What is the Chase 5/24 rule?
It is an automated screen. If your personal credit reports show five or more credit cards opened in the past 24 months — from any issuer, not just Chase — a Chase personal card application is declined before anything else about you is assessed.
Income does not override it. Credit score does not override it. A twenty-year relationship and a large deposit balance do not override it. The screen runs first, and a decline at this stage is not something the reconsideration line can reverse, because no human made the decision.
The threshold is five or more, which means four is safe and five is not. People routinely lose a card by miscounting by one.
Chase has never published the rule. It is inferred from an enormous and extremely consistent body of application outcomes since 2015, and from what reconsideration agents say. That is reliable enough to plan around, and not something you can cite as policy.
Why does this rule matter more than any other?
Short answer
Because Chase issues the cards that feed one of the two strongest transferable point currencies, and because the rule counts accounts opened at other banks. An application at any issuer can therefore cost you a Chase card, which makes 5/24 the constraint that dictates the order of everything else.
The currency in question is Chase Ultimate Rewards, which reaches the last major hotel program still governed by a published award chart. If that sentence is unfamiliar, transferable points explained is the prerequisite for understanding why anyone plans a year of applications around one bank.
The scale of what sits behind the gate is easy to under-appreciate. The current welcome offers on just four Chase cards — the Sapphire Preferred, the Freedom Unlimited, the United Explorer and the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless — are worth $2,480 combined at our published valuations.
| Welcome bonusPoints / spend / window | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sapphire Preferredverified Terms Apply$95 annual fee · 19.24% – 27.49% variable APR | 75,000 / $5K in 3 mo | $750 – $1,1251.0¢ portal floor to 1.5¢ best partner | $95 |
| Freedom Unlimitedverified Terms ApplyNo annual fee · 18.24% – 27.74% variable APR | 20,000 / $500 in 3 mo | $200 – $3001.0¢ portal floor to 1.5¢ best partner | $0 |
| United Explorerverified Terms Apply$0 intro, then $150 annual fee · 19.74% – 28.24% variable APR | 50,000 / $3K in 3 moPlus 10,000 bonus miles after you add an authorized user in the first 3 months — Chase advertises the pair as "up to 60,000". The 10,000 is awarded once, for the first authorized user only, and neither half counts toward Premier status. | $675at 1.35¢/pt | $0 intro, then $150 |
| Bonvoy BoundlessmodeledTerms Apply$95 annual fee · 19.24% – 27.74% variable APR | 4 Free Night Awards / $3K in 3 moeach valid at a property with a redemption level of up to 50,000 points per night | $0at 0.7¢/pt | $95 |
Rates, fees and terms for all 4 cards aboveHide rates, fees and terms
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Chase
Terms Apply$95 annual fee · 19.24% – 27.49% variable APR
See full rates & feesHide rates & fees
- Annual fee
- $95
- Purchase APR
- 19.24% – 27.49% variable
- Balance transfer APR
- 19.24% – 27.49% variable
- Balance transfer fee
- Either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater.
- Foreign transaction fee
- None
- Cash advance APR
- 29.99% variable
- Cash advance fee
- Either $10 or 5% of the amount of each transaction, whichever is greater.
- Penalty APR
- Up to 29.99%. Applies if you make a late payment.
- Late payment fee
- Up to $40
- Returned payment fee
- Up to $40
- Minimum interest charge
- $0.50
Cards are issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. Offers, rates and terms are subject to change without notice.
Rates and fees reconciled against Chase’s published pricing and terms on . Issuers may change offers, rates and terms at any time without notice; confirm current terms on the issuer’s own page before you apply. Chase rates & terms
Chase Freedom Unlimited® Chase
Terms ApplyNo annual fee · 18.24% – 27.74% variable APR
See full rates & feesHide rates & fees
- Annual fee
- $0
- Purchase APR
- 18.24% – 27.74% variable
- Intro purchase APR
- 0% for 15 months, then 18.24% – 27.74% variable
- Balance transfer APR
- 0% for 15 months, then 18.24% – 27.74% variable
- Balance transfer fee
- Intro fee of either $5 or 3% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater, on transfers made within 60 days of account opening. After that, either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater. Chase notes this account may not be eligible for balance transfers.
- Balance transfer window
- Transfers must post within 60 days of account opening to receive the intro rate
- Foreign transaction fee
- 3%
- Cash advance APR
- 28.49% variable
- Cash advance fee
- Either $10 or 5% of the amount of each transaction, whichever is greater.
- Penalty APR
- Up to 29.99%. Applies if you fail to make a minimum payment by its due date or make a payment that is returned unpaid, and can remain in effect indefinitely. A minimum payment 60 days late also ends the introductory rate.
- Late payment fee
- Up to $40
- Returned payment fee
- Up to $40
Cards are issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. Offers, rates and terms are subject to change without notice.
