What 5/24 is
5/24 is an unofficial Chase approval rule. It says that if you've opened five or more credit cards in the past 24 months across any issuer, Chase will automatically deny your application for almost every personal card they offer. The number is hard-counted, the 24 months are rolling, and your credit score doesn't override it.
Chase has never officially confirmed the rule exists. They don't publish it on application pages or in marketing. But it has been consistently observed by tens of thousands of applicants over the last decade, and the data is unambiguous: if you're 5 or more new cards into your last 24 months, Chase says no.
What counts toward your number
Most personal credit cards count, regardless of issuer:
- Personal Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and Discover cards from any bank.
- Cards you were added to as an authorized user (yes, even though you didn't apply).
- Store cards that report to the major bureaus.
What doesn't count:
- Most business credit cards (Chase Ink, Amex Business cards, Capital One Spark). These typically don't appear on personal credit reports, so 5/24 doesn't see them.
- Charge cards from Amex in some cases (the old "no preset spending limit" cards historically didn't count, though this has been inconsistent).
- Mortgage, auto, student loan, or any other non-credit-card account.
Authorized user cards counting is the most-missed trap. If a parent or partner added you to one of their cards years ago, that's on your credit report and Chase counts it. The workaround is to ask them to remove you as an authorized user; once it falls off your report, Chase no longer sees it.
How to count your number
Pull a free credit report (annualcreditreport.com or the report inside any of the major credit-card apps). Look at every credit card account with an "opened" date in the past 24 months. Count each one, including authorized-user accounts. That's your number.
If you're at 4/24, Chase will approve you (subject to their other underwriting rules). At 5/24 or higher, they won't.
Which Chase cards 5/24 applies to
Effectively all of them on the personal side: Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, Freedom Flex, Freedom Unlimited, Slate Edge, the cobrand cards (United, Marriott, IHG, Hyatt, Aer Lingus, Iberia, British Airways, Southwest, Disney, Amazon, and so on).
Business cards have historically been the exception. Chase Ink Business cards (Cash, Unlimited, Preferred, Premier) are subject to 5/24 on approval, but they typically don't add to your 5/24 count because business cards don't report to personal credit bureaus. So you can open a Chase Ink, hit the bonus, and still be at the same 5/24 number for your next personal-card application.
Planning around it
The simplest plan: front-load Chase. If you're starting fresh and a Chase card is on your shortlist, open the Chase cards first, while your 5/24 count is low. Open other issuers' cards after.
If you've already accumulated a few cards and want a Chase card:
- Stop opening new personal cards until older accounts age off your 24-month window.
- Remove yourself from any authorized-user cards you don't need on your report.
- Plan your application timing. If you're at 5/24 and your oldest new card opened 22 months ago, two more months of patience will bring you back to 4/24.
What happens if you apply over 5/24
Chase denies the application. Your credit gets a hard inquiry from the application, which dings your score for a few months. The denial itself isn't a black mark; you can reapply later. But the hard pull was unnecessary, and that's the cost of guessing.
Some applicants have reported success calling Chase reconsideration after a 5/24 denial. The success rate is low, and it usually only works if you have a deep banking relationship with Chase already.
The honest summary
5/24 is rigid, unwritten, and not negotiable. It costs you nothing to plan around it: count your cards, time your applications, and open Chase cards before you fill up your last 24 months elsewhere. A 60,000-point Chase Sapphire Preferred bonus is worth more than the slight inconvenience of waiting two months for your number to tick down.