After we found out about the new application rules at Citi, I thought it would be worth looking at the two viable credit card application strategies that I think are currently in play to help you maximize the amount of rewards you can earn from credit card rewards. I first wrote about my own card application strategy in January of 2015, if you’ve been following along then you’ll know the credit card sign up bonus landscape has dramatically changed.
Contents
Things To Know
Before we get started, there are a few posts I’d recommend reading first to help make sense of this post:
- Best Current Credit Card Sign Up Bonuses
- List Of Churnable Credit Cards
- Chase 5/24 Rule Explained In Detail – What You Need To Know
Additional Tools
- Spreadsheet/tracking tool. You should have some sort of system set up that records important information, such as when you applied for a card, when it was approved, when you met the minimum spend requirement, when the bonus posts and when the card is/was closed.
- Way to monitor your credit. It can be useful to know what credit card issuers pull what credit bureau. We have a post on how to monitor your credit for free found here.
- Follow us on Twitter. This way you’ll see new credit card offers as they are added to the site (you could also add us to your RSS feed or subscribe to our newsletter).
Chase Focus Strategy (CFS)
This strategy puts it’s main focus on being able to get four/five Chase cards that fall under the Chase 5/24 every ~24 months. If you’ve read our post on the Chase 5/24 rule then you’ll know they won’t approve you for a lot of their cards if you have five or more new accounts appearing on your account within the past twenty four months.
An important thing to note is that not all business cards will report to your personal credit report (and that’s how the number of new accounts is calculated). The following card issuers do not report business cards to your personal report:
Especially interesting is that even Chase’s own business cards don’t seem to count toward 5/24 for future Chase applications, although business cards themselves are often subject to 5/24 from previous personal applications. So if you are at 4/24 and apply for an INK card you can get approved, and it won’t count as card #5, meaning that you’ll still be able to be approved for another Chase card.
The other rule with Chase is that you’re not eligible for a bonus if you’ve received a sign up bonus on that card within the past twenty four months. Last rule to be aware of is that you’re normally limit to two Chase cards every 30 days. Â The basic strategy for this is as follows:
- Apply for business cards that do not report to your personal report whenever there is a bonus of interest (keep in mind the once per lifetime rule for American Express and limited applications for Citi cards)
- Wait until your credit report shows no new accounts within the past 24 months/4 or under
- Apply for Chase Business cards (these do not affect your 5/24 status)
- Apply for two Chase cards on the same day
- This will cause the inquiries to be combined (you’re also limited to two approvals per month, you can sometimes get a third but this doesn’t greatly help us – as we need to apply for a total of four)
- Apply for the cards that have the best sign up bonus for your situation (keep in mind any long term benefits the cards might have if you want to keep them)
- Remember that Chase will usually match the sign up bonus if they increase it within the next 90 days, so keep track of the sign up bonuses of the cards you apply for and ask for a match if they are increased
- Wait 30 days & apply for another two Chase cards. Same things to keep in mind as above.
- Wait another 30 days & apply for two Chase cards, this allows you to get 6 cards within your window rather than 5.
- Apply for as many other credit cards that appeal to you, in a short of time as possible (you might also want to consider Chase cards that don’t fall under 5/24)
- Wait 24 months & repeat
Pros
- Gives you access to Chase cards that the 5/24 rule applies to
- You can still sign up for some business credit cards
- You can go on an application spree after getting your Chase cards
Cons
- Limited flexbility, if a great personal card offer comes up then chances are you won’t be able to apply for it
- Landscape for credit card bonuses is constantly changing. No guarantee that when you fall under Chase 5/24 that the same rules will still apply
- There are ways to bypass the Chase 5/24 rule (e.g in branch pre-approvals and selected offers for you).
Verdict
Personally I don’t think this strategy is the best for most people because of the above. It could make sense in some circumstances for couples to have one partner follow this strategy (especially if your partner does not like signing up for a lot of cards) and you have specific cards you want to target (e.g Southwest cards for the companion pass – but even then there is no guarantee that will be an option when they fall under 5/24).
