What Is Chase’s 5/24 Rule?
Chase’s 5/24 rule is an unofficial approval guideline: if you’ve opened five or more personal credit cards (from any issuer) in the last 24 months, Chase often declines new personal Chase cards. MaxPoints won’t build you an application calendar—but you can tell the calculator your count so ineligible Chase cards drop out of the ranking instead of looking “best” on paper.
Rules and exceptions change. Confirm everything with Chase (and Amex, for lifetime language) before you apply.
Open the calculator with my 5/24
What counts
Treat this as a practical checklist, not legal advice—Chase doesn’t publish a full public rulebook.
- Usually counts: New personal credit cards you’ve been approved for in the last 24 months, across issuers—not only Chase.
- Often discussed: Store cards and other personal revolving accounts that appear on your credit report as new accounts.
- Often does not decide 5/24 alone: Debit cards, charge cards that aren’t reported the same way, and products Chase treats differently—verify with Chase, don’t rely on forum lore.
- Authorized user (AU) lines: Sometimes count, sometimes don’t. We don’t auto-judge AU history—see the FAQ.
If you’re unsure of your exact count, open your credit reports and count new personal card accounts in the last 24 months, then set MaxPoints to that number (or 5+ if you’re at or above five).
Business vs personal
Chase’s 5/24 attention is mainly about personal Chase cards. Some business Chase cards are discussed as more available when you’re over 5/24—but Chase can still decline, and business approval has its own underwriting. MaxPoints v1 treats “needs under 5/24” conservatively for Chase consumer recommendations: when you set 5+, we hard-drop Chase cards we model as 5/24-gated rather than guessing business loopholes.
How MaxPoints uses your count
- Eligibility is opt-in on the calculator—until you set a 5/24 count, we show the full Chase catalog.
- When you set a count of 5+, Chase cards that typically require under-5/24 disappear from recommendations (hard exclude—not a soft demotion).
- Counts 0–4 keep 5/24-gated Chase cards in play.
- Cards you mark as already owned stay selectable even if they’d fail a new-approval filter.
- Shared
/r/…links remember your 5/24 count so the person opening the link sees the same eligibility story.
Amex lifetime
American Express often uses once-per-lifetime or once-per-product language on welcome bonuses: if you’ve had a specific Amex card before, you may not get that bonus again—even years later. That’s separate from Chase 5/24.
On this page we explain the idea. The calculator does not filter Amex lifetime rules yet. Always read your specific Amex offer terms—language varies by product and channel.
FAQ
See cards you can actually get
Set your 5/24 count, enter your spend, and only count credits you’d use—same honesty model as the rest of MaxPoints.
Related: Is Chase Sapphire Preferred worth it? · Is Chase Sapphire Reserve worth it? · CSP vs Reserve · Amex Gold vs CSP · Credit card rewards calculator
We model Chase 5/24 and Amex lifetime using publicly discussed issuer rules and our card catalog flags. This is educational—not advice or an offer. Always verify current eligibility and offer terms with Chase and American Express before you apply.