{"id":19173,"date":"2025-01-09T15:31:20","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T15:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/finance\/its-been-four-years-since-my-last-chase-sapphire-preferred\/"},"modified":"2025-01-09T15:31:20","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T15:31:20","slug":"its-been-four-years-since-my-last-chase-sapphire-preferred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=19173","title":{"rendered":"It’s Been Four Years Since My Last Chase Sapphire Preferred"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The Chase Sapphire Preferred<\/a> is a card that goes back a long way for me. In fact, it was one of the first premium credit cards I ever got \u2013 i.e. one that I paid an annual fee to have. I first got this card way back in 2017 and the card has come in and out of my wallet over the years depending on my needs.<\/p>\n

However, how often I\u2019m able to earn a signup bonus on the Chase Sapphire Preferred is another matter. Years ago, Chase limited signup bonuses on the Chase Sapphire Preferred to once every 24 months. Then, they increased the time you have to wait between bonuses, making it so that you had to wait 48 months between bonuses (or in other words, going from 2 years to 4 years).<\/p>\n

Four years is a long time to wait between bonuses. For myself, I first earned a signup bonus on my Chase Sapphire Preferred back in 2017, then again in 2021. I\u2019ll have to wait until 2025 to be eligible for the bonus again.<\/p>\n

I just noticed, however, that my wife is eligible to earn the signup bonus again on her Chase Sapphire Preferred since she last got the card back in 2020. And the timing for this is perfect too since there\u2019s a pretty good signup offer right now.<\/p>\n

A Brief Primer On The Chase Sapphire Preferred<\/h2>\n

Chase has a rule called the 5\/24 Rule<\/a>, which is probably the most important rule to know when it comes to credit card signup bonuses. The general rule says that you can\u2019t open a new Chase credit card if you\u2019ve opened five (5) or more credit cards within the past 24 months. This is not limited to just Chase credit cards, but rather 5 or more credit cards from any bank (such as American Express, Citi, etc).<\/p>\n

Because the 5\/24 Rule limits the number of Chase cards you can get, it makes sense to prioritize Chase cards whenever you\u2019re under the limit. That\u2019s because if you\u2019re over 5\/24, you can still get cards from other banks, but you won\u2019t be able to get cards from Chase. For some people, the rule won\u2019t mean much, but if you do happen to be someone who opens a lot of new cards over a 24-month period, the Chase 5\/24 Rule is going to impact you.<\/p>\n

That being said, for many people, the Chase Sapphire Preferred will be the starting point in the world of Chase credit cards. The card earns Ultimate Rewards Points and gives you access to travel partners and the Chase Travel Portal. In addition, it has an annual fee that most people can handle, at just $95 per year. And when you\u2019re done with the card, it\u2019s easy to downgrade it to a no-fee card so you can avoid paying the annual fee if you don\u2019t need it.<\/p>\n

Why I Got The Chase Sapphire Preferred Again<\/h2>\n

So, after four years, it was finally time for my wife to apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred<\/a> again. At the time we\u2019re applying for this card, Chase is offering a signup bonus of 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards, as well as a $300 travel credit.<\/p>\n

The 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points are worth a minimum of $600 if used for cashback, and worth $750 if used in the Chase Sapphire Preferred travel portal (points used in the travel portal via the Chase Sapphire Preferred are worth 1.25 cents per point).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve, my points can go even further since points used in the travel portal via the Chase Sapphire Reserve are worth 1.5 cents per point and my wife can transfer the points she earns to my Chase account. That means, if used for travel, those 60,000 points are worth a minimum of $900. And of course, if we transfer those points to airline partners or Hyatt, those points could be worth much more.<\/p>\n

The $300 in travel credit is also a good deal. The nice thing about Chase is that they don\u2019t make their travel credits hard to use, as pretty much anything that codes as travel will count towards this credit. This includes things like airfare, hotel stays, train tickets, and even bus and other mass transit purchases. The travel credit is also applied automatically when you use the card on things that code as travel. Since I always spend at least $300 in a year on travel purchases, I\u2019ll have no problem getting the full $300 without having to make any changes to my spending patterns.<\/p>\n

