If you frequently apply for credit cards and are applying for a Chase credit card, you need to be aware of your 5/24 status. What is 5/24? In short, it is an informal application rule that applies to Chase credit card applications. Chase will almost always deny your credit card application if you have opened more than five credit cards in the previous 24 months. For more on 5/24, see our overview of the 5/24 rule.
Fortunately, there are ways to check how many accounts you have opened in the last 24 months easily and for free. Here’s what you need to know.
Why should you care about 5/24?
If you apply for Chase credit cards and open credit cards with some frequency, either to get welcome bonuses or to amass a collection of valuable benefits, you’ll want to be aware of your 5/24 status. Knowing if you’ll meet Chase’s 5/24 rule will help you make better decisions about applying for a credit card.
If you’re under 5/24 and have your eye on a few Chase credit cards, it’s probably best to prioritize your Chase applications and apply for other cards when you’re under 5/24.
If you’re over 5/24 and want a Chase credit card, it might be a good idea to prioritize business credit cards that don’t count toward your 5/24 status.
How to check your 5/24 status
There are several ways to check your 5/24 status. If you already subscribe to a service that allows you to see your entire credit report for free or if you’ve ordered your free credit report from annualcreditreport.com, you can simply count the accounts opened in the last two years.
But you don’t need to pull your entire credit report or subscribe to a paid service to check if you are under 5/24. If you don’t have ready access to a credit report, there are two free services that you can sign up for: CreditWise and Experian.
CreditWise from Capital One
CreditWise from Capital One allows you view your TransUnion credit report and see your Vantage Score credit score for free. The service also offers credit monitoring, dark web alerts, and a credit simulator. All of this is free and you don’t need to be a Capital One cardmember. Even better, it allows you to easily determine your 5/24 status.
Here’s how to check your 5/24 status with CreditWise from Capital One.
First, log in to or sign up for CreditWise and click on “Your TransUnion Credit Report.”
Under “Accounts & Balances,” click on the icon that shows new accounts. (“5 New” in the graphic to the right.)
The next screen will show you all of your accounts that you have opened in the previous two years. Expanding each account using the arrow on the right will display either your account open date or the age of your account under the account details.
Note that all accounts on your credit report show up with CreditWise. Only credit card accounts count toward 5/24. In the example to the right, one of the accounts is an auto loan, which does not count toward 5/24 status. This person has only opened four new accounts in the previous 24 months.
Experian Mobile App
Another easy way to check your 5/24 status is through the Experian mobile app. You do not need to pay to use the Experian mobile app, view your FICO score or see your Experian credit report, but Experian will try to upsell you at every opportunity. Be very deliberate about clicking through pop-up messages on Experian’s app and website, or you might find yourself subscribed to a paid service. If you don’t have the mobile app, you can find a printable version of your credit report on the Experian website and determine your 5/24 status from that, but the mobile app is much easier.
Here’s how to check your 5/24 status with the Experian mobile app.
Within the Experian mobile app, click on “Reports.” If you have an iPhone, this is at the bottom of the screen. This will bring up a summary of your Experian credit report.
From the reports page, select “Accounts” to view summaries of each account on your credit report.
Finally, sort the accounts by the age. Click “Views” at the top of the screen to bring up the menu on the right. Select “Date Opened (New to Old)” and you’ll see all of your accounts in reverse-chronological order by opening date.
Just like with CreditWise, all reporting credit accounts will show up on your report. So if you have an auto loan, home mortgage or other non-credit card account that you’ve opened in the last two years, be sure to not count that account when tallying your 5/24 status.
Frequently asked questions
Most small business credit cards do not report to your personal credit report if you pay on time. Chase only counts new credit accounts that show up on your personal credit report when calculating 5/24.
Chase doesn’t count new mortgages and car loans in its 5/24 calculation, but if you total new account of any kind is 5 or more in the last 24 months, your credit application will typically be denied. If mortgages, car loans, or other non-credit card accounts cause you to be over 5/24, call the Chase reconsideration department and ask them to manually review your application.
If you have inaccuracies on your credit report, you can get those resolved through dispute. However, disputing a legitimate account won’t cause it to fall off your credit report. When the credit bureaus investigates your dispute it will find that the account is legitimate and it will remain on your credit reports.