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Chase application rules
Chase offers some of the very best credit cards in the market – many of them are on our Top Credit Cards page. I’ve earned millions of points via Chase credit cards over the years and they’ve been integral in achieving aspirational travel. If you really want to execute your wallet strategy to its fullest potential you need to know the rules of the Chase program. Let’s break them down so you are best educated on your application when it comes time to pull the trigger.
Our favorite Chase cards earn Ultimate Rewards
Table of Contents
The most famous: 5/24
- Almost all of Chase’s cards are a part of their 5/24 rule. This means that you can not sign up if you have opened more than 5 credit cards in the last 24 months.
2/30
- You can only be approved for 2 cards in a 30 day timeframe
Getting the sign up bonus a second time: 24 month and 48 month rules
24 months rule
- If you have had a Chase product in the past, it’s possible to get it again; however, you can’t get a sign up bonus until 24 months have passed from the date your bonus posted to your account. You also can’t add a second card to your wallet, meaning, you’d need to downgrade or cancel that card.
*Note, if the bonus includes a bonus category, the 24 month clock doesn’t restart until that bonus has completed. For instance, if you get 5x gas for 12 months, the 24 month clock doesn’t restart until that last 5x bonus has credited, potentially in month 13 from sign up. This would mean that you wouldn’t be eligible for a repeat welcome bonus until over 36 months from first getting the card.
48 month rule
- Specific to the Chase Sapphire Preferred® and Chase Sapphire Reserve®, you can not receive a welcome bonus if you have received one on either the Chase Sapphire Preferred® or Chase Sapphire Reserve® within the last 48 months.
Only one Chase Sapphire product
- If you currently hold a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve you cannot sign up for the card ( Anecdotally this applies to those who have the legacy Sapphire card as well ). Those who currently hold both can be grandfathered into holding both, but if you only have one, you’re restricted from another.
No limit on cards
- There is no preset limit on the number of cards you can keep with Chase.
In fact, I personally carry cards and I am looking to add to that number in the near future. Here’s what I’m currently carrying
Chase Family Rules
Certain credit cards that Chase issues earn the same kind of points. We refer to that as a family of cards. For instance, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® and Chase Sapphire Reserve® both earn Ultimate Rewards. The IHG Traveler and IHG Premier both earn IHG One Rewards. Chase has begun to implement family rules whereby you can only qualify for a bonus, and possibly even add the card to your wallet, on a single card per family.
Southwest cards
Basically, if you’ve received a Southwest bonus in the past 24 months, or currently hold a personal Southwest card you won’t be eligible for a bonus.
- These cards all fall under Chase’s 5/24 rule – meaning if you have added more than 5 new credit cards in the last 24 months you won’t be approved. These are specific to your personal credit report, so most business credit cards don’t count.
- If you have received a Southwest bonus on ANY personal card in the last 24 months, you wont’ be eligible.
- If you’re currently holding a personal Chase Southwest card, you would be ineligible as well
IHG One Rewards Cards
If you’ve received a IHG One Rewards card bonus in the past 24 months, or currently hold a personal IHG card you won’t be eligible for a bonus. This includes the now retired IHG Select.
This product is not available to either (i) current cardmembers of any personal IHG One Rewards Credit Card, or (ii) previous cardmembers of any personal IHG One Rewards Credit Card who received a new cardmember bonus for any personal IHG One Rewards Credit Card within the last 24 months.
Marriott Cards
This is probably the most restrictive and complicated of all Chase credit cards
The new cardmember bonus is not available to you if (1) you currently have or had any of the following cards within the last 30 days: Marriott Bonvoy® American Express® Card, The Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express; or if (2) you applied and were approved for any of the following cards within the last 90 days or (3) received a new cardmember bonus or upgrade bonus for any of the following cards within the last 24 months: Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card, Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express, Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express®Card, Starwood Preferred Guest® American Express Luxury Card, Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card.
Sapphire Cards
If you have received a Chase Sapphire Preferred® or Chase Sapphire Reserve® bonus in the past 48 months, or currently hold either of the two cards, you aren’t eligible for a bonus
The product is not available to either (i) current cardmembers of any Sapphire credit card, or (ii) previous cardmembers of any Sapphire credit card who received a new cardmember bonus within the last 48 months.
Chase will rake your sign up bonus back if you close your card too soon
Under no circumstances should you close a card within the first 12 months of cardmembership, so these rules should be completely moot, but they’ve been added to application language so we will highlight them.
- Hyatt cards – 3 months
- “If your account is not open for at least three months, Hyatt and Chase reserve the right to deduct the Bonus Points from your World of Hyatt account.”
- Marriott cards – 6 months
- “If your account is not open for at least six months, Marriott and Chase reserve the right to deduct the bonus points from your Marriott Bonvoy account.”
- United cards – 6 months
- “If your account is not open for at least six months, United and Chase reserve the right to deduct the bonus miles from your MileagePlus Program account.”
- IHG cards – uhhhh unclear
- “Chase may close your credit card account or suspend your right to use your credit card account, at any time for any reason, including account inactivity.”
Chase has added new language that could prohibit holding more than one card that earns the same kind of point
This language was just recently added to all Chase applications. This hasn’t been in force long enough to know if this is just there to give Chase leeway in denying sign up bonuses, or if this means some pretty bad news for all of us who have a Chase Sapphire Preferred + Freedom Unlimited/Flex in order to enjoy high category bonuses on each card. We shall see, but this was added ironically on 5/24/22.
“Chase cardmembers who currently have or have had a Chase credit card in any Rewards Program associated with this offer, may not be eligible for a second Chase credit card in the same Rewards Program. Chase cardmembers currently receiving promotional pricing, or Chase cardmembers with a history of only using their current or prior Chase card for promotional pricing offers, are not eligible for a second Chase credit card with promotional pricing.”
A few examples of using Chase Ultimate Rewards to achieve aspirational travel
- Emirates First Class
- 102k from JFK to Milan or Newark to Athens
- Iberia Business Class
- Off-peak 34k from ORD, BOS, JFK to Madrid
- Virgin Atlantic Upper Class
- 47.5k JFK To London
- United Polaris Business Class
- 70k US to Europe via Aeroplan
- Air France Business Class
- 55k Paris to Washington D.C.
- Singapore Suites
- 53k Beijing to Singapore
- British Airways First Class
- 25k upgrade from Business LAX to LHR
- Alila Uluwatu
- 30k Hyatt points per night
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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