Because of how easy the travel credit is to use, I value the travel credit at the full $300. So, right there, after the $95 annual fee, I automatically come out ahead by $205. Combine that with the signup bonus of 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points and, for me, we\u2019re looking at a minimum of $1,105 worth of value for this one card in the first year.<\/p>\n

What It\u2019s Like Applying For The Chase Sapphire Preferred<\/h2>\n

Applying for the Chase Sapphire Preferred is a simple enough process. Since this is a personal card, it doesn\u2019t require anything special other than the normal information you\u2019d supply when applying for a new credit card. The majority of the time, me and my wife get instantly approved when applying for new personal cards, but for some reason, Chase didn\u2019t approve my wife\u2019s application immediately this time around.<\/p>\n

I checked on the status of my application using the automated phone system (you can find the phone number for the automated application status checker on their website here<\/a>). For a few days, it said my wife\u2019s credit application was received and that they would let us know within 2 weeks, but after a few days, it said it was approved without any action needed on my part.<\/p>\n

In my experience, if you have a good credit score and don\u2019t have too much open credit with Chase, you should get approved for most personal cards. In some instances, you may have to move some of your credit limits around between your cards, as Chase doesn\u2019t like to extend too much credit to people. This is what I thought we might have to do because my wife has a lot of credit open with Chase, but we ended up not having to do that.<\/p>\n

What Do I Do With The Chase Sapphire Preferred After I Earn The Signup Bonus?<\/h2>\n

The Chase Sapphire Preferred comes with a $95 annual fee. This fee can be worth paying because the card gives you access to the Chase travel portal and lets you transfer your Ultimate Reward Points to travel partners.<\/p>\n

That being said, I generally don\u2019t keep the Chase Sapphire Preferred open after one year. Instead, what I prefer to do is upgrade the card to a Chase Sapphire Reserve. This might seem counter-intuitive since the Chase Sapphire Reserve comes with a $550 annual fee. However, the Chase Sapphire Reserve also comes with a $300 travel credit, which is possible to use twice while paying one annual fee. To do this, I get the card, pay the annual fee for the first year, and use the $300 of travel credit.<\/p>\n

For year 2, I get charged the annual fee again, and my travel credit resets. I then use the travel credit and downgrade the card back to a no-fee card like the Chase Freedom or Chase Freedom Unlimited. If I downgrade the card within 60 days, I get a full refund of the annual fee, allowing me to get $600 worth of travel credits while paying $550 of annual fees (or a net gain of $50).<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need to do this upgrade-downgrade strategy, but it\u2019s what I usually do to maximize my credits.<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/h2>\n

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a card that I always open every four years for the signup bonus. With such a long wait time between bonuses, it\u2019s worth getting this card again as soon as you\u2019re eligible for the bonus.<\/p>\n

Chase also has a rule called the One Sapphire Rule<\/a>, which only allows you to have either the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Chase Sapphire Reserve open at one time. In the past, it was possible to get both cards and earn the bonus on both of them via a strategy called the \u201cModified Double Dip,\u201d but Chase closed this loophole, so now if you\u2019re getting a bonus from one of the Sapphire branded cards, you\u2019ll need to choose.<\/p>\n

For me, when I\u2019m eligible for the bonus, I pick whichever card is offering the better bonus at the time. In this most recent case, the Chase Sapphire Preferred had the better bonus, so that\u2019s what we went with.<\/p>\n

If you already have a Chase Sapphire branded card and are eligible for the bonus, you\u2019ll need to downgrade the card to either the Chase Freedom or Chase Freedom Unlimited. You\u2019ll then be able to open a new Chase Sapphire branded card and earn the bonus again.<\/p>\n

All in all, at the time I\u2019m writing this (October 2024), the Chase Sapphire Preferred<\/a> is offering a good bonus, so if you\u2019re eligible for the bonus and are under 5\/24, you should grab it while you can. At a minimum, the bonus would be worth $805 and can be worth $1,105 or even more than that depending on how you use the points. That\u2019s a clear win for anyone.<\/p>\n

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This post may contain affiliate links. Financial Panther has partnered with AwardWallet and CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Financial Panther, AwardWallet, and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. The site does not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author\u2019s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.<\/em><\/p>\n

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