Chase business cards don’t add to your 5/24 count

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a close up of a credit card

With the introduction of their unofficial 5/24 Rule, Chase has made life much harder for those who like to frequently sign up for credit cards to get the signup bonuses.  With the 5/24 Rule, Chase denies most applications in which the applicant has opened 5 or more cards in the past 24 months.

And we’re not just talking about Chase cards here.  All issuers count.  If you’ve never opened a Chase card in your life, but you opened 3 Amex cards and 3 Citi cards in the last 24 months, then you’re out of luck if you want to get a Chase card.

Even authorized user cards count against you.  If you opened 3 of your own cards and were added as an authorized user to 2 other accounts in the past 24 months, you’ll be over 5/24.  Fortunately, there are ways around the authorized user issue: 1) You can call Chase reconsideration and ask to speak to a supervisor. Make it clear to them that you are not responsible for paying the charges incurred on your authorized user accounts.  Or, 2) Have the authorized user cards removed from your credit report (see this Doctor of Credit post for details).

Want to know your 5/24 status?  See: How to count your 5/24 status from your smart phone.

5/24 Enforcement vs. 5/24 Count

Chase enforces 5/24 with most Chase cards, but not all.  Meanwhile, chase counts all cards that are on your credit report.

5/24 Enforcement: When you apply for a Chase card in which 5/24 is enforced, you will not be approved if your 5/24 count is at 5 or more new accounts in the past 24 months.

5/24 Count: All cards, regardless of which bank they’re from are counted towards your 5/24 count if they appear on the credit report with an open date within the past 24 months.  This includes cards that were closed.  Any cards not on your credit report are not counted (i.e. certain business cards are not counted).

5/24 Enforcement Exceptions

Chase does not apply the 5/24 rule to all credit card applications.  There are a handful of co-branded credit cards that are not subject to the 5/24 rule.  This means that you can get these cards even if you are over 5/24.  Once you get these cards, though, they will add to your 5/24 count.  The Chase cards not subject to 5/24 enforcement include the following cards (click the links for details about each):

Another exception to the 5/24 rule enforcement comes when you are pre-approved for an offer in-branch.

5/24 Count Exceptions: Business Cards

Any credit card or charge card that shows up on your credit report will count towards your 5/24 status.  As discussed above, it is possible to get authorized user cards removed from your credit report.  Another approach is to sign up for business card.  Most business cards are not reported to the personal credit bureaus and therefore are not counted towards 5/24.  This includes Chase business cards.

Business cards that are NOT reported (and therefore do not count against 5/24):

  • American Express (except for Canadian Amex)
  • Bank of America
  • Barclays
  • Chase
  • Citi
  • US Bank
  • Wells Fargo

Business cards that are reported:

  • Capital One
  • Discover

The Chase Business Card Question and Answer

While we know that Chase business cards are not reported to the credit bureaus, we also know that Chase can count your Chase business cards if they want to.  The question is whether they bother to…

I raised this question a year ago: Do Chase Business cards add to your 5/24 total?  In that post I listed evidence in both directions.  There was compelling evidence that Chase counted business cards and compelling evidence that they didn’t count business cards.

Over the past year, more and more evidence has come in suggesting that Chase business cards do not count.  On the Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook Group, for example, we’ve heard from two people who were recently approved for Chase cards even though their Chase business cards would have put them over 5/24.

One contributor, for example, had signed up for the following 5 cards in the past 7 months before applying for a new Ink Cash card:

  1. Chase Ink Business Preferred
  2. Chase Sapphire Reserve
  3. Chase Southwest Premier Business
  4. Chase Southwest Plus
  5. Chase Ink Business Preferred (yes, a second one, and yes she got the bonus)

She then applied for the Ink Cash business card and was instantly approved.  We know for certain that all Chase Ink business cards are subject to 5/24 enforcement, so this is pretty good proof that at least some of her Chase business cards did not count towards her 5/24 total.  Theoretically her 5/24 count remains at just 2 (the Sapphire Reserve and Southwest Plus cards).  Going forward she can theoretically continue to get approved for Chase cards.

Another contributor had opened 3 Citibank cards and two Chase cards (one was a business card) before applying for another.  He had opened the following cards:

  1. Citi Hilton (no longer available)
  2. Citi ThankYou Premier
  3. Citi ThankYou Prestige
  4. Chase Sapphire Reserve
  5. Chase Ink Business Preferred

He then applied and was approved for the Chase Freedom Unlimited card.  Again, this suggests that his Ink Business Preferred did not count towards his 5/24 total.  Going forward, though, the Freedom Unlimited card will count and so he will not be able to get cards in which 5/24 is enforced.

Rejections don’t prove that business cards count

Situations like those presented above give great evidence that it’s still possible to get new Chase cards when your 5/24 count would be 5 if Chase business cards were counted.  In other words, they disprove the hypothesis that Chase business cards are counted.

What about when the reverse happens?  One reader reported getting rejected for an Ink Cash due to “having too many cards.”  This reader had signed up for the following cards in the past 24 months before applying for the Ink Cash card: Chase Southwest Business, Chase Southwest Plus, Chase Ink Business Preferred, Chase Hyatt and Chase IHG.

In this case, Chase may have denied the application simply because they felt that they had already extended enough credit to this person.  In these cases it is sometimes possible to reverse the decision by calling reconsideration multiple times.  With 5/24 rejections, though, reconsideration calls never help (except when authorized user cards had contributed to the over 5/24 count).

Final Answer: Chase business cards do not count towards 5/24

I know.  I know.  As soon as I publish this I’ll hear from people who will confidently assert that their Chase business cards did count to put them over 5/24.  Until then, I’m comfortable settling on this answer 😉

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