【Update 2021.11】According to a Reddit thread and reports in the DOC comments section, some users were able to get approved for the Chase Amazon, Southwest, and UA card even though they were over the 24-month / 5-card limit. Previously, 5/24 was considered a hard rule, and unless you had a special application link, it was generally impossible to get around it. If you are interested in the cards above and do not expect to get under 5/24 anytime soon, it may be worth giving them a try.

Of course, another possibility is that Chase has started gradually removing the 5/24 restriction from various cards, beginning with co-branded cards. After all, the strict 5/24 policy over the past few years has likely cost Chase quite a few potential customers.

Introduction to the 5/24 rule

Chase introduced the “5 cards in 2 years” policy in 2015, better known in the US as the 5/24 rule. The core idea is:

  • If your credit report shows more than five new credit card accounts within the past two years, your application for this Chase credit card will be automatically denied.

Previously, this rule applied only to Chase’s own personal credit cards, while business cards and airline/hotel co-branded cards were outside its scope. But now, all Chase co-branded credit cards are affected by 5/24 as well. Up to this point, there had been no clear counterexample of someone successfully getting around the 5/24 limit.

Below, I’ll break down this rule using a few key concepts: scope of application, the two-year credit report window, new accounts, and automatic denial.

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Scope of the rule

According to DOC’s article and collected data points and recent data points,

currently all Chase cards are restricted, including but not limited to:

If you are currently subject to 5/24, please read the discussion below carefully so you do not apply randomly, waste a Hardpull, and hurt your credit score for no reason.

Your credit report over the past two years

First, you need to understand that when you apply for a Chase card, Chase decides whether to approve you based on the credit report and credit score it pulls from one of the credit bureaus. So any restriction comes from the credit report at that particular bureau. Under this rule, Chase looks at the two-year period counting backward from the day you apply for a new Chase card. In other words, if something does not appear on that bureau’s credit report for the past two years, Chase does not see it. This is important because:

  • The date a new account appears on your credit report is not the same as the date you applied.
  • The reports from the three major credit bureaus are not identical.

This can work in your favor. For example, suppose I applied for seven cards in the past two years, and two of them were just approved yesterday. Even though those cards were approved, they almost certainly have not shown up on my credit report yet (banks usually take 1-2 statement cycles to report a new card). So if I apply for a Chase card today, Chase will not be able to see the cards approved yesterday on my credit report, meaning this rule would not restrict me. Likewise, if a new account has already appeared on one bureau such as EQ, but it still has not appeared on the EX report that Chase usually pulls, then you still may not be affected.

On the other hand, once a new card is reported to your credit file, the opening date and new-account date are usually based on the date your application was approved. So if you are trying to time an application closely, you should count at least two years from the approval date of the relevant card. That said, I do not recommend cutting it that close; giving yourself an extra couple of weeks is safer. The simplest approach is to get a copy of the credit report from the bureau that Chase pulled and carefully review all new accounts opened within the past two years.

What counts as a new account?

At present, this rule includes:

  • New Chase credit card accounts
  • New credit card accounts from all other banks
  • Authorized user accounts where someone else added you to their credit card

The first two are straightforward: they are simply new credit card accounts you opened yourself. As for authorized user accounts, that means someone added you as an additional user on their credit card. Authorized user information does appear on your credit report. For example, the image below shows an authorized user account I added for my wife.

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Different banks handle the date on an authorized user account differently. For example, Citi uses the primary card’s opening date, while AMEX uses the authorized user card’s opening date. So it is best to pull your credit report and confirm the reported date for any authorized user account.

If you apply online directly, you may be automatically denied because both primary-card accounts and authorized user accounts are counted. But if you call for Reconsider, you can explain to the representative that the account in question is only an authorized user account. Sometimes the representative can exclude that account and run the review again. If your number of primary card accounts in the past two years is under 5, approval may still be possible. So if you were denied because of an authorized user account, you should definitely call Chase and speak with a representative directly.

