The Chase Sapphire Most well-liked® Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve® are two of our favourite journey bank cards at TPG.
They each earn helpful Chase Final Rewards factors, supplying you with entry to a number of the finest lodge and airline switch companions within the enterprise. You may take pleasure in entry to the easy-to-use Chase Journey℠ portal that lets you redeem factors for all kinds of journey bookings, together with rental vehicles, motels, flights, excursions and actions.
Each playing cards embrace extra perks that may simply justify their respective annual charges ($95 for the Sapphire Most well-liked and $550 for the Sapphire Reserve).
Lastly, each playing cards additionally provide beneficiant welcome bonuses:
- Chase Sapphire Most well-liked: Earn 60,000 bonus factors after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening
- Chase Sapphire Reserve: Earn 60,000 bonus factors after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening.
However do you know you’ll be able to earn the welcome bonus on each Sapphire playing cards and even earn a welcome bonus greater than as soon as on every card?
Right here is the way to do it — and why downgrading and product-changing Sapphire playing cards ought to be in your radar.
Associated: Chase Sapphire Most well-liked vs. Sapphire Reserve: Must you go mid-tier or premium?
Overview of Chase utility restrictions
Chase has three fundamental restrictions should you want to be permitted for both of the Sapphire playing cards:
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- The 5/24 rule: To be permitted for any Chase card, you usually can’t have opened 5 or extra private bank cards throughout all banks within the final 24 months. Most journey playing cards issued by Chase are topic to the 5/24 rule for approval, together with cobranded playing cards. This implies you could be underneath 5/24 to be permitted. The 5/24 rule solely applies to getting permitted for playing cards issued by Chase, however your 5/24 rely contains private bank cards from all banks.
- The 48-month rule: You will not be capable to earn a bonus on a Chase card should you presently maintain that card in your pockets or should you earned a welcome bonus on that actual card within the final 24 to 48 months.
- You need to not presently have any Sapphire playing cards open.
Keep in mind that 5/24 is just not the one issue figuring out whether or not your Chase bank card utility is permitted — your credit score rating, earnings, debt ranges and plenty of different variables are additionally thought-about.
The simplest solution to verify your 5/24 standing is to join the free credit score report service at Experian (ensure you do not by chance join a paid service).
Open the credit score part, then faucet to view your Experian credit score report. From there, faucet on “Accounts” after which “Views” on the prime proper to type by the date you opened your account. From right here, rely something opened throughout the final 24 months.
Chase solely seems at whether or not an account was opened — it does not matter should you’ve since closed or downgraded it.
Lastly, Chase has some basic utility restrictions. You sometimes can solely open one private and one enterprise card each 90 days, and Chase will usually restrict the full credit score they will prolong to a person borrower — so that you typically want to maneuver round credit score traces with a purpose to get permitted.
Learn extra: The last word information to bank card utility restrictions
When (and the way) to downgrade your Chase Sapphire playing cards
When you have one of many Sapphire playing cards and it has been at the least 48 months because you earned a welcome bonus on the cardboard, you can be eligible to earn one once more — however you have to be strategic to adjust to Chase’s guidelines above.
Keep in mind, you’ll be able to’t earn the bonus on both card should you presently maintain a Sapphire card, so that you have to be “Sapphire free.” As we focus on beneath, there are numerous the reason why you need to downgrade an current Sapphire card somewhat than canceling it outright.
The good information is that you simply need not wait two years after canceling or downgrading to be eligible for a welcome bonus; the time counted is from while you obtained the bonus beforehand.
For instance, suppose you earned the welcome bonus on the Sapphire Reserve card in August 2021. In that case, 48 months could have handed by September 2025. Offered you might be underneath 5/24 and meet the opposite basic credit score standards outlined above, you can downgrade your Sapphire Reserve and thus grow to be eligible for the welcome bonus on both the Sapphire Most well-liked or the Sapphire Reserve at the moment.
Requesting a card downgrade is pretty easy: Name the customer support cellphone quantity on the again of your card and converse to a Chase agent to inform them you wish to downgrade to a card with a decrease annual price or no annual price. You too can contact Chase through a safe message portal on its website, however stories counsel that product-change requests have to be revamped the cellphone.