Non Chase Focus Strategy (NCFS)
This strategy is pretty simple:
- Apply for cards whenever there is a bonus of interest
- Keep in mind not all Chase cards are subjected to the 5/24 rule
- Regularly check for in branch pre-approved Chase offers and selected for you Chase offers as these bypass 5/24
If you’re following this tactic then you should still follow the previous application strategy I described in this post. Where possible you’ll want to spread out your inquiries between the three credit bureaus and also get inquiries combined.
Pros
- Eligible for all credit cards at any time apart from a few Chase cards
- Can sign up for offers as you see fit/what fits with your travel goals
- Still eligible for Chase cards that fall under the 5/24 rule if you can use one of the bypass methods.
Cons
- Not eligible for some Chase cards unless you’re pre-approved or get a selected offer for you
- Cannot get companion pass easily
Verdict
This is the application strategy that I follow and I think the what most people should follow as well. You’re really only restricting yourself from a few Chase cards and even then in the two year period you’d likely have to wait anyway chances are you’ll receive a pre-approval or selected offer.
Our Verdict
As mentioned in the post, I really only recommend the CFS for people that have partners that aren’t comfortable making lots of credit card applications. Otherwise I think you’ll get significantly better value by following NCFS. That being said, everybody is different and everybody has different goals & spending patterns. Let me know what your current application strategy is in the comments below.
If I’m at 4/24, can I do two chase personal cards in the same day and potentially get approved for both? (ie CSR and SW Personal)
Yes.
When you say, “Apply for two Chase cards on the same day”. Do you mean to suggest “applying for 2 cards in a space of seconds” or applying for 1 and getting approved and then applying for 2nd card on same day?
Shouldn’t really matter as long as it’s within the same day, probably doesn’t hurt to do it as close as you can to each other.
Thanks for the reply. I have a Transunion Fico score of 770 with credit history of 1 year with only 1 credit card and when I checked to see if I am Pre-Qualified, I got the result in “quarter of a second” that I am not pre qualified for any card. I don’t think they even soft pulled my report. Should I still apply even If I am not prequalified?
What is the advantage of 2 cards on the same day (1 hard pull)?
1. Does it show up as opening only 1 card on you credit report (helping with 5/24) or
2. It just lets you get more cards in a short period of time?
3. Its only really important to do when you are at 4/24 because it allows you to get 1 extra chase card?
It just means you’ll have less hard pulls on your credit report, some card issuers don’t like to see lots of new inquiries and these inquiries also negatively affect your FICO score in the short term.
Here is strategy to multiply your signup bonus points: Get your adult kids who are gainfully employed and living in your household to get the different cards and give you the sign up bonus points to you as a gift for all the money you spent putting them through college.
My son got his CSR, we charged everything to it and met the spending requirements in 30 days. Then it is my turn to get it (just passed the 5/24 mark) and my daughter too = 300,000 points.
Then we will go through this with the CIP and get 80K each = 240,000 points.
And then off to the next card.
My wife is getting other cards because she is over 5/24.
Basically, you will be able to get quadruple signup points from each card.
My kids are happy to do this for me in appreciation for all the money I gave them for college, so it is a win win 🙂
Jay, how is this done unless you are an authorized user on the card. I tried combining my adult son’s points from his Freedom and it wouldn’t allow me to do this. The system didn’t recognize that we are in the same household. Do I need to call Chase?
Thanks,
bnyc
Any data points on when Chase “ends” the 24 month clock for awarding bonus again. Example: If card is approved in Jan 2015 and bonus awarded in March 2015, for the next application and approval date be anytime prior to March 2017 as long as bonus does not hit after 24 months end in Mar’2017 – OR- does the application have to be after Mar’2017?
WWYD? I am at 5/24 but should go to 3/24 in March (or is it Feb? Not clear if it’s when I was approved for the card, or when I activated it).
Current cards:
Citi doublecash (was orignally secured card) 3/14
Cap One QS app’d 2/15 activated 3/15
DiscoverIt student ditto
Amex Gold and Delta (got the 2 for 1 pull) app’ed 11/16 activated 12/16
Chase Freedom UR (mistake here- didn’t think I had good enough credit for anything better) ditto
I want airplane miles (UA and AA are most useful, tho MR always good), hotel rewards that cab be redeemed cheaply (esp IHG and Hilton), and cashmoney. SW miles are not that useful for me. What should I go for next and when? As you can see short credit history and also meh income (can put ~35-40k tho losing that job in couple months). THX.
