If you’ve been following miles & points talk even for just a short time, you’ve probably heard people refer to the “5/24 rule” or “5/24 status.” And if you’re wondering what that means or need some confirmation that it means what you think it means, here’s a simple breakdown.

What is the 5/24 rule?

The 5/24 rule refers to the pattern people have noticed over time where Chase will not approve a new credit-card application for someone who has opened 5 or more credit accounts over the past 24 months.

So your “5/24 status” translates to how many new accounts you’ve opened in the past two years. If I’ve opened a Capital One Venture X, an AmEx Gold, and an IHG One Rewards Premier over the past 24 months, I’d be at 3/24. (Cards from any bank count towards the 5, not just cards from Chase.) So if I applied for a Chase card, they probably wouldn’t deny my application based on me having too many recently opened accounts. (They could always deny me for some other reason, but it wouldn’t be for that reason.)

Because Chase has such a great portfolio of cards to open to earn rewards you can use for almost-free travel, most people are always aware of where they were in terms of their 5/24 status and usually try to stay under 5/24 so they can always get a Chase card if a new great offer comes around. (If you use the Travel Freely app, like I do, the app keeps track of your 5/24 status for you and you never have to try to keep it straight!)

The most important exception to the 5/24 rule: business cards

Most business credit cards don’t count as one of the 5!

That’s it. That’s the biggest exception. All personal credit cards count towards the 5, but most business credit cards don’t.

So if you’re wondering how on earth so many people keep earning as many points as they do as often as they seem to, business credit card applications may be part of that answer.

A lot of people have some confusion about how business cards affect 5/24 status at first, so I’ll lay out some examples here.

Example 1:

Player 1 has opened 3 personal cards and 3 business cards over the last 24 months. Player 1 is at 3/24, not 6/24, because the 3 business cards don’t count against her 5/24 status.

Result: If Player 1 applies to Chase for a new card, Chase won’t deny her for having too many recently opened cards. Player 1 can still get more Chase cards, either personal or business.

Example 2:

Player 2 has opened 5 personal cards and 0 business cards over the last 24 months. Player 2 is at 5/24.

Result: Chase won’t approve more cards for Player 2 until more time passes and the first of those cards he opened “drops off” the moving 24-month calendar, so he’s back down to 4/24. Player 2 could still try getting new cards from other banks that aren’t Chase, but Player 2 is basically in Chase time-out until more time passes.

As you can see from these two examples, if you stick to applying only for personal cards, you’re going to be able to open fewer Chase cards over time than someone who folds in some business-card applications with their personal-card applications and can stay under 5/24 more easily.

What sometimes trips people up

The part that often confuses people who are new to the 5/24 rule is how business cards apply to the 5/24 status versus how business card applications are affected by the 5/24 status.

I often see people saying that even if they’re at 5/24, they can still apply for Chase business cards because “business cards don’t count against your 5/24 status.” But that’s an incorrect understanding of the rule.

Business cards don’t count towards the 5. But if you’re already at 5, you can’t GET a new business card.

Here’s an example to illustrate the difference.

Example 3:

Player 3 has opened 4 cards within the last 24 months, so she’s at 4/24. She wants to open a personal Southwest card and a business Southwest card so she can earn the Southwest Companion Pass.

Bad strategy: If Player 3 opens the personal Southwest card first, that will put her at 5/24. Then she won’t be approved if she applies for the business Southwest card because she’s already at 5!

Better strategy: If Player 3 opens the business Southwest card first, that will keep her at 4/24 because business cards don’t count against your status. Then she can still get the personal Southwest card, which will take her to 5/24, but she’ll have been able to get both of those Southwest cards and earn that amazing Companion Pass. (And then she can sit and wait a few months until her 5/24 status drops back down and apply for more cards again.)

Other important things to know

• Business credit cards from AmEx, Citi, and Chase all fall within the business-card exception to the 5/24 rule, meaning that any of those banks’ business cards won’t count against your 5/24 status.
• Capital One has two business credit cards that don’t count against your 5/24 status: the Capital One Venture X Business card and the Capital One Spark Cash Plus. But any other Capital One business cards will count against your 5/24 status just like a personal card would. Discover business cards also count against your 5/24 status.
• Store credit cards count against your 5/24 status. So if you open up a Target card, that’s one of your 5/24 slots gone. (This is why people who travel using miles and points often don’t have any store credit cards!)
• Being an authorized user on someone else’s personal credit card shows up in Chase’s system as counting against your 5/24 status, even though it shouldn’t. But you can call or secure-message Chase and ask them to disregard that because it’s not truly a new account of yours—you’re just a ride-along on someone else’s account.
• There are some rare times when Chase has been known to approve an application for a new card even when the person applying was at 5/24 or over, but that is usually only an option if you’re applying for a new card in a physical bank branch in person or if you’ve been personally targeted by Chase and received a mailer about a specific offer for a specific card you’ve been pre-approved for. And I wouldn’t count on either of those situations ending up with an approval; it may be more likely, but it’s not guaranteed.

The best strategy to keep yourself in a good 5/24 situation is to try to space out personal-card applications as much as you can and intersperse those with business-card applications whenever it makes sense to. Alternatively, if you aren’t eligible to open any business cards, you can still earn a lot of points if you work with a Player 2 to refer each other for applications on personal cards and earn extra points through those referrals.

How to make keeping up with your 5/24 status easier

The easiest way to keep track of your 5/24 status is to use the Travel Freely app! The app already knows which cards do and don’t count toward the 5, so it figures all of that out for you and gives you a summary of what your status is and shows you when you applied so you know when cards will drop off.