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If you have opened five credit cards from any issuing bank in the last 24 months, Chase usually will not approve you for their credit cards. This is what people mean when they say Chase 5/24.
A loophole to this rule is that business credit cards from the majority of issuing banks are not considered in your Chase 5/24 count because they do not show up as new accounts on your personal credit report. Tallying new accounts on your credit report is how Chase totals a person’s 5/24 count.
Which ones don’t show up?
- American Express (nor will their business charge cards show up)
- Bank of America
- Chase (Chase business cards will be visible to Chase, but they tend not to total into your 5/24 count–people report conflicting data points but tentatively can say they don’t)
- Citi
- Discover
- US Bank
- Wells Fargo
Which ones do?
- Barclays
- Capital One
Signing up for only business credit cards from the first list is a way to fly under Chase’s radar and stay eligible for their cards. For those of you in this camp, today’s post is for you.
I’m not going to rattle on about cards you hear us or other miles blogs talk about all the time. Instead, here’s a short list of business credit cards that A) shouldn’t show up on your personal credit report, therefore won’t total into your 5/24 count; B) aren’t well publicized; and C) have valuable sign up offers.
- American Express Business Gold Rewards Card
- Marriott Business Premier Rewards Card
- Alaska Airlines Business Visa
- American Express Blue for Business
Before we move on to the cards…do you question whether you’re eligible for a small business credit card? Read How to Be Approved for Business Credit Cards to learn more.
Marriott Rewards Premier Business Card
The Marriott Rewards Premier Business Card comes with 80,000 Marriott points after spending $3,000 on the card within three months of opening it. You’ll pay a $95 annual fee the first year which isn’t waived but you also get all of the following perks:
- Category bonuses
- 5x at Marriott properties
- 2x on
- airline tickets purchased directly with the airline
- car rental agencies
- restaurants
- office supply stores
- internet, cable, and phone services purchases
- Marriott Rewards Gold Elite benefits when you spend $50,000 the card each account year
- A free night stay in a Category 1-5 hotel each year after account anniversary
- No foreign transaction fees
Personally, I wouldn’t get this card to earn a bunch of Marriott points to redeem at Marriotts. Instead I’d convert Marriott points to SPG points at a rate of 3 Marriott points to 1 SPG point, so 83,000 Marriott points (how many you’ll have after meeting the minimum spending requirement) converts to over 27,000 SPG points.
This card is issued by Chase, but the 5/24 rule shouldn’t affect it on either side of the equation. By that I mean it shouldn’t total into your 5/24 count, nor should being over 5/24 affect your eligibility for the card and its bonus. Read this post if you want to learn about other Chase Cards You Can Get if Over 5/24. Note that all of the cards mentioned in that post will show up on your personal credit report however.
Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express Open
The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express Open now comes with 50,000 bonus Membership Rewards after spending $5,000 on your card in the first three months the account is open.
The normal offer for the Business Gold Rewards Card is 25k Membership Rewards after spending $5,000. This improved offer is twice is good as it was before, and the best we’ve seen (publicly) in years. Since you can only earn the sign-up bonus from a publicly available American Express card offer once per lifetime, that is significant when we say it’s the best sign up bonus we’ve seen in years.
It also has customizable category bonuses with unique options to choose from and the annual fee is waived the first year. You’ll get 3x Membership Rewards on one category of your choice out of the following five choices…
- Airfare purchased directly from airlines
- U.S. purchases for advertising in select media
- U.S. purchases at gas stations
- U.S. purchases for shipping
- U.S. computer hardware, software, and cloud computing purchases made directly from select providers
…2X Membership Rewards on the four remaining categories, and 1 Membership Reward per dollar spent on all other purchases. Read a full breakdown of the Business Gold Rewards card here.
I recently got this card and am looking forward to the surplus of Membership Rewards headed towards my account.
