Chase Ink and Sapphire Rules: November 2025 Snapshot and 2026 Outlook

Updated as of November 28, 2025. These are the rules Chase is using right now and how to think about them as you plan into 2026.

Key points at a glance

• **5/24 is still active.** If five or more personal cards have reported in the last 24 months, most new Chase approvals will be very difficult.
• **No‑annual‑fee Ink Business cards use “lifetime‑style” language.** If you have ever had an Ink Business Cash, Ink Business Unlimited, or another no‑fee Chase business card, Chase may approve you but block a new welcome bonus.
• **Ink Business Preferred and Ink Business Premier behave like once‑per‑product bonuses.** The terms say the bonus may not be available if you’ve ever had that specific card.
• **Sapphire rules changed in June 2025.** You can now hold both Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve, but each card’s welcome offer is effectively once per card, with a bonus‑eligibility pop‑up.
• **Your last 6–12 months of hard inquiries and new accounts matter.** Recent activity can still lead to denials or small limits even if you are under 5/24.

Chase 5/24 today

The Chase 5/24 rule is still the first filter. If your personal credit report shows five or more new revolving accounts opened in the last 24 months, Chase will usually not approve another card.

That count includes personal cards from all issuers and often picks up store and co‑branded cards. Authorized‑user accounts can also inflate your total until a human analyst agrees to ignore them on a reconsideration call.

Most small‑business cards from other issuers don’t appear on your personal file long‑term, so they typically don’t add to 5/24. Chase business cards themselves still require you to be under 5/24 on the day you apply.

Because 5/24 is based on accounts, not just inquiries, a quick burst of approvals will push you over the line. If you care about Chase in 2025–2026, you usually want their cards before you go heavy with other banks.

Ink Business bonus rules going into 2026

In the second half of 2025, Chase tightened its Ink Business rules and added a bonus‑eligibility pop‑up on some applications.

On Ink Business Cash® and Ink Business Unlimited®, the no‑annual‑fee products, the offer terms now say the new cardmember bonus may not be available if you have ever had that card or any other Chase business card with no annual fee. Chase is effectively treating the no‑fee Ink Business cards as sharing one bonus bucket.

If you apply today and Chase’s system decides you are not bonus‑eligible, you’ll see a pop‑up before your application is final. You can cancel at that point and avoid a hard pull, or proceed knowing you will not receive a welcome offer.

On Ink Business Preferred® and Ink Business Premier℠, the terms now say the bonus may not be available if you have ever had that specific card. In practice, assume you get one clean welcome bonus per Ink product and only one welcome bonus across the no‑fee Ink family.

These rules are already in force as of November 2025 and are expected to stay in place into 2026 unless Chase updates them again.

New Sapphire rules from June 2025

On June 23, 2025, Chase rewrote the Sapphire rules. Before then you:

• Could not hold more than one Sapphire card at a time, and
• Could not get another Sapphire bonus if you had earned any Sapphire bonus in the previous 48 months.

Today, as of November 2025:

• You *can* hold Sapphire Preferred® and Sapphire Reserve® at the same time.
• There is no fixed 48‑month timer between Sapphire bonuses.

Instead, each Sapphire product has once‑per‑card style language. The terms say the welcome offer may not be available if you have ever had that exact card, and Chase uses an internal model to decide whether you are bonus‑eligible. A pop‑up during the application will warn you if you are not going to receive the offer.

For planning, the safest approach going into 2026 is:

• Treat the Sapphire Preferred welcome bonus as **one big shot** per person.
• Treat the Sapphire Reserve welcome bonus the same way.
• Expect that you can move between the two later by product change, but you should not rely on getting a second full bonus on the same Sapphire card.

Hard inquiries and recent activity

The written rules are only part of the story. Chase also looks closely at your recent behavior with credit.

A single hard inquiry usually moves your score only a few points, but several new cards and hard pulls in six to twelve months can make you look like a riskier borrower. That is especially true if your balances are high or your average age of accounts is already low.

Even with a strong score and a long history, you can see denials for reasons like “too many recent inquiries” or “too many recently opened accounts.” That is already happening today and is unlikely to loosen in 2026.

A simple Chase game plan for late 2025 and 2026

Given these rules, most people get only one clean welcome bonus on each Ink and Sapphire product. That makes timing and sequence important.

A straightforward way to approach Chase now is:

• **Protect your 5/24 slots.** Count how many new personal cards have reported since late 2023 and avoid burning your remaining slots on weaker offers.
• **Open the Ink Business card that fits your spend first.** Assume that welcome bonus is one‑time and choose the offer that really moves the needle for your business.
• **Add a Sapphire card when your recent inquiries are quiet.** For many people, Sapphire Preferred is still the better first pick; Sapphire Reserve can follow later as a second card or product change.
• **Let the cards age and keep Chase happy.** Use them for real spend, keep utilization low, pay on time and avoid manufactured‑spending patterns that can trigger extra scrutiny.

As of November 2025, this is how Chase is actually operating. If you build your plan around these rules, you can still extract strong long‑term value from Ink and Sapphire as we move into 2026.

Chase Ink and Sapphire rules at a glance (late 2025)