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Of all the credit card card application restrictions you need to know about, Chase’s 5/24 policy is one of the most prohibitive — and one of the most (in)famous. The policy applies to all Chase-issued rewards cards, including not just cards earning Chase's own points, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve®, but also co-branded cards like those earning United miles.
A question we field on a regular basis — both here on the blog and in AwardWallet’s Facebook community, Award Travel 101 — is how to check your 5/24 status.
We recommend keeping a detailed spreadsheet tracking all of your credit card applications, approvals, and cancellation dates. However, if you don't already have these details, there are free tools that can help you determine your Chase 5/24 status for free. Here's how.
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A Quick Recap of Chase's 5/24 Policy
The 5/24 policy restricts the approval of new Chase credit cards to applicants with less than five new credit card accounts opened over the past 24 months. This number is based on what Chase sees on your credit report. Chase applies this restriction to essentially all Chase credit cards — including all Sapphire, Ink, Freedom, airline, hotel, and business credit cards.
Here are the main takeaways from this rule:
- All personal credit cards opened in the past 24 months (from any card issuer) count towards your 5/24 status. For example, say you’ve opened one card each with American Express, Bank of America, and Barclays in the previous 24 months. You would be 3/24, even though none of the cards are issued by Chase.
- In most cases, Chase doesn’t count business cards toward your 5/24 status, including its own cards. This can be confusing, as applications for the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card are still subject to the 5/24 policy when applying. However, if you're approved, Chase won't count this card towards your 5/24 status when applying for another Chase card.
- The exceptions to this rule are Discover, TD Bank, and most Capital One business cards. These card issuers report most of their small business cards to your personal credit report. Thus, these business cards will count toward your 5/24 status.
- Even if you subsequently close a card, that card will still count toward your 5/24 status. This policy is based on the date you opened a new credit card, regardless of closing activity.
- If you're an authorized user on credit cards opened in the past 24 months, Chase may count these during your application. If that pushes you past five new accounts, a reconsideration call can straighten this out.
- Other loans you have — such as car loans, personal loans, mortgages, and tuition — don’t count toward your 5/24 status.
Related: Why Starting With Chase Cards Matters if You’re Under 5/24
The Simplest Way to Check Your Chase 5/24 Status
The good news is that you have several ways to check your 5/24 status for free — including apps like those from Experian or counting the new cards on the report from AnnualCreditReport.com, which you can check for free each week.
After significant changes to the Experian mobile app, it's no longer possible to sort your credit card accounts by date. Luckily, an old favorite has come back to provide a solution: Credit Karma.
On Credit Karma's site, fill out the requested information to create an account.
After it pulls your credit profile, you can view a list of your accounts. To find this, go to the top menu and click on “credit,” then choose “score details” in the drop-down menu.
On the next page, click on the number showing your credit score, and go to the next page. Here, scroll down until you see the option for “credit age” and click on that.
On the next page, scroll down to where you see “credit cards.” These will be listed from oldest to newest.
Scroll down to the newest accounts and note anything that's less than two years old. However, this list only includes your open accounts. Chase will include closed accounts in your 5/24 status. How do you find those?
From the top menu, click on “credit” and then “accounts.”
On the accounts page, scroll down to the “show closed accounts” option.
Alternatively, if you're on the home page, click on your credit score number and scroll down to “total accounts.” On the next page, you'll see numbers of open and closed accounts. Scroll down to “view all accounts.”
The next page will list your closed accounts. Great! Well, not really. These aren't sorted by account opening date, which is what we really need. All you'll see is the issuer name and a closing date.
Cards that were closed more than 24 months ago can obviously be ruled out. For anything closed within the last two years, you'll need to click on the card name to view details about when it was opened.
Add any cards from this closed accounts list to your open accounts list to get a total of how many cards you've opened in the past 24 months. This is your Chase 5/24 number.
Other Free Methods To Check Your Chase 5/24 Status
Previously, Experian offered the ability to sort accounts by date in the mobile app. While that feature is gone, it's still possible to use Experian and a service called Travel Freely to check your 5/24 status for free.
Check your 5/24 status on Experian
After signing up for Experian, wait while the service pulls your credit report. Now, you can view a list of your accounts. Each will show the issuer name, most recent balance, and when that balance was updated.
Unfortunately, these aren't sorted by date (and the app no longer offers that option). However, clicking on any of your accounts will show the opening date.
While this can be slower and requires manually checking each account, it does provide a method to check your 5/24 status for free.
Check your 5/24 status on Travel Freely
If you spend the time putting your credit card history into Travel Freely, it will tell you your 5/24 status every time you log in.
However, it can take some time to add all of your accounts to your free account at Travel Freely — depending on how many credit cards you have.
For past accounts, you may not be worried about listing the bonus that you earned or when you product changed from one credit card to another. However, the important details include the card name and the opening date. You'll need to find that opening date from your credit report or by asking your credit card issuer.
The good news is that maintaining your information on Travel Freely is quite simple once you set up an account and enter all of your cards. Adding a new card is quick, as is updating a card that you changed or closed, and you'll see your 5/24 status every time you log in.
Check your 5/24 status from your free credit report
You can get a free copy of your credit report at annualcreditreport.com. As the name implies, this site previously offered a report annually, then you had to pay for viewing your full report additional times. A recent change now offers weekly access to your credit report, and this is a permanent feature.
How to determine which accounts are Authorized User accounts
No matter which method you use to check your credit report, you can identify authorized user accounts in the details for each. Look for “Responsibility: Authorized User” or similar language when checking an account's details.
If you're the primary cardholder on the account, the Responsibility row will show “Individual.”
When counting how many credit cards on your credit report show an opening date in the past two years, make sure to note how many of those are authorized user accounts. While authorized user accounts don't count toward your 5/24 status, it's important to know these numbers in case you need to explain this to a phone representative.
Final Thoughts
Because of Chase’s inflexible application rules, we recommend building your portfolio of Ultimate Rewards earning cards before diversifying into other rewards currencies. If you focus on other card issuers and climb over 5/24, getting back under 5/24 can be a hassle. And it's no fun missing out on Chase's great sign-up bonuses.
Do you know other free, simple methods to check your 5/24 status? Let us know in the comments below.
Header image credit: Frugal Flyer
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