Rates and fees reconciled against Chase’s published pricing and terms on . Issuers may change offers, rates and terms at any time without notice; confirm current terms on the issuer’s own page before you apply. Chase rates & terms · Chase card page
United℠ Explorer Card Chase
Terms Apply$0 intro, then $150 annual fee · 19.74% – 28.24% variable APR
See full rates & feesHide rates & fees
- Annual fee
- $0 intro, then $150
- Purchase APR
- 19.74% – 28.24% variable
- Balance transfer APR
- 19.74% – 28.24% variable
- Balance transfer fee
- Either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater. Chase’s pricing disclosure also notes that this account may not be eligible for balance transfers at all.
- Foreign transaction fee
- None
- Cash advance APR
- 28.49% variable
- Cash advance fee
- Either $10 or 5% of the amount of each transaction, whichever is greater.
- Penalty APR
- Up to 29.99%. Up to 29.99%, variable. Applies if you fail to make a minimum payment by its due date or a payment to Chase is returned unpaid, and can remain in effect indefinitely.
- Late payment fee
- Up to $40
- Returned payment fee
- Up to $40
Cards are issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. Offers, rates and terms are subject to change without notice.
Rates and fees reconciled against Chase’s published pricing and terms on . Issuers may change offers, rates and terms at any time without notice; confirm current terms on the issuer’s own page before you apply. Chase rates & terms · Chase card page
Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card Chase
Terms Apply$95 annual fee · 19.24% – 27.74% variable APRmodeled — see issuer for current rates
See full rates & feesHide rates & fees
- Annual fee
- $95
- Purchase APR
- 19.24% – 27.74% variable
- Balance transfer APR
- 19.24% – 27.74% variable
- Balance transfer fee
- Either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater.
- Foreign transaction fee
- None
- Cash advance APR
- 28.49% variable
- Cash advance fee
- Either $10 or 5% of the amount of each transaction, whichever is greater.
- Penalty APR
- Up to 29.99%. Up to this rate, if you fail to make a minimum payment by the date and time it is due, or make a payment that is returned unpaid.
- Late payment fee
- Up to $40
- Returned payment fee
- Up to $40
Cards are issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. Offers, rates and terms are subject to change without notice.
These figures model Chase’s published terms and have NOT been reconciled against Chase’s pricing-and-terms disclosure. Last edited (not verified) . Confirm current terms on the issuer’s page before you apply. Chase rates & terms · Chase card page
What counts toward 5/24, and what does not?
The count is of personal credit card accounts appearing on your consumer credit reports, by opening date. That definition does more work than it looks like it does.
| Account type | Counts? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Personal credit cards, any issuer | Yes | The core of the rule. Includes cards you opened and then closed. |
| Authorized user cards | Yes, by default | The account reports on your file with an opening date. Often removable by phone at reconsideration. |
| Store and retail cards | Yes, if they report as revolving accounts | The card opened at a checkout counter for a discount is the most common surprise. |
| American Express charge cards | Yes | They report to personal bureaus like any other card. |
| Business cards from Chase, Amex, Citi, Bank of America | No | They do not report to personal bureaus, so the screen never sees them. |
| Business cards from Capital One and Discover | Yes | These issuers do report business cards to personal bureaus. |
| Mortgages, auto loans, student loans, personal loans | No | Not credit cards. Installment accounts are outside the rule entirely. |
| Product changes and upgrades | No | A converted card keeps its original opening date, so it does not create a new account. |
| Additional cards on an existing account | No | No new account is opened. |
The product-change row is worth reading twice. Converting an existing card into a different product preserves the account’s age and does not consume a 5/24 slot — but it also never pays a welcome bonus. That is the trade, and it is the right one surprisingly often once you are over the threshold; the Sapphire Preferred and Reserve comparison works through the most common version of that decision.
How do you audit your own 5/24 status?
Do this properly once, and then keep it in a note. It takes about fifteen minutes.
- Pull all three credit reports. You are entitled to free reports from each bureau. Chase does not use all three for every application, so count against the worst case.
- List every revolving account with an opening date inside the last 24 months. Include closed accounts. Include store cards. Include cards where you appear as an authorized user.
- Mark the authorized user accounts separately. They count by default, but they are the ones you may be able to argue away or remove.
- Strike out business cards from the non-reporting issuers. If they are not on the report, they are not in the count.
- Write down the month each account rolls off — the month it was opened, plus 25. That list tells you when your next window opens.
When does an account fall off the count?
Accounts count for 24 months from the month of opening. In practice, an account opened in March 2025 is generally clear for an application submitted in April 2027.
Closing the account early does not accelerate this. A card opened in March 2025 and closed in September 2025 still counts until the same date, because the screen looks at the opening date rather than the account’s current status.
This is why 5/24 rewards patience specifically rather than activity. There is nothing you can do to lower the count faster except wait — with the single exception of removing yourself as an authorized user, which can take a full billing cycle to reflect on your report.
Which Chase cards does the rule apply to?
Treat it as all of them. The rule was originally reported on a subset of the portfolio and has been observed across personal and business applications alike for years now.
