, and Moneysmart lists "the number of credit applications you've made" among the factors credit scores are calculated from (Moneysmart — credit scores and credit reports). In my churning workflow I space applications a few months apart for exactly that reason — I've covered what applications actually do to your score and how many cards is workable separately. There's also a doubling trick that sidesteps clocks entirely: two people, two sets of clocks.
One thing I deliberately haven't put in the tables above: bonus sizes. They change constantly — the latest offer updates page tracks the movements, and the Qantas cards page always shows the current bonuses — so an ordering computed today should be re-checked against live offers when each slot comes up.
Let the site do the bookkeeping
This whole post is a by-hand walkthrough of a calculation the eligibility rules page does automatically. Log your card history and it checks every current offer's exclusion clause — group clocks, the Amex one-clock rule, the cross-bank Qantas Premier clock — against your actual open and close dates, and shows which bonuses are open to you right now and when the blocked ones unlock. The fine print on the day you apply is always what binds, but the arithmetic is exactly what's described here.
