Earlier today, news broke that Chase is changing the rules on who can get signup bonuses on 2 of their most popular cards – the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Sapphire Reserve. These 2 cards are quite popular and it’s no surprise that they were the first 2 picks in our credit card mock draft.
[Why I keep recommending the Chase Sapphire Preferred for people starting out]
People wanting to apply for either of the 2 Sapphire Premium cards already had to contend with the Chase 5/24 rule, which said that anyone who had been approved for 5 cards from ANY bank in the past 24 months would not be approved for either of these 2 cards (among others).
[The 2 types of cards subject to Chase 5/24]
There has been reports on this change to who is eligible for bonuses on the 2 premium Sapphire card from Doctor of Credit, One Mile at a Time, Miles to Memories, Frequent Miler, reddit and I’m sure most other blogs and miles and points news and blog sites. The basic gist of it is
- Going forward, people may only have one Sapphire branded card. So you’ll have to choose between the Chase Sapphire Reserve and the Chase Sapphire Preferred.
- Customers will not be eligible for a bonus on any Sapphire branded card if they’ve received a bonus on a Sapphire branded card in the past 24 months
3 people affected by this Sapphire change
Here are 3 types of people that are (negatively) affected by this change
- Someone with one of the Sapphire cards that has been waiting to get under Chase 5/24 to apply for the 2nd one
- Those who signed up for the Sapphire Reserve last year and had been planning on applying for a Sapphire Preferred before they canceled their Reserve card (SEE: Should I pay the annual fee on my Chase Sapphire Reserve?)
- Anyone that has gotten a Sapphire bonus in the past 24 months and was looking at getting another Sapphire card
Important to note that if you ALREADY have multiple Sapphire cards (most commonly I’d assume would be a CSR and CSP), you can continue to hold both (all?) of them. But if you canceled one of them, you would not be able to get it back.
What about you? Were you affected by this change to the Chase Sapphire bonus rules?
This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as thepointsguy.com. This may impact how and where links appear on this site. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
So I assume you mean that if you have both versions and cancel one you could get it back but with no bonus unless you wait 24 months or more?
No I don’t think so. My reading says that if you have both and cancel (for example) the CSP and keep the CSR, then you would not be able to get the CSP again because you’re (now) limited to only one Sapphire card
I just came under 5/24 last weekend, and have had Preferred for more than 24 months. I want Reserve, and only Reserve, but don’t want to lose the Ultimate Rewards points I’ve accumulated over the past several years. Is there a way I apply for Reserve, cancel Preferred, keep my points, and get the current bonus? Thanks for the heads-up and the help.
Only way I can see this is transferring them to a Freedom card, dropping the Sapphire Preferred, and then applying for a CSR. But then you also run the risk of being Sapphire-less, which would be awful.
If you’re just under 5/24 I would consider just product changing to the CSR and also applying of the new Ink. The bonus is better on the INK….
Transfer points to Chase Freedom or Freedom Unlimited. You won’t lose points. Then after opening it the CSR move them over to it.
My mom is in an interesting situation. If she hasn’t applied for a CSP, like I told her she should earlier this month, she is out of luck. I figured this would now change her strategy (which was get a CSP, then downgrade CSR to a Freedom Unlimited).
However, I realized that my dad does not have a Sapphire card. He is an AU on mom’s. And I’m assuming the restriction doesn’t apply to AUs. If he can get one, she can transfer all the points to his account.
So, to recap: First, I had to wait to apply for the CSR, despite my good credit, because of the 5/24 rule¹. Next, I “lost” 50,000 UR points because — while I was waiting — Chase cut the sign-up from 100k to 50k. (Well, you can’t really lose something you never had, but still . . . ) Now, I can’t even HAVE a CSR because I have a CSP and and if I upgrade by swapping the CSP for the CSR, I’ll have “lost” the *other* 50k!
Thank you, Chase . . . NOT! AT least I’m no longer wondering whether or not I’m going to keep my Citi Prestige. (Good job, Chase.)
_______________
¹ I was over prior to the introduction of the CSR, and haven’t applied for anything since, as I wanted to get out from under the 5/24 rule and get a CSR card!