Notice that you have to stay within the Chase-branded household while you downgrade a Sapphire card — and you’ll’t swap a private card for a enterprise one. Consequently, the most well-liked choices for a downgrade embrace the Chase Freedom Limitless® and the Chase Freedom Flex®.
If you happen to’re fortunate, you may even get a prorated refund of your annual price while you downgrade to a card with a decrease annual price (particularly should you achieve this inside 30 days of the annual price posting to your assertion). Chase is not going to have to carry out a credit score verify because you’re sustaining your current account as an alternative of opening a brand new one.
You’ll retain the account quantity, steadiness and due date of your outdated product while you downgrade your card. You may obtain a brand new card with the identify of the brand new product inside just a few days, however because the card quantity would be the identical, you’ll be able to proceed to make use of your outdated card underneath the phrases and advantages of the brand new one earlier than and even after you are issued a brand new card.
Why you need to downgrade and never cancel
The age of your credit score accounts makes up 10% of your whole credit score rating. So, preserving this account open would proceed to buoy your credit score rating.
Downgrading as an alternative of canceling will even permit you to keep your general credit score restrict, which influences your credit score utilization ratio (it helps your rating to have entry to quite a lot of credit score so long as you do not use an excessive amount of of it). By preserving your utilization low, you additionally hold your rating excessive.
However, canceling your card can dent your common age of accounts and lift your credit score utilization ratio by reducing your general credit score restrict. It will probably additionally delay your means to use for a brand new Sapphire card.
No less than one TPG employees member canceled his Sapphire Reserve card outright, and when he utilized virtually per week later for the Sapphire Most well-liked card, he was denied. He was informed by a number of Chase representatives, together with in individual at a Chase department, that — as a result of accounts can legally be reopened for 30 days — he could not apply for the Most well-liked card till his present Sapphire account was formally closed a month later.
So, should you ever wish to apply for a brand new Sapphire card with out a prolonged delay, think about downgrading an current Sapphire card somewhat than canceling it.
Additionally, Final Rewards factors are forfeited when your account is closed, although the phrases and situations point out that you will have at the least 30 days from the closure date to redeem the factors in case your account is in good standing.
The one massive drawback of downgrading a card is that you simply sometimes will not get a welcome bonus for the cardboard you are downgrading to. Nonetheless, should you plan to earn an enormous bonus on a Sapphire card after downgrading, you should still come out in entrance.
What if I am denied?
If Chase denies your new Sapphire utility and you’ve got complied with the above restrictions, it is value calling to ask if choices can be found.
Some TPG staffers who downgraded a Sapphire Reserve card to use for the Sapphire Most well-liked card needed to transfer round traces of credit score to be permitted. In different phrases, Chase checked out their general monetary image and determined it had prolonged them as a lot credit score because it was going to.
However by chatting with representatives and agreeing to maneuver a number of the traces of credit score from different playing cards to a brand new Sapphire Most well-liked, they satisfied the issuer’s representatives they may responsibly open a brand new card.
Others needed to name the financial institution’s reconsideration line and confirm their earnings and mortgage info to be permitted. Though there have been just a few further hoops to leap by means of, in all of the circumstances I encountered, former Chase Sapphire cardholders who had been securely out of the 48-month window had been ultimately permitted for the Chase Sapphire Most well-liked.
Backside line
Though it might get a bit sophisticated, you’ll be able to earn the welcome bonuses on the Chase Sapphire Most well-liked and Chase Sapphire Reserve — even should you’ve already had (or nonetheless have however are prepared to downgrade) certainly one of them. You simply should be strategic and versatile and get by means of Chase’s utility restrictions for the 2 playing cards.
Begin by taking a look at all of your bank card accounts and decide should you’re out of the 48-month bonus eligibility window for these playing cards — and underneath Chase’s 5/24 restrict.
If all that’s the case, think about whether or not you’ll be able to downgrade to a different Chase card after which apply for the brand new card while you’re prepared. Whilst you could possibly get permitted inside just some days of downgrading, it is safer to attend at the least just a few weeks earlier than making use of for a brand new one — simply to ensure you’re now not flagged as an current cardholder.
Apply right here: Chase Sapphire Most well-liked
Apply right here: Chase Sapphire Reserve