@Dizzy – Why would you want airline miles? They are constantly going through devaluations and their award rates are high. Better to have Chase, Citi, Amex & SPG (in no apparent order) because you can always transfer some to most legacy carriers, and you get the luxury of transferring to other partners. Many times that can get you the same product or better using less miles. Case in point – If you had Virgin America miles, you could (and I picked this date at random, April 12 – 19) get a first class ticket from NYC – SFO in reward miles. If you could get the best awards each way, you would pay 73,608 miles. The worst scenario would cost 193,786 miles. If you had Alaska miles, if would cost 50,000 miles. And if you knew that Alaska was a partner with other airlines, including Virgin America, you could transfer 39,000 Virgin America miles at a ratio of 1.3:1 to get that same ticket. I just do not know if it would be Virgin America flown by Delta. I was just going by the reward chart. Even so, you can see the difference.
That’s a good point. Well, I got the Delta (I know, I know) because I wanted to try the 2 cards on one pull trick. I didn’t think I would have good enough credit to get approved for anything else and didn’t want to push my luck. With getting something like a UA card- it’s because once I go over 5/24 I won’t be able to even apply again for this. Figure I might as well get it once before going for those more convertible points like you described. I’m still not sure tho if I could even qualify for some of those bigger points cards but I guess then if so the best choices would be CSR (IF I can get to a branch before 3/12- not looking great right now), followed by Ink bus and maybe then CSP? Also the spend is pretty big- I definitely could meet the typical UA $1k spend organically even.
PS I also forgot to list BOA AICPA card opened 2/16, that’s how it comes to 5/24.
Also I have no interest in anything other than 1st class. Getting 5k Delta short-haul flights (I’ve found availability on the routes I’m interested in) is ok with me as I’m building my portfolio.
Also I have no interest in anything other than economy class. Getting 5k Delta short-haul flights (I’ve found availability on the routes I’m interested in) is ok with me as I’m building my portfolio.
I have a question…I am just 5/24 with the recent acquisition of the CSR. Will I be able to get a Chase business card that does not count towards 5/24 also? My gut reaction says no, but I just wanted to check. Thanks!!!
Most Chase business cards (like INK) are subject to 5/24 so you won’t be approved https://www.doctorofcredit.com/chase-524-rule-explained-detail-need-know/#What_Cards_Does_This_Affect.
Note that if you just recently got CSR within the past few days (or even up to 30 days, perhaps), there’s a chance it’s not showing on your credit reports. If it’s not yet showing, you can likely still be approved.
Any idea on what is the total credit limit chase will extend to one individual??
Back in June when I applied for united explorer card i had to move credit limit from my ritz carlton card to be approved for the card as chase said they cannot extend beyond 50k. I was at 49.5k as I already had 3 cards with them. But then a few months later they automatically extended my freedom unlimited CL by 3k.
This is the reason I did not apply for the reserve card as I was sure I would not be approved.
Any idea on how to get them to increase the total credit limit extended to you??
The CL on my current 4 cards are:
1. Ritz carlton – 22k
2. United -10k
3. Freedom – 5k
4. Freedom unlimited – 15.5k
Thanks.
I think a lot of it is based on your income. If you apply for a new card and have reached your max Chase limit, you can always ask them to reallocate credit limits from your existing cards, so if you really want the Sapphire Reserve, have them pull $xx from one or more of your other cards and they should have no problems with that.
Varies based on income and other factors
Would the HP still be combined with Chase if I open the CSR in branch and CSP online on the same day?
Think so, not 100% sure.
What’s the benefit of tracking both the date you applied and also the date approved? I have been tracking my application date, as I thought it was this date + 3 months to receive most bonuses. What benefit does tracking your approval date provide?
Generally min spend is date of approval plus applicable timing window. Date of application = date of credit pull, and allows you to track how many you have over a period of time.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/how-long-do-i-have-to-reach-my-minimum-spend-requirement/
Thanks for explaining, I always interpreted it was the application date.