The Chase 5/24 Rule Is Still Alive — That’s Exactly Why I Built This Feature in WalletFreak

If you’ve ever been deep into a credit card strategy and suddenly realized, “oh crap, I might be at 5/24,” you already know why Chase rules are annoying.

That exact frustration is what pushed me to build a dedicated Chase rules tracker inside WalletFreak.

Because as of 12/23/2025, the Chase 5/24 rule absolutely still matters — and the old 48-month Sapphire rule is gone, but replaced with something that’s just as easy to screw up if you’re not tracking it properly.

This post isn’t just about explaining the rules. It’s about how I personally manage them now, and why I finally stopped relying on spreadsheets and mental math.

Why Chase Rules Are Still the Gatekeepers

Chase still runs the most valuable ecosystem for points nerds:

• Ultimate Rewards
• Sapphire cards
• Ink business cards
• Transfer partners that actually matter

And Chase still protects that ecosystem aggressively.

That’s why 5/24 hasn’t gone anywhere.

If you’re at 5+ personal cards opened in the last 24 months (from any bank), Chase will auto-deny you for most cards. No recon magic. No “but my income is high.” You’re just done until something ages off.

I’ve personally lost months of opportunity before because I miscounted one card.

That mistake doesn’t happen anymore.

The WalletFreak Angle (This Is the Core Change)

Inside WalletFreak, I now treat 5/24 status as a first-class wallet metric, not trivia.

Here’s how I personally use it:

• Every card in my wallet has an open date

• WalletFreak automatically calculates:

• How many cards I’ve opened in the last 24 months

• Which exact card will age out next
• The date my Chase eligibility resets

So instead of guessing, I see something like:

“You’re currently 4/24 — next slot opens on March 17, 2026.”

That changes how I plan everything.

No more “I think I’m good.” No more spreadsheet archaeology. No more missed Sapphire or Ink bonuses.

This is the part most blogs don’t talk about: rules only matter if you operationalize them.

Chase 5/24 — Still Real in 2025

Nothing controversial here.

As of late 2025:

• Personal cards from all issuers count
• Authorized user cards often count (unless manually reconsidered)
• Most business cards don’t count after approval — but personal ones always do
• Chase personal cards are almost all gated by 5/24

In my strategy, this means:

• Chase cards come early in my sequence
• Non-Chase personal cards wait
• Business cards fill the gaps

WalletFreak flags this for me visually, so I don’t accidentally blow a slot on a low-value card when I’m sitting at 3/24 or 4/24.

The 48-Month Sapphire Rule Is Dead (But Don’t Celebrate Too Early)

This is where people still mess up.

The old 48-month Sapphire rule is gone. You no longer need to wait four years between Sapphire bonuses.

But Chase replaced it with something sneakier:

• Once-per-lifetime bonus eligibility per Sapphire product

That means:

• If you’ve never had the Sapphire Preferred bonus → you’re eligible
• If you’ve already had it → you’re done forever
• Same logic applies separately to the Reserve

Time doesn’t reset this anymore.

This is way easier to misremember than a 48-month clock — especially if you opened a card 7–10 years ago.

WalletFreak solves this by tracking historical bonus eligibility, not just current cards.

I don’t guess whether I’ve “had this before.” I see it.

How I Personally Use This Together

Here’s my actual workflow now:

• I open WalletFreak

• I check:

• My current 5/24 count

• Which Chase products I’m still bonus-eligible for
• I plan the next 2–3 cards, not just the next one

That planning window is everything.

It’s the difference between:

• Grabbing a Sapphire + Ink combo cleanly
• Or locking yourself out for 12–18 months by accident

This is exactly why WalletFreak treats rules as constraints, not footnotes.

Why This Still Matters (Even for Veterans)

Even if you’re not “new” to credit cards:

• Memories fade
• Rules change
• Old assumptions break quietly

I’ve been doing this long enough to know that the most expensive mistakes aren’t rookie ones — they’re confidence mistakes.

WalletFreak exists to remove that risk layer.