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Ritz-Carlton Rewards® Credit Card
Chase has said “we have restrictions related to the number of new cards customers can receive in a period of time.”
The conventional wisdom is that Chase seems only to want to approve people for this card if they haven’t opened for 5 new cards in the past 24 months.
- Not all cards count when calculating whether you’ve had 5 in the last 24 months
- They don’t apply the 5/24 standard to all of their cards
- And the standard doesn’t apply to everyone
In general it’s been thought that the ‘5/24’ standard doesn’t apply to Chase Private Client customers — those with a relationship with a banker, who may be helpful getting an application pushed through. They’ll usually have $250,000 or more on deposit with the bank. Although I’ve heard from readers who tell me they’re Chase Private Client customers and who have been denied for cards due to too many recent accounts opened.
Some people get approved despite having many more than 5 new cards. I’ve been asking their credit scores when they email me, they seem to have very high scores and six figure incomes, but I’m dealing with a small pool of data points and don’t fully know why someone will or won’t have the standard applied to them.
If you live near a Chase branch it’s worth stopping in if you’re over 5/24, ask if you’re preapproved for any cards.
Cards That 5/24 Doesn’t Apply To
If you’ve had 5 or more new card accounts in the past 24 months, you may not be out of luck. As I say, plenty of reports of people still being approved for new Chase cards though they’re definitely in the small minority.
However 5/24 doesn’t seem to apply to all cards. According to Doctor of Credit, the following cards are unaffected by 5/24:
Chase IHG
Chase Hyatt
Chase British Airways
Chase Disney
Chase Fairmont
Chase Marriott Premier business card
Chase Ritz-Carlton
Chase Amazon
Chase AARP
I do not have direct links to these cards (except for the Ritz-Carlton Rewards® Credit Card), and information about them isn’t provided or reviewed by Chase.
The strongest of these products in my view is the Ritz-Carlton Rewards® Credit Card. It offers 3 complimentary nights at any participating Tier 1-4 Ritz-Carlton hotel after $5,000 spend on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening.
Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel, Credit: Ritz-Carlton
The card comes with automatic Gold Elite status for your first account year. You can keep Gold status in subsequent years with $10,000 in purchases on the card each year. And $75,000 in purchases in an account year on the Ritz-Carlton credit card earns top tier Platinum status. Gold gets you complimentary room upgrades and late checkout. Ritz-Carlton Rewards Gold is honored as Marriott Rewards Gold at Marriott hotel properties.
You also get a $100 airfare credit when buying tickets through their portal (which limited you to United, Delta, and American) for two to five passengers. You can use this benefit an unlimited number of times.
And you get a $300 annual airline fee credit to use on this like seat upgrades, baggage fees and lounge memberships or club passes. Since it’s an annual benefit, you should be able to get the Ritz-Carlton credit card now and use the credit in 2016, and then again at the beginning of 2017 — for a total of $600 all in your first annual fee year.
Not to mention a Priority Pass Select card for lounge access. This gets you into the 900 clubs that are part of the Priority Pass network. In the US that means Alaska Airlines clubs, and many lounges operated by foreign airlines. It means independent lounge networks like The Club. And it means lounges all over the world, most places you’ll travel.
Cards That Don’t Count Towards 5/24
Small business cards don’t generally show up on your credit report. About a week and a half ago the Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN 50,000 Membership Rewards points after $5,000 spend on purchases with the card within your first 3 months of cardmembership. (Offer expired) That won’t count towards the total Chase sees.
It’s believed that even Chase business cards don’t count, even though they’re aware you have them, although 5/24 may apply to your getting the card.
Does the 5/24 rule count the number of cards you’ve received in the last 24 months or the number of applications? For example, I was turned down for the Sapphire Reserve because of too many cards, but I will have had 3 of those cards over 2 years in a couple of months. Will the Reserve application now count against me if I try to apply for another Reserve card once I’ve had those cards for more than 2 years?
Do you know if $300 Ritz Carlton airline credit can be used towards purchasing United/AA gift certificates?
@Dave no its based on actual new accounts showing in past 24 months not credit card apps..
@Dave P Nope, only opened accounts apply. In determining 5/24. they don’t check for credit inquiries, so denied apps don’t apply for that. Not to say, however, that Chase won’t ever look at your HPs in the process of considering your app. It just isn’t part of the 5/24 rule.
I also find interesting the three words missing from most posts on this topic: “no more than”. The actual rule is: no more than 5 new accounts. You can indeed get approved with exactly 5 new accounts in 24 months. It all depends on how Chase views your credit history. 4 or less is no problem, exactly 5 is a maybe…
As for the Hyatt card, my wife and I each got approved for it a few weeks ago. We are both well past 5/24. In fact, I just checked with Experian, and I was at 24/24 when I applied. 😉
Gary, you say it’s 5 cards APPLIED for in the last 24 months, shouldn’t that be 5 cards OPENED? There is a difference and the blogs keep screwing that up.
RCB, good catch, 5 new accounts, not applications. But if I have applied for 6 and get approved for 5 (or 4), won’t Chase view the declined application(s) unfavorably enough to probably decline me for their best cards?
When I recently applied for my CSR a Senior in the credit review/approvals dept told me that 5/24 was not being applied to that card because it was a “new” product.
