Recent Chase Business Card Denials: Strategy Tips

Starting in October, we began to notice a lot more people were getting rejected for Chase business cards, suggesting the need for an updated Chase business card approval strategy.

These were for people under 5/24, with a good relationship with Chase and high credit scores. 

I read an analysis that used a small sample size to try to figure out what was happening. We were especially seeing a lot of people getting denied for Southwest business cards and that was throwing some Companion Pass plans for a loop.

But some friends and I wanted to have better data so we worked together to collect data points on approvals and denials. We got over 600 data points! Thanks to my friend Beth from VFamilyTravels for spearheading this effort.  You can find it all here.

And the data showed some very strong trends. Here’s what we found and how it can inform your strategy going forward. 

Thanks to Vince L. for helping me analyze this data. 

Biggest factor: How many business cards you have with Chase

Anyone who has been in the points world for a while has heard of the 5/24 rule. It drives a lot of strategy when it comes to opening cards.

Business cards (even business cards from Chase) have never counted towards the 5/24 limit but these denials were happening to people who were under 5/24. 

What we found is that the biggest factor for getting approved is how many business credit cards you have open with Chase already. 

You can see the percentage of approvals goes steadily down as the number of business cards from Chase increases. 

For people with 3 or more business cards from Chase, there was only a 16.4% approval rate. This is less than a third of the approval rate for people with 2 business cards from Chase. 

Secondary Factor: Having an LLC helps if you have 3+ cards

The next factor we dug into with the data points was of those 16.4% of people with 3+ cards who actually were able to get approved — was there any aspect that made them more likely to be approved? 

While it’s not close to a guarantee, applying for a business card with an LLC seems to help approval rates. Now the LLC applications had the fewest number so we’re looking at a very small data set. 

People applying with the Social Security numbers as sole proprietors were by far the biggest group and while 11.6% did get approved, the vast majority were denied (88.4%). 

Factors that do not appear to make a difference

So far the data set shows that all of these factors aren’t really good predictors of whether someone will be approved and won’t likely need to be part of a Chase business card approval strategy.

• Number of personal cards from Chase
• If it had been 90 days since applying for a card from Chase
• If it had been 24 months since receiving a bonus on the card the person was applying for
• Lowering credit limits on other cards from this bank prior to application
• Having a personal checking account from Chase
• Having a business checking account from Chase

Some of these factors were previously believed to help for auto approval. 

Factors we have no data on (that may make a difference)

I’d like to continue collecting data points on approvals and denials in order to keep giving the best strategic advice to other points enthusiasts. I plan to release a survey in March where we will continue to collect these data points. But I’m waiting to develop it in case there are other factors that should be tested. 

The new survey will include

• Business revenue
• Business: years in operation
• Household income
• Any other factors that seem relevant that are suggested to test 

Strategic Takeaways

The biggest takeaway here is that as of now, you should limit the number of Chase business credit cards you are keeping open.

You should always keep any given card open for a minimum of 12 months. But if it has been a year, you may want to cancel that card.

Read more about canceling cards in our ultimate guide to canceling cards here. 

If you can get down to two business cards from this bank, it’s going to more than triple your chances of being approved. We saw this theory work out with a lot of people this winter who were denied for Southwest business cards.

After denials, we advised people to cancel business cards so they ended up with two or less, wait 30 days and applied again. We saw almost all were approved at that point.

Now again, 16% of people who had three or more business cards were still approved for another. And of these, the biggest correlation for approval was applying for an LLC.

So if you have an LLC, you might be able to get approved even if you already have 3 or more business cards from this bank.

Chase Ink Strategy

Before you close a Chase Ink card, make sure you’ve held it for at least 12 months. You’ll also want to move any Ultimate Rewards points you have over to another card in your household. If you’re holding a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, this is an easy place to move your points. 

If your points balance is showing 0 and you’ve had the card for 12 months, you can go ahead and cancel the card. 

Business Card Referral Notes

If you’re planning to keep earning a Companion Pass, it’s advantageous to keep at least one Southwest card open in your household so that the next time you start up the process, you can refer someone else in your household. 

With the Southwest cards, I’d recommend keeping a personal Southwest card open to do this. This is the best for your credit score anyway. 

The same is true of Ink cards — you’ll always earn more points if you refer your partner to the card! So you’ll want at least one person to keep at least one of the Ink cards open so you can continue to earn those referral points. 

What about my credit score?

Closing a business card generally has no effect on your credit score. 

When you open a business card, there is a small effect on your score — because the bank will check your personal credit. That means you’ll have an extra credit inquiry or “hard pull.” on your credit reports. 

But most banks don’t add business credit cards to your personal credit reports. That means that the length of the time you have the card doesn’t reflect in your credit score. So cancelling after a year doesn’t have any effect on your credit score over keeping the card for a long time. 

What about my relationship with the bank?

Though we don’t have any data that shows this, I still think it could be good practice to keep one business card long term to establish a history of business cards with the bank. The same is true for personal credit cards. 

Chase business card approval strategy: continued data collection

We’d like to keep collecting data from January on. I will wait to create the survey until a few weeks into March so that we can make sure we’re asking the best questions. Add any questions you’d like to see on the survey below in the comments!