Alaska Airlines Visa Business Card
The sign up offer this card is very similar to its personal card counterpart. You’ll get 30,000 Alaska miles after spending $1,000 on the card in three months. You have to pay a $75 annual fee for these miles that isn’t waived the first year. Other benefits include:
- Category bonus: 3x on Alaska Airlines tickets, vacation packages, cargo and in-flight purchases
- You and up to six other passengers on your reservation get a free checked bag (when flying Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air, SkyWest or PenAir)
- No foreign transaction fees
Read 7 Awesome Alaska Awards w/Free Stopovers & How to Book Them to learn about why you want Alaska miles. We value Alaska miles highly (1.75 cents each) due to their varied array of oneworld, SkyTeam, and non-allied airline partners, lax routing rules, and cheap award charts full of sweet spots.
Aside from the Alaska cards, you can also buy Alaska miles, sometimes with pretty decent discounts.
American Express Blue for Business
The American Express Blue for Business has an enhanced sign up offer right now that ends February 1 (just a few days away!). There isn’t even a minimum spending requirement to earn the sign up bonus. After your first purchase, you’ll earn 10,000 Membership Rewards. The category bonuses are fantastic with the limited time offer:
- 10X points at restaurants in the United States for the first six months you have the card (maxes out at $2,000 in restaurant purchases, so can earn a possible 20,000 Membership Rewards this way)
- 2x on everything else for the first year of card membership, capped at $50,000 in purchases (can earn a possible 100,000 Membership Rewards this way)
You’ll also get a 30% bonus of Membership Rewards based on what you spent on the card in the first year. If your business has a lot of expenses, this card could prove very lucrative.
Bottom Line
Regardless of whether or not the Chase 5/24 rule has any significance to you, all the business cards mentioned in this post are worth a look. Business cards are often overlooked and are a great way to pad your miles and points balances. The fact that they don’t total into your 5/24 count is icing on the cake.
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
With a bonus of 80,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months and 2x points earned on dining and travel spend, this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.
The comments section below is not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all questions are answered.
so confused.. are you saying the only 5/24 cc that are affected are the Chase non business cards and Barclay and Capital one??? All others fly under the radar??
Business cards issued by American Express, Bank of America, Citi, Discover, US Bank, and Wells Fargo don’t show up on your personal credit report so therefore won’t count towards the 5 new accounts you’ve opened in the last 24 months if you decide to open one (for the purposes of the Chase 5/24 rule).
Chase business cards won’t show up on your personal credit report either but obviously Chase will be aware of them. Whether or not they count towards your 5/24 is up for debate but I’ve seen enough data points personally to conclude that they don’t.
ALL personal cards show up on your personal credit report and therefore count towards the 5 new accounts you’ve opened in the last 24 months if you decide to open one (for the purposes of the Chase 5/24 rule).
Right now I don’t see the value of trying to meet 5/24. Obviously, for those who don’t apply for that many credit cards and are or can be close, it may be worth employing such a strategy, but for those who regularly open a fair number of cards per year, the combined bonuses on those cards will likely far outweigh the points lost by not having access to certain Chase cards. I would have loved, for example, to have been able to get the Chase Sapphire Reserve for 100k UR points, but during the time that offer was open I probably opened other cards worth 200k points. I’m actually a pretty good Chase customer, keeping some of their cards and putting comparatively significant spend on them, but to me for now some of their offerings aren’t available (some are). I’ve moved on from being concerned about that, and simply go for the best offers out there, regardless of 5/24. And I see a product in this article that will probably be my next application, so I do appreciate the discussion.
I’m with you on that one. I am over 5/24 and have no plan at the moment to get back under it.
What happens if you open a business card using your social security number if you are self employed.
I did that a few years ago before I actually had a registered business. They did call me to ask questions about the nature of my business activity, and I was able to explain to their satisfaction what I had in mind. Now that my business is a registered LLC I use my Federal Employer Identification Number rather than SS number. At least in my state, the process for registering a business is cheap and simple, and does offer some tax benefits as well.
my barclay biz (HA) never showed on my personal report.
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