CSR Approved 16/9
CSR Card received 20/9 (I got a METAL one)
PPS Card received 29/9
Interesting to note that Chase themselves manage and issue Priority Pass Select accounts/cards for themselves. Priority Pass does does not actually issue them to CSR members.
Data point: I had 10+ new accounts open in the last 24, credit scores around 810-830, low six-digit income. I was not preapproved online but preapproved and later approved in branch. My wife has a similar record + additionally substantial checking account but wasn’t preapproved. We haven’t tried applying for her card.
Hello Gary, et all…
I don’t believe I have read about the scenario I am about to describe.. so hopefully this is something new for y’all to contemplate on.. 🙂 and I would appreciate any wisdom/suggestion anyone is willing to share…
I just submitted the application for the Sapphire Reserve card, which ended with the screen saying they need to “review my application a little longer” and will let me know the decision in 7-10 days in writing.
Hoping to “expedite” this process, I called the # on my Sapphire Preferred card, with the intention to “volunteer” for them to “move some of my credit lines if necessary” to approve the Sapphire Reserve application with the minimum $10K limit. (I already have pretty big credit limits on both my Sapphire Preferred, and Freedom card with Chase, plus a handful of cards with other banks).
After 2 transfers, I was on the phone with a lady from their New Consumer Credit department (?). She flat out told me, immediately, that my application cannot be approved because I have opened 5 new credit card accounts in the past 24 months.
… but… I have opened only *THREE* new credit cards in the last 24 months (actually, 48 months!)
– AAdvantage Platinum Elite Mastercard
– Citi ThankYou Premier
– AMEX Everyday Preferred
She insisted that she is staring at my credit report from Experian and there are 5 new accounts. I am not surprised she would not reveal which 5 cards she is looking at; but she also refused to “confirm or deny” if I were to name off a few cards to validate what she is looking at.
The only thing I can think of, is that I had “converted” two credit cards with Citibank, from AAdvantage cards, to the ThankYou Preferred, and DoubleCash cards (so I no longer pay annual fees on them). Is it possible Chase considers those CONVERSIONS the equivalent of new accounts? (or maybe the programmers did not distinguish the difference in the automated process of reviewing credit reports?)
If that is the case, how do I “appeal” Chase’s decision to decline my application for the Sapphire Reserve card?
All suggestions are appreciated! Thanks!
– Hanson
I was declined on the Reserve card, I pulled me credit report to see why, since I had not opened 5 cards in the past 24 months. Turned out I was an authorized user on 3 of my wife’s accounts, those show up as open accounts and apparently Chase doesn’t look at anything beyond Open on the credit report since those clearly are labeled Auth User on Experian’s report (at least).
I was finally able to speak with someone at Chase, after multiple attempts, and was approved for it. But be aware that it’s open cards or open auth users in the past 24 months, and does not apply to just Chase cards. I had only 1 Chase card in the past 24 months, the rest of mine were AMEX.
@Hanson – I don’t remember how I got to the right rep, something in the lending dept (but I’m sure I had spoken to someone there on an earlier call, before I reviewed my credit report). He initially told me 5/24 was why I was declined. I told him that 3 of my current 6 in the past 24 were Auth Users so he actually pulled up my credit report to look at it. When he saw that was the case he seemed to say he’d approve me but gave me no final answer, that would come later from a different team. But he did verify that I’d be eligible for the 100k signup bonus, once I asked about it. About a week later the account showed up in my online banking and a few days after that my card arrived. No fancy packaging but it was a metal card right off the bat, plain white envelope with a few detailed benefits and terms papers.
Also, when I went to my local branch to speak with a banker about it (before I was approved) he hopped right on the phone, even explained my longstanding banking experience (not private client) with Chase, all to no avail. I voiced my surprise that Chase would turn away business like this, that my applications to other companies cards would prohibit me getting a Chase card and that Chase was thus forcing a lot of my business off to other card companies. He agreed but even the phone rep had nothing to do for it. I still find it strange that Chase wouldn’t want to court customers to leave other banks and bring business to Chase, if I’m stuck with one $450 annual fee card for the benefits it’s probably not going to be a Chase card. So, in the end, I’m happy that I finally got the Reserve card, I prefer to keep my spending with Chase for now and have really had better perks than with some of my other cards.
Does applying for two chase cards in a 30 day window count as one or two? I just received my CSR and Freedom cards that puts me at 5/24. But now I want the Freedom Unlimited to round it out.
Is it possible to apply and be approved for two chase business cards with different company names on each app. in one day?
I have several Chase personal cards, but my business had 1 card, the Ink Cash… recently, we have increased our charges on the Ink card. At the end of last year, I asked for more credit (we have $10K at the moment, but wanted another $5K). Was surprised when I got turned down. We also have an Amex Plum card, which we can get a lot more charging ability. However, not all businesses take Amex and so was a bit taken aback when they refused to up our credit (we have excellent credit). The next surprise was I got a “inquiry” charge for asking for the increase on the Ink card. Oddly enough, a few months later we applied for the Marriott card and that came through just fine… Still won’t get rid of that inquiry for another year though ….
Oh well, we use Amex when we get close to our max, or pay off the bill early. Just seems stupid on Chase’s part though. I think they turned us down because of 5/24 (I thought we were 4/24, but I guess not)…. didn’t think the credit increase would count since it was for our business, but guess not.