Chase is easily the issuer with the greatest bonuses and programs. I thoroughly enjoy the bonuses and perks from the various Chase cards and appreciate each one that I have.
Applied And Approved For Yet Another Chase Card – A New Personal High
However, this post is not about my Chase cards but about my wife’s cards. She just received notice the other day of another approval – bringing her total of personal Chase cards to 8. That makes for a total of 11 cards for her, 8 personal cards and 3 business cards.
I know there are others that have more than that but it was a big surprise to me that she was approved for this latest card. See, she had applied for the United MileagePlus Explorer card when it was at the 50,000 mile amount but had not received any word from Chase for several weeks. My wife really does not like making the calls to banks about card applications and I started thinking that we would need to do that to reallocate some of her credit lines.
It turns out that we did not need to reallocate anything at all and it was approved all on its own – with a much higher credit line that I was thinking would have happened. This was the longest that we have waited for a card approval before and it did surprise me that she was approved for her 11th Chase card currently on her accounts. Me? I “only” have 5 personal and 4 business cards.
Getting More Chase Cards
Maybe you have not been as lucky getting approved again and again for Chase cards without having to do anything to get approved. I know I haven’t been as lucky as my wife! There are some things you can do to be approved for Chase cards, even after denial.
One of my recent Chase cards was denied and I called in to talk about it. They were more than willing to give it to me but they wanted me to close one of my cards and shift credit from another card as well. With Chase, a lot of what matters to them is the amount of credit line that you hold with them.
Chase knows what the limit they will offer you in total credit lines and eventually you will hit that credit ceiling (as I apparently did but my wife has not). This is one of the reasons I like applying for a Chase card around the time when one of my Chase cards is coming due for renewal (especially if I don’t care to keep the card). This way, I am always willing to sacrifice that card for my new card application when I call into Chase.
Something important to remember is that certain credit cards will require a higher credit line. For example, you can get the Chase Freedom card with as little as $500 for a credit line but the Visa Signature cards (like the Sapphire Preferred and some airline cards) require a minimum of $5,000 for a credit line. So, if you have been denied for a Chase Visa Signature card, you will need to be prepared to shift quite a bit of credit around to make room for that $5,000 credit line.
According to Doctor of Credit, Chase seems to be cracking down on applications for Ultimate Reward earnings cards if you have too many recent accounts opened. So, do keep this in mind.
How many Chase cards have you been able to hold open at one time? What is the division of business to personal cards?
Chase has reportedly changed rules for obtaining Sapphire, Slate, Freedom and Ink cards as of Mid May 2015. They are now looking at the number of cards taken out by you in the last 5 years (to include chase and non-chase products) when looking at approval on these cards. Reports are that if you have taken out 5 cards in that 2 years, they will no longer approve you for any of these cards (Sapphire, slate, freedom and Ink). Counted in the five card total is cards on which you are an authorized user. It should be noted that the chase card your wife took out was not one of these cards and such rules would not apply to it. Other sites have reported on this change, and it is reflected on the wiki in flyertalk. I thought others should be aware of this change before thinking that Chase will just approve all cards anymore.
Thanks, I did mention that in the post and referenced and included the link to Doctor of Credit where I first saw that. Thank you for giving the details here as well.
I’ve heard from many sources that 8 personal cards is the max. Not sure if that’s true but scares me from applying for more.