Note that the following do not count as new accounts under this rule:

  • Hard Pulls from credit card applications, credit limit increases, and similar inquiries
  • Credit card applications that were denied
  • Other loan accounts

Ways people have tried to get around the rule

The restriction is real, and the only way to get around it is through methods people have tested themselves. So far, some readers have reported that the following approaches were able to bypass the “5 cards in 2 years” restriction.

  • BRM method: [New] According to a Reddit post, it may now be possible to apply through a Chase branch’s Business Relationship Manager (BRM) by submitting a paper application, potentially bypassing the 5/24 rule. The applicant in that post was already over 5/24, but after submitting applications for two Chase business credit cards through a BRM (both normally subject to 5/24), one was eventually approved and the other went pending. The idea is that paper applications submitted by a BRM are reviewed by the business lending department, and that department does not appear to enforce a hard 5/24 rule. If you are interested, you can ask at a Chase branch whether there is a BRM who can help submit your application. Link to the Reddit post
  • PreQualify: A Pre-Qualify letter mailed to your home by Chase will include a unique invitation code, and applying with that code can bypass the restriction. Prequalify offers found on Chase’s official website may work as well. (Chase prequalified-offer lookup link). Prequalify generally only works for cards issued directly by Chase, not Chase airline or hotel co-branded cards.
  • Applying at a local Chase branch: If the banker can see in the system that you are pre-qualified for a specific credit card, applying for that card may bypass the restriction.

[2019.11 update] Over the past few days, Chase suddenly sent out a large number of prequalify offers, including 65,000 for the UA card, 75,000 for the Marriott card, and 40,000 for Southwest Rapid. Some people under 5/24 received them, some people far over 5/24 received them, and even some people who had been shut down by Chase received them. You may want to check whether you have an offer. Among these three offers, the 65,000 UA offer is quite good and was an all-time public high. You can log in to Chase and check for offers under the Credit Card section (not “select for you”). Some data points are below:

If you have one, it will show up like this:

After clicking in for details, you can see that it shows a Fixed APR. Based on DOC’s previous summary, this is a real 5/24-bypass offer.

If we click on one without a prequalify offer, it will not show a fixed APR.

  • [ymlulu DP] 2/24, opened a CSP two weeks earlier, with a minimum $5,000 credit line, partly reallocated from Freedom. Found three offers and was instantly approved for the UA card with a $7,400 credit line. After logging out and back in, the card showed up in the account list. You can use the SM trick to get the card number right away, guess the expiration date, and start working on the minimum spending requirement before the card even arrives! After the application, all offers disappeared.
  • [DP1] From someone who had already been completely shut down by Chase and was far over 5/24. Be careful if you apply for Marriott: if you already have the old SPG card, you will not receive the welcome bonus. However, if you continue, you may still be approved for the card, just without the bonus. If you choose not to continue, there will be no HP (credit check). Chase was pretty reasonable about this.

One especially important thing to note: if you apply for any one of these cards, even if the application is canceled by a popup, the other offers will disappear. Apply carefully.

  • [DP2] 16/24, saw the offer. Currently only had two Chase cards, applied for Southwest, and was instantly approved. Could still see the prequalify offer afterward.
  • [DP3] Over 5/24, had not applied for a Chase card in two years, and saw the offer. Opened two browsers and applied for UA and Southwest at the same time; both were instantly approved. After logging in again, the Marriott offer was gone. One EX pull.
  • [DP4] Not over 5/24, recently applied for a CSP, and could not see the offer. LD’s account had also recently applied for a CSP and could see all three offers.

How this affects our credit card application strategy

Our card application strategy should definitely change along with banks’ rules. Under this system, if you want a Chase credit card, it makes sense to check for pre-qualification first. If you are over the five-cards-in-two-years limit, you may still need to wait it out. If you have finally aged out of the restriction, consider using the AOR approach to apply for several Chase cards at once. That can combine Hard Pulls and also let you get approved for multiple Chase cards in one round.