Credit Cards

Chase officially eases bonus eligibility on Sapphire Preferred and Reserve.

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When the Chase Sapphire Reserve® was revamped last year the eligibility rules changed. Those changes ended up being kind of confusing in respect to whether you could get the Reserve while having Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and whether you’d be eligible for a bonus if you’d had either in the past, etc. Chase has officially cleared that up and made it not only very clear, but also easier to understand. You hold both cards, get the bonus for each card, but you’re only eligible for one bonus per lifetime on each card.

Eligible Sapphire cardmembers can now earn a welcome bonus offer on each Sapphire card, once per card, as long as they haven’t previously received a welcome bonus offer on that card.

For example: A current Sapphire Reserve cardmember who has never earned a welcome bonus offer for Sapphire Preferred is now eligible for the bonus on Sapphire Preferred.

This means, if you’ve been looking at the Sapphire Reserve, but have been holding off because you currently have a Sapphire Preferred, the gates are lifted and you could add the Reserve while you’re still holding the Preferred…and vice versa.

What I’m not 100% sure about is whether, let’s say, you had a Preferred, upgraded to a Reserve, and never got the sign up bonus on the card, as to whether Chase would prevent you from getting the bonus. Same as if you had the Reserve and downgraded to Preferred. My gut says you will still qualify, but time will tell as we get data points.

Another question is how long is a lifetime? Is that credit lifetime, personal lifetime, bank lifetime? Time will tell there as well.

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card


The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott.

Welcome Offer

Earn 75,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening 

Annual Fee

$95

Points Earned

Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards

  • 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
  • 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
  • 3x on select streaming services
  • 3x on online grocery purchases
    • (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
  • $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
    • The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
  • 2x on all other travel
  • 10% Anniversary Points Boost
    • each account anniversary you’ll earn bonus points equal to 10% of your total purchases made the previous year
  • Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
    • Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
  • Complimentary DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees & lower service fees for a min. of one year when you activate by 12/31/27. Plus, a $10 promo each month on non-restaurant orders
  • $95 Annual Fee

We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.

Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.

Main Cast: 

Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.

Supporting Cast:

Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on. 

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.

If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex®  and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners

Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

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