You can have as many Citi cards as you want, as long as your credit and income are good enough to get approved for each. And considering how many good Citi cards there are, for a range of different needs, it's no wonder people would want more than one. For example, you could use Citi ThankYou Premier to save on travel, Citi Diamond Preferred for 0% purchases and Citi Double Cash for everyday cash back. But you should be smart about your applications. You don't want to bite off more than you can chew and begin missing payments. That would be very bad for your credit score. Even just having a lot of hard inquiries on your credit report in a short time will hurt your credit. And you don't want to get rejected either.
Here's how many Citi credit cards you can have:
You can have an unlimited number of Citi cards, as long as you're approved for each one.
You're allowed to have more than one of any Citi card.
Rumor has it you need to wait at least 8 days between applications for any two Citi credit cards in order to be approved for the second. And you supposedly have to wait at least another 66 days before applying for a third. But Citi Customer Service says they have no information on such a rule.
Each additional Citi card you apply for will become slightly harder to get, as your income will need to support more potential spending. Having lots of income and excellent credit will help your odds.
If you want to get as many Citi cards as possible, your best bet is to apply for one a year. A hard inquiry from a credit card application only can hurt your credit for 12 months.
If you're not approved for a card, that's not necessarily the end of the line for you. There's something called “reconsideration,” where you call customer service and ask them to take a second look at your application. If you have a bunch of Citi cards already, Citi might be willing to reduce the credit on some of them and give it back to you on a new card.