If you spend any time around points-and-miles communities, you'll bump into a phrase that sounds like a secret handshake: 5/24. It isn't printed in any cardmember agreement, but it shapes the order serious card collectors apply in more than almost any other guideline. Here's what it means, how to count your own number, and why it pushes so many people to start with one issuer before all the others.
What 5/24 actually is
5/24 is an unofficial guideline widely observed at Chase: if you've opened five or more new personal credit cards in the past roughly 24 months — from any bank, not just Chase — Chase will generally decline your application for a new card. Two things make it unusual:
- It counts cards from every issuer. A new Amex, a new Capital One, a new Citi card — they all add to your tally against Chase.
- Chase has never published it. It was pieced together by cardholders comparing approvals and denials, and it has held up remarkably well over the years.
Because it's community-observed rather than documented, treat it as a strong pattern rather than a hard contract. The threshold and the cards it applies to have shifted before and could shift again.
How to count your number
The math is simpler than the name suggests. Look back over the last 24 months and count how many new personal credit card accounts you've opened. Five or more means you're "at" or "over" 5/24; four or fewer means you're "under." A few clarifications that matter:
- The clock runs on the account-open date, not when you applied or first used the card.
- It's a count of cards opened, not cards you currently hold. Closing an old card doesn't remove it from your 24-month count — only time does.
- A card opened 25 months ago no longer counts. A card opened 23 months ago still does.
What counts and what usually doesn't
Most new personal credit cards from any bank add to your count. The edge cases are where people get tripped up:
- Authorized-user cards often count. If a family member adds you as an authorized user on their card, that account can show on your credit report and add to your 5/24 tally. You can frequently get it excluded by pointing out to Chase that you aren't the primary account holder, but plan around the possibility that it counts.
- Most small-business cards usually don't add to the count. Many issuers' business cards don't report to your personal credit, so they typically don't raise your number. The important catch: Chase may still require you to be under 5/24 to approve you for its own business cards. So business cards can be a way to keep earning without raising your count — but they don't get you around the rule when you're already over it.
- Things that generally don't count include loans, mortgages, and store-only cards that don't report as standard revolving credit — though exactly what reports varies, so verify against your own report rather than assuming.
Because the details differ by issuer and change over time, the safest move is to read your own credit report rather than rely on rules of thumb for which specific cards count.
Why people apply for Chase cards first
Here's the strategic punchline. Since 5/24 only governs Chase approvals — and Chase's lineup includes some of the most valuable cards and transferable points around — many people deliberately get the Chase cards they want while they're still under 5/24, then move on to issuers that don't enforce a comparable limit.
If you open five cards from other banks first, you can lock yourself out of Chase for two years without realizing it. Sequencing the other way — Chase first, everyone else after — keeps the most restrictive door open while you're still eligible to walk through it. This is the single biggest reason 5/24 belongs in any conversation about building a card stack.
How to figure out your own number
You don't have to guess. To get an accurate count:
- Pull your credit report. You can get free reports from the major bureaus; one report is usually enough since you're just counting open dates.
- List every revolving credit card account and note its open date.
- Count the ones opened in the last 24 months. Don't forget authorized-user accounts that appear on your report.
- Watch the rolling edge. Because cards "age off" at the 24-month mark, your number drops on its own over time. Someone sitting at 5/24 today might be at 4/24 next month simply because an old account passed the two-year line.
That rolling nature is worth internalizing: 5/24 is not a permanent verdict. If you're over it, the usual advice is to pause new applications and let the oldest cards age out until you're back under.
A standing caution
Everything here describes a pattern, not a published policy. Issuer underwriting changes quietly and without notice, the threshold could move, and approvals always factor in your wider credit profile too. Use 5/24 to sequence your applications and avoid obvious mistakes — but don't treat a calculated count as a guarantee of approval or denial.
Keeping an accurate, rolling 5/24 count by hand is tedious, which is exactly why cardful tracks the open dates in your wallet and tells you where you stand before you apply — so the order you add cards is a choice you make on purpose, not a corner you back into.