5/24 refers to credit card accounts (e.g., Chase or Citi credit cards) that have been reported in your credit report in the last 24 months.
Easy way to check your 5/24 status
The best way to check your 5/24 status is on the Experian smartphone app. For the Android app, you will first log-in, then click on View Experian Report under “Quick Actions”. Once you are in the Reports section, click on Accounts and then locate the purple bar at the bottom of the screen (in iPhone it is located in the top right menu revealed after clicking the 3 vertical dots); once you click on the purple bar, it opens up a row of accounts and you will choose “Date Opened (new to Old)” to see all your recent credit checks in a row (see the images below).
Once you are in the final screen, it is easy to identify the latest credit card opened and then count back all the credit cards (opened & closed) for 48 months. It is important to NOT count credit Inquiries (e.g., for a car/home loan) when you are calculating your 5/24. Only revolving credit card accounts must be calculated for this purpose.
Benefits of Staying Under 5/24
There are some benefits to keeping your credit history showing “under 5 personal credit cards in the last 24 months” (5/24). The biggest one is that you have constant access to Chase’s UR point earning credit cards, which are one of the largest players in the miles & points game.
For Capital One credit cards, your approval chances will also increase when you are under 5/24 (https://awardcracker.com/my-capital-one-venture-x-approval-after-two-failed-attempts/).
How to Stay Forever Under 5/24
To always stay under 5/24, one should get used to the idea of opening business cards as a “sole proprietor”. The sole proprietorship is a non-registered, unincorporated business run solely by one owner who pays personal income tax on profits earned from the business. You are entitled to all the profits and liabilities of the business. Sole proprietors can mix business and personal accounts from a legal standpoint. You’re not required to pay taxes on the full amount of your sole proprietorship’s income and only pay taxes on the profit of your business (if any).
Sole proprietorship businesses are eligible to open small business credit cards and their approvals are based on your personal credit history instead of a business credit history. Sole proprietors are not required to have an employee identification number (EIN) and can use their Social Security Number (SSN) instead to fill out the application.
Travel points earned from business credit cards can be combined with your personal cards.
Do I Qualify for a Sole Proprietor Small Business Credit Card?
Most consumers (age 18 and above) qualify for sole proprietorship business credit cards by doing any of the following things that can qualify as a small business:
- Selling used items on Craig’s list, eBay or Amazon.
- Teaching, coaching or tutoring.
- Food delivery services like Uber Eats and Grubhub.
- Driving for Uber or Lyft.
- Homemade goods or arts and crafts.
- Homemade wood furniture.
- Building computers as a hobby and selling them on eBay (my hobby).
- Selling goods at bake sales, street fairs and farmer’s markets.
- Renting a room, apartment or house on Airbnb.
Do small business credit cards report to personal credit bureaus?
Business credit cards for sole proprietors are offered by major banks like American Express, Chase, Citi Bank, Capital One and Bank of America. Most of these banks (except a few Capital One cards) do not report business cards to your personal credit bureaus, which helps you stay under 5/24.
How to fill out an application for a business credit card
See the sample application I used to fill out for the Chase & Amex business cards in this article (https://awardcracker.com/best-credit-card-combinations-to-earn-points__trashed/).
Chase Small Business Credit Cards
Chase small business credit cards vary from no annual fee (Ink Cash & Unlimited) to reasonable annual fee ($95 for Ink Preferred and $195 for Ink Premier). Even if it says “cash back” bonus, it will still be converted to Ultimate Rewards (e.g., $900 becomes 90,000 UR points). These UR points can be transferred to Chase Travel Partners (e.g., Aeroplan and Hyatt) as long as you have an Ink Preferred card or one of the personal Sapphire cards.
The Ink Business Premier card briefly introduced the ability to convert earned cash into UR points, which was a short-lived welcome development. We can only hope that Chase will re-introduce this feature at some point in the future.
Chase Bank Business Credit Card Application Rules
- Apply for one business card every 30 days.
- Once you are done with all 4 cards discussed above, lower the total credit limit on all your Chase credit cards (both personal and business) to keep it less than 40% of your reported gross income. For example, I usually keep the limits to less than $2000 on business cards and keep a $10,000 credit line on personal cards (e.g., Sapphire). This should not affect your personal credit utilization as long as you have a healthy credit line on your oldest personal credit cards from other banks.
- Wait for 6-12 months (i.e., zero Chase credit checks) and try to apply again and repeat the process for the above mentioned cards (especially the no annual fee cards like Ink Cash or Ink Unlimited). Some people try doing this every 1-2 months and may get declined or the application goes into “pending review” forever. The idea is not to get too greedy, but to focus on consistent point earnings.
- The 24-month bonus restrictions are currently not being enforced on Chase Ink Business Cards. However, Chase United business credit cards have a 24-month bonus restriction.
American Express Small Business Credit Cards
While all Amex credit cards (including business cards) have a “once in a lifetime bonus” policy, it is common for Amex to send offers (either by mail or when you log-in) to open Amex Gold and Platinum cards. These offers typically bypass the “once in a lifetime bonus” restriction.
It is also easy to find “no lifetime language (NLL)” links from several blogs (e.g., doctorofcredit.com), which will bypass the Amex popup restricting the bonus.
The AMEX NLL links are frequently available for the following cards:
- Amex Business Platinum
- Amex Business Gold
- Amex Delta Business Gold and Platinum
- Amex Business Hilton
Interested users must apply these NLL links in Chrome incognito mode WITHOUT logging into their Amex account. Most of these links will generate an application page that still says “the bonus is not available for those who had this card before”, but you should still continue with the application and complete it unless you get a popup restricting the bonus.
For example, I was able to get several business Gold & Platinum cards along with some Hilton and Delta business cards between two household family members (see images below).
Bank of America (BOA) Small Business Credit Cards
The only BOA point earning business credit card that you can get every 8-12 months is an Alaska Airlines Visa Business credit card (bonus varies from 50-70K). BOA typically approves the 2nd card even though you have the same card active under your name.
To qualify for this card, one must open a Bank of America (BOA) checking account and either maintain some cash there or move part of your paycheck (https://awardcracker.com/new-alaska-mileage-plan-sweetspots/). BOA frequently rejects non-BOA customers when there are too many credit checks.
The BOA business credit application asks for a weird “Event Employee ID” (see screenshot below). I usually put “0000” in that space and my applications get approved without any issues.
Barclays AAdvantage Aviator World Elite Business Mastercard
Barclays AA business cards can be applied for every 18-24 months and they frequently offer 75K AA miles sign-on bonuses.
Citi Business AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard
Citi AA business credit cards have strict application rules of 48 months from the last bonus date (not the last open date).
Use Chase Ink Business Cash to earn 125,000 UR points every year
Chase Ink Business Cash offers 5 x points for Office purchases ($25,000 annual cap). I usually buy $500 VISA gift cards from Staples to earn 125K UR points per card on average every year. We have 4 Ink Cash cards in our family and try to earn at least 500K UR points annually. Chase officially states in T&C that gift card purchases are allowed, so you are not breaking any rules with these purchases.
Conclusion
Churning small business credit cards that earn points is the only way to stay under 5/24 and still earn over a million points in bonuses every year. One can easily meet the spending requirements of these credit cards by utilizing methods described under the manufactured spending (MS) (https://awardcracker.com/churning-credit-cards-to-earn-points/).