While many people have stopped applying for credit cards using the app-o-rama method, it’s sometimes worth doing so when you are holding just under 5/24.
App-O-Rama
Yup, there’s a Wikipedia page on this. “App-O-Rama refers to a strategy of completing multiple credit account applications in a relatively short period of time.”
In years gone by, it was much easier to get approved for credit cards, and many people made a habit of applying for many cards from multiple banks on the same day as opposed to spreading them out so that the banks wouldn’t see too much recent activity.
In today’s day of instant information and increasingly restrictive credit card approval rules and practices, the app-o-rama is somewhat dated. Devil’s Advocate has a nice post on this topic.
The 5/24 Rule
No Wikipedia page on this. Yet.
The 5/24 rule is a recent invention of Chase whereby they won’t approve you for most cards if they see five new credit card accounts on your credit report within the past 24-months. See Chase 5/24 Rule Explained In Detail – What You Need To Know.
In this post, we’re discussing someone who is holding at 4/24, that is, they have four new credit card accounts showing on their credit report within the past 24-months.
Maximize your 4/24 Status
Chase won’t approve you with five recent accounts, but if they don’t yet know about the new card it won’t count.
It seems to take a few days for the new accounts to show on your credit report. In my recent experience applying for the Barclay Arrival card, for example, although I applied and was approved on 9/16, the card only showed up on my credit reports on the 18th (Experian) or 19th (Equifax and Transunion). And a recent Citi Prestige application took 7-10 days it showed up on my credit reports.
If you just applied for your fifth card from another issuer, you can still apply for Chase cards so long as the fifth account isn’t yet showing.
More importantly, numerous people have been approved for two Chase cards while at 4/24. Since the credit report doesn’t yet show the fifth card, you can get another.
Business Cards
Also remember that when you’re at 4/24, you’ll want to first open business cards which won’t push you to 5/24. Most issuers don’t report business credit card to the credit bureaus, and the cards won’t count toward 5/24. (Capital One is an exception.)
Even Chase business credit cards might not count toward 5/24 since they don’t show on the credit report. Chase knows of the existence of these cards, but they still might not be counted since they don’t show on the credit report. Especially by the automated computer system. See this Frequentmiler post for more discussion on this point.
