New Changes to the 5/24 Rule (Both Good and Bad)

The Chase 5/24 rule states that you cannot be approved for certain Chase cards if you have opened up 5 or more credit cards within the past 24 months, subject to certain exceptions. But like just about any other rule, there are expecting for getting around this rule. This article will look at two exceptions to this rule: one that appears to be expanding and another that appears to be going away.

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The pre-approval exception   

The main exception that people rely on to bypass this rule is getting an in-branch pre-approval. This requires you to go into a Chase branch and inquire with a banker if you are pre-approved for any cards. If the answer is yes, then typically you will be able to bypass the 5/24 rule and usually will be approved for a credit card.

Now, there’s another emerging exception that seems to stem from this. It appears that if you have a pre-approval offer show up on your personal Chase account when you log-in online, you can get around 5/24 when you apply for that credit card. Keep in mind that it doesn’t mean you’ll automatically be approved so a rejection is still a possibility. 

There appear to be two ways to see these offers. Check out this article by the Doctor of Credit and this one by Miles to Memories to see exactly where these pre-approvals might show up on your interface. 

If you have your business credit cards linked to your personal accounts then you will need to contact Chase and ask them to set you up a separate personal account. It’s possible to have a log-in that just shows personal accounts or business accounts and then also have a log-in that shows personal accounts and business accounts. In order to see if you qualify for any of these pre-approvals, you will need a log-in that only pulls up your personal accounts, as far as I know.

So that’s the good news. 

Another change 

The bad news is that there’s a rumor reported by the Doctor of Credit that another change is coming into effect for the 5/24 rule. This new change will do away with the exception that allowed Chase/JP Morgan Private Client (CPC) members to bypass the 5/24 rule. CPC members are those who have moved a high amount of assets into Chase.

The formal requirement has always been $250,000 of assets but a fact that more people were recently made aware of was that you could get CPC by depositing far less (in some cases even a good-faith commitment could get you in). I’m wondering if more people learned about how easy it could be to get CPC and started joining CPC simply to get around 5/24. If so, Chase might have caught on to that and decided to put an end to it just by putting an end to the 5/24 exception. That’s just conjecture on my part, though. 

It’s hard to read into these changes by Chase since they send conflicting messages. Chase is making it easier for some to obtain cards that would otherwise not be obtainable due to the 5/24 rule but at the same time making it more difficult/impossible to get approved for cards for mostly nigh net worth individuals (truly valued customers). It would seem that “churners” would fall disproportionally into the former category than the latter, so I’m not sure what Chase’s goal is with these moves. Could there really have been that many CPC members bypassing 5/24 that it became a bigger problem than people bypassing 5/24 with pre-approvals?

HT: The Travel Sisters; Miles to Memories; Doctor of Credit. 

3 comments

  1. Hi – On what date will the CPC account approval benefit go into effect?
    I have a 814 and 805 credit score with the two bureaus and applied in Oct and again Dec 2016 and was rejected both times due to the 5/24 rule. The second time I applied in the branch and there was no pre-approval.
    I am going on an almost 2 month trip to SE Asia starting Feb 2 and the benefits of this card would have been fabulous.
    If the ability to open a CPC account for smaller amounts is still in effect until the end of 2016, and would greatly increase the ability to be approved even with 5 cards in 24 months, how much would I need to deposit?
    As the earliest I could do this is Dec 26 or 27, are their databases update immediately ie realtime -so I could make the deposit, then immediately apply?
    At the point before applying, is it likely a pre-approval will show once the CPC deposit is displaying?
    Is the fact I applied twice (Oct + Dec) affect the ability to be approved since even with a high credit score?
    Thanks for your help!
    Bob

    1. Hi there, as far as I know we don’t know the exact date that the new rule will kick in. Assuming the rule is not in effect yet, the amount you would need for a deposit could vary greatly. Some have gotten CPC with $0 deposited while others have been asked to put up something like $10,000, so a lot would depend on how the banker wanted to handle your situation. Also, I don’t think the CPC status gives you the same type of pre-approval that you can get in-branch. I think it’s an alternate route of getting Chase to reconsider your app. In other words, I don’t think it works the same as an in-branch pre-approval. And finally, if you were CPC, I don’t think the two recent apps would hurt you considerably. But again, we don’t know exactly when this rule will be in effect and I’ve read conflicting data points over the past month or so. So there’s quite a bit of unknown here.

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