How to Get an Exception to the Chase 5/24 Rule

Posted by Madison on October 4, 2016

The Chase Sapphire Reserve Sign Up Bonus is one of the most popular sign up bonuses right now. Of course, that’s obvious since the bonus is one of the largest ever.

But the big bonus also came out after Chase implemented a new rule targeting those of us who might love to open lots of cards strictly for the bonuses!

MDP reader Jan recently found himself caught up in it:

I recently tried to get the new Chase Sapphire Reserve card and got rejected due to too many credit cards getting opened in the last 12 months. I counted and it was 7 (higher than I expected…but seemed like less than Chase would care about).

How do you do this with your credit card opening marathons? Any advice on what I could say to Chase to change their mind? I have 1 of the 7 cards dropping off that count in October.

It looks like Jan got caught in the 5/24 rule! Although I’m surprised that Chase mentioned 12 months, since most of the data suggests they are looking 24 months back. Let’s explore the new rule and see if there is any way to get Jan his Chase Sapphire Reserve card!

What is the Chase 5/24 Rule?

The 5/24 rule refers to the Chase rule that they will not approve you for a new Chase card if you’ve opened 5 new accounts in the last two years with any issuer (not just Chase). This is not inquiries, but new accounts.

Which Chase Cards Are Subject to 5/24?

Many of the Chase cards with big sign up bonuses are subject to the 5/24 rule including:

In addition, some of the co-branded cards are also subject to the 5/24 rule including:

Which Chase Cards Are Not Subject to 5/24?

It also doesn’t apply to the Ritz Carlton or Amazon card from Chase.

How Do You Find Your Number?

You’ll need to review your credit report and count the number of new accounts you’ve opened in the last two years.

I used Credit Karma. Log in, select credit reports, view your accounts, and sort by open date. When you see 4 or fewer new accounts, you are good to go. If you have 5 or more, you may be subject to the 5/24 rule. Mine are currently showing 9/24 and my husband’s show 10/24. Obviously, we will be subject to the 5/24 rule too.

How to Drop Below 5/24 Quickly

Remove authorized users. First, remove the authorized user accounts! The easiest way to handle this is to have your access removed, then have it removed from your credit report. I recently did this and the account was taken off my credit report; I dropped to 8/24 instantly.

I suggested Jan look at how many are authorized users on his accounts. He and his wife always get additional cards for each of their credit card accounts:

I did not realize that those could count against our total cards… Are you saying an additional card/user from a friend/spouse counts towards that number?

Unfortunately, Jan, they count! However, Chase doesn’t really want to deny you just for being added to other people’s accounts. If removing the authorized user new accounts on your report will drop you below 5/24, you might want to give Chase a call to discuss it. There are some data points that when a person had a denial due to 5/24, calling in to review the report with the representative and pointing out that some of the cards were AUs, they were granted approvals.

5/24+: How to Get Approved With an Exception

After you remove authorized user accounts and it still doesn’t get you below 5/24 there are some other options. There are several instances of people being approved for cards that use the 5/24 rule that have 5 or more new accounts. Here are some of the tricks that worked:

Get an in branch preapproval. To increase your chances of an approval with 5/24 or higher, go into a Chase branch and ask for any preapproval offers. If the Chase Sapphire Reserve card comes up (or any other card you are aiming for), go ahead and apply! And the good news for Jan, even if you were already denied from an online application, you can still go into the branch and ask for any preapprovals. Multiple people were approved using this method.

If you didn’t receive an in branch preapproval, keep checking back. People have reported success trying different branches. In addition, those who didn’t show preapprovals on their account in a branch, found preapprovals on a later date. Possible things that generated the preapprovals:

  • Lower outstanding credit limits with Chase. I found a few data points of people who lowered some of their outstanding credit limits with Chase. It might be worth a shot.
  • Number of Chase new accounts. Of your new accounts, how many are from Chase? I found a few people who obtained a preapproval after the number of new Chase accounts in the past year went down.
  • Opt back into preapprovals. If you’ve previously opted out of preapprovals in your privacy preferences, log into your Chase account and opt back in.

Watch your mail for offers. If you get a mail offer with an RSVP code, that’s a great thing to take advantage of! There’s absolutely zero chance I could get my husband to go into a physical location, ask for preapprovals and apply for a card… it’s hard enough to get him to call on these sorts of things. I’m sure many of you who run a credit card application strategy with a spouse who has no interest in such a hobby can relate! I’ll be watching the mail closely for an offer for him so I can apply online.

Use Chase Private Client banking. For those of you who have lots of money on deposit at Chase, it might be worth it to submit your approval through your private banker.

Focus on Cards Without the 5/24 Rule

When you can’t find a way to bypass the 5/24 rule, you might be better off in the long run prioritizing cards that aren’t subject to the 5/24 rule right now.

The 5/24 rule doesn’t apply to all Chase cards. For example, the Marriott 80,000 Point Sign Up Bonus uses the 5/24 rule for the personal card, but not the business version. It also doesn’t apply to the Ritz Carlton, Amazon, AARP, IHG or Hyatt cards.

Do the Math to Determine if You Should Wait or Move On

When you can’t get around the 5/24 rule, you’ll need to figure out what is more profitable: waiting until you can get to 4/24? or ignoring the 5/24 cards and moving on. You’ll need to figure out the date that you’ll drop below 5/24. For me, that’s another six months.

However, I could pick up the Citi Prestige Sign Up Bonus Worth Over $1,000 and the Barclaycard Arrival Plus $525+ Sign Up Bonus to get $1575. Adding just 2 new accounts only pushes out my timeline 3 more months. This might be the sweet spot. I’m currently putting together my fall application spree with the Chase timeline in mind.

What’s your Chase number?



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