All of the major card issuers have restrictions in place when it comes to approving people for their products. This can come in many forms, and for many people it can be tricky to keep up with the latest rules.
Chase eligibility rules
Outside of other credit and income requirements, Chase has several other factors that they use to determine if an applicant is eligible for a new card.
The 5/24 rule
You typically won’t be approved for one of their cards if you’ve opened five or more new card accounts in the past 24 months.
The 24/48 month restriction
You typically can’t earn the welcome bonus on a card if you’ve received a new cardmember bonus on the card in the past 24/48 months.
For example, you can’t get the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card if you currently have the card or have received a new cardmember bonus on it in the past 48 months.
The “family” card rules
If you get one version of a Chase card you may not be eligible for a different version.
For example, you can’t get the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card if you have the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card, and vice versa.
Special Marriott Card rules
You typically can’t be approved for those cards if you have equivalent cards from American Express.
For example, you can’t get the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card if you have the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card.
Amex’s welcome bonus eligibility “warning”
I quite liked that last year American Express introduced a new pop-up during the card application process that will tell you if you’re not eligible for the welcome bonus on a card.
The way this works is that when you apply for a card, you’ll potentially receive a message before submitting the application if you’re not eligible for the bonus. That way you won’t have a hard pull on your credit.
If you apply for a card you already have, or one you’ve had in the past, you’ll get the following message:
Because you have or have had the [Card Name], you are not eligible to receive the welcome offer.
We have not yet performed a credit check. Would you still like to proceed?
Amex will also tell you if you’re not eligible based on the vague restriction they added last year. If for whatever reason they deem that they wouldn’t offer you the welcome bonus, you’ll receive the following message:
Based on your history with American Express welcome offers, introductory APR offers, or the number of cards you have opened and closed, you are not eligible to receive this welcome offer.
We have not yet performed a credit check. Would you still like to proceed?
Chase seems to be rolling out a similar tool
While this hasn’t been extended to all cards yet, Chase seems to have introduced a new eligibility tool when it comes to applying for their cards.
It seems that the first card to get this is the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus Business Credit Card, where you may receive the following message when you apply:
You are not eligible for the new cardmember bonus because you currently have or had a Starwood Preferred Guest card, as described in the eligibility criteria. We have not performed a credit check yet. Would you like to continue your application, to get this card without a new cardmember bonus?
Yes, continue with the application
No, cancel and withdraw the application
As of now it seems that this is just implemented to help with the confusion related to Marriott Cards, since eligibility for a Chase Marriott Card is based on whether or not you have an Amex Marriott/Starwood Card.
However, long term I’d love to see this warning expanded to other metrics, including the 24/48 month restriction, family card restrictions, etc. (unfortunately this couldn’t be expanded to determining 5/24, since they can only figure that out after they pull your credit). I feel like that would simplify things quite a bit for many.
Would you like to see Chase expand their card eligibility pop-up?
(Tip of the hat to Doctor Of Credit)
@ian - American Express and Chase aren't sharing anything with each other in this instance.
It's been confirmed that Chase and American Express report cardholder signup data to Marriott and that each of them fetch data from Marriott to determine eligibility.
If i got chase ink pref last year can i get chase ink cash this year?
Have other people had trouble with getting the SPG Amex bonus? I tried to apply before it closes and got the popup that I was ineligible for the bonus. I've never had a Marriott or SPG card before, and only have two Amexes (and have never closed one) - my only guess is that they're dinging me because I spent to earn the bonus on each Amex I have and haven't put material spend on...
Have other people had trouble with getting the SPG Amex bonus? I tried to apply before it closes and got the popup that I was ineligible for the bonus. I've never had a Marriott or SPG card before, and only have two Amexes (and have never closed one) - my only guess is that they're dinging me because I spent to earn the bonus on each Amex I have and haven't put material spend on them since earning the bonus. Does anyone know if I'm likely to see this for other Amex cards, and what I can do to get eligible?
I certainly got two Chase welcome bonuses within 24 months or so.
100K for the Sapphire Reserve and 80K for the Ink Business
@ Tom -- Absolutely, there's nothing restricting someone from doing that, as those are different cards, and aren't in the same "family".
@Bill: Sure, they could do a soft pull to see if you meet 5/24. The question is, will they bother?
If I were Chase, I probably wouldn't - for the same reason that, if I were an airline, I wouldn't bother investing much in making it easy to redeem frequent flier miles. There's no profit in it.
@doug wouldn't they be able to determine 5/24 with a SP?
chase and amex seem to be sharing notes lately (especially with regard to marriott/spg). i wonder if there is some kind of "anti-gaming" partnerships the card companies are starting...
They wouldn't be able to preemptively warn you about a 5/24 situation, given that they would need to run a credit report to know the status. They could have a popup related to the 24/48 month bonus rule though.
Do you have to fill out the application form and actually submit it for this popup to appear? I wanted to test it so I completed the application but didn't actually submit and I never saw a popup.