Chase business cards are the important nuance and people get it backwards. You must be under 5/24 to be approved for a Chase business card — but once open, that business card does not add to your count, because it does not report to personal bureaus. Business cards are therefore a way to keep earning without spending future eligibility, not a way around the gate itself.
What order should you apply in?
If you are under the threshold, the sequence is not really a matter of opinion.
- The Chase cards you actually want, first. They are the only ones the rule can take away from you — our ranked travel card list and the Sapphire Preferred review are the places to decide which those are.
- The other issuers’ cards second, spaced to their own velocity limits — roughly two cards per 90 days at American Express, one card per eight days and two per 65 at Citi, one personal card per six months at Capital One and at Wells Fargo.
- Business cards from the non-reporting issuers third, since they cost you nothing at Chase.
- Everything else last, and only if you have a reason beyond the offer.
Full velocity rules by issuer are in how to earn points fast, and the offer-eligibility clocks that sit on top of them are in welcome offers explained.
When should you ignore 5/24 entirely?
This is the part most guides skip, and it is the part that saves the most money.
If you are within about a year of a mortgage or a car loan. Underwriters look directly at recently opened accounts, not just the score. A slightly worse rate on six figures of debt dwarfs every welcome offer discussed on this page, and the difference is not close.
If you carry a balance on any card. Ordinary card interest rates run far above any rewards rate available. There is no application sequence that outruns revolving debt, and optimizing 5/24 while paying interest is rearranging furniture in a burning room.
If your credit file is young or thin. Applicants with a short history and few accounts are declined for reasons that have nothing to do with 5/24, and each attempt costs an inquiry. Build twelve to eighteen months of clean history first.
If you cannot meet minimum spends on ordinary spending. The rule only matters because the offers behind it are large. If you cannot reach those offers without contriving purchases, the gate is protecting something you cannot use.
If tracking this would make you miserable. A straightforward cash-back card returns a predictable percentage on everything, with no eligibility rules, no windows, no counting and no expiry. For a lot of households that is the better product, and we would rather say so than pretend everyone belongs in this hobby. If you are not sure which camp you are in, points and miles for beginners sets out the arithmetic that decides it.
And one more, which is the most common failure of all: do not open a card to protect a slot you have no plan for. Opening an account you did not want, so that you can be under a threshold for a card you have not chosen, is a cost you pay today against a benefit you have not defined.
Does Chase ever make exceptions?
Rarely, and not on demand. Targeted mailers and in-branch applications have occasionally produced approvals above the threshold, but those reports have thinned considerably since 2018, and none of them constitutes a method you can rely on.
The reconsideration line cannot reverse a 5/24 decline, because the screen runs before a human is involved. It can help with the authorized-user problem: agents will frequently exclude accounts you do not own once you explain the position, and that single call is the highest-value phone call available in this entire subject.
If you are over the line, the productive move is not an appeal. It is a product change on a card you already hold, business cards at issuers that do not report to personal bureaus, and a calendar entry for the month your count drops back to four.
Revision history
What changed on this page and when. Card figures update themselves from our card database, so entries here record changes of substance rather than routine offer movements — and dollar figures follow our published valuation model.
- Added the "when to ignore 5/24" section and the account-audit procedure.
Frequently asked questions
Does Chase publish the 5/24 rule?
No. Chase has never published or formally acknowledged the rule, and no cardholder agreement mentions it. It is inferred from a very large and very consistent set of application outcomes accumulated since 2015, and from what Chase reconsideration agents say on the phone. That means it is reliable enough to plan around but not something you can appeal to as policy, and the thresholds could change without any announcement.
Do business credit cards count toward 5/24?
Business cards from Chase, American Express, Citi and Bank of America generally do not report to personal credit bureaus, so they do not appear on your personal report and do not add to your count. Business cards from Capital One and Discover do report to personal bureaus and therefore do count. The asymmetry is the single most useful fact in this entire subject: business cards from the non-reporting issuers let you keep earning without spending your Chase eligibility.
Do authorized user cards count toward 5/24?
Yes, because the account appears on your personal credit report with an opening date, and the automated screen counts what it sees. Many applicants have had authorized user accounts excluded by calling the Chase reconsideration line and explaining that they are not the account owner, and this is one of the few situations where a phone call reliably changes an outcome. Removing yourself as an authorized user before applying also works, but the account can take a full billing cycle to disappear from your report.
When exactly does a card drop off your 5/24 count?
Accounts count for 24 months from the month they were opened, so an account opened in March 2025 is generally clear for an application submitted in April 2027. Chase reads your credit report at the moment of application, so what matters is what the bureaus are reporting that day rather than your own spreadsheet. Pull your report before you apply rather than counting from memory — a store card opened at a checkout counter two years ago is the classic surprise.
Can you get around 5/24 with a pre-approval or a branch application?
Branch bankers and targeted mailers have occasionally produced approvals over the threshold, but these are exceptions rather than a method, and they have become markedly rarer since 2018. Treat any claim of a reliable workaround with suspicion: the cost of testing it is a hard inquiry and a decline, and the reconsideration line will not overturn a 5/24 denial because the rule is applied before a human sees the file.