Last year I wrote about a new “rule” that Chase put in place where you would only be approved for one of their branded personal credit cards if you have less then 5 credit cards approvals in the past 24 months. Because of the maximum cards and timeframe, many coined this rule the “5/24” rule. This rule did not apply to Chase business cards or co-branded cards (i.e., Ink, Marriott, Hyatt, IHG, etc.). It was definitely a hard hit on those that like to open credit cards for the sign up bonuses since many people apply for 5 or more cards in a given 2 year timeframe.
Unfortunately, it has been reported by many, that Chase is going to impose their “rule” on ALL business and co-branded credit cards. From the reports I’ve read, this will go into affect in March 2016 for business cards and April 2016 for co-branded credit cards. As far as I know, this rule has not yet taken place yet, so you still have some time. This means that if you have been eyeing any particular Chase card/sign up bonus, I suggest applying in the near future. This means I suggest applying for any Chase cards prior to applying for the Starwood credit card with their current limited time bonus (assuming that card was on your radar).
I’ve gone ahead and listed out a few of the more popular Chase credit cards that you might want to focus on (due to their increased sign up bonus). You can check out ALL Chase credit cards and their respective offer in this
Overall…
While you are still able and allowed to apply for Chase cards, this rule just means you need to keep diligent records of when you last applied for cards. It also means to think ahead about what cards you want to apply for in the future when applying for a specific card. Being added as an authorized user on a card also counts as one of the “5”, so be cautious when adding on others as authorized users.
I’ll make sure to inform you all when this “rule” officially goes into place, but as of today you are in the clear.
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Trying to get my husband approved for a ink business card. Excellent credit…only two chase cards (SW), BUT i did just add him as an authorized user. I haven’t activated it yet. If I remove that, will that help to get him approved?
@Amy – The new rule for Chase Business cards hasn’t taken place yet, so that shouldn’t matter.
If I am authorized user on a BA card but never had one can I apply for one myself?
@Tim – yup!
Ack! I didn’t know authorized users count in their 5/24 – looks like I’ll have to say goodbye to my Chase churns – I only have sapphire, freedom & IHG! 🙁
On to bigger and better things! Like maybe Citi!
@Ruby – Unfortunately they do 🙁
Major churner here with wife. Got wind of these apparent upcoming changes last month by DOC. Knew there would be no way to get approved if these changes took effect. Applied for 4 cards in one night. 2 for wife and 2 for me. All Southwest, business and personal. Approved for 3 but it took a full month (they must be swamped with churners panicking) before I got a response. Did not get impatient and call reconsideration. Will now on the 4th card. We do have 800+ scores and have a good track record with Chase. Still, I’m surprised they didn’t initially decline the others due to our application frequency. They have done it before but recon has come through. I had also applied a couple weeks previous for the Chase Fairmont card and got approved for that, 3 cards for me all approved in 30 days. Obviously, any clampdowns have not taken effect yet. I would heed Mr. and Mrs. Deals though and get to it now.
Applied for the IHG card last week and want to get the United card now. Do I need to wait between applications? I know some banks won’t approve applications too close together.
@Pam – With Chase there is no set time frame you need when applying for their credit cards.
In reference to Ruby’s comment:
I had an experience with chase when I was helping my roommate get approved for the chase sapphire preferred. They declined him and when he called the Chase reconsideration line, they said he had too many credit cards. This struck me as odd because he only had the chase freedom. So I had him get his free credit report for the year and found out they were seeing that he was an authorized user on my account. So I had him call up chase and explain that he only had officially one credit card in his name and the rest were just him being an authorized user. The rep was like ” oh yea you are right, we shouldn’t be holding that against you” and he was approved a few minutes later.
Hope this helps.
Does this mean if now that we are in March I should only apply for 1 business and 1 personal OR just 2 personal?
@Dan – No rules have gone into affect just yet. So you are still in the clear.