Last Chance: FAQs On Making Yourself Eligible For Sapphire Preferred’s 80,000 Point Sign Up Bonus Before It’s Too Late!

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Update: Now is last chance to convert an existing Sapphire card to a Freedom card to become eligible for this bonus before it ends on 6/1! 

Through 6/1 at 5:59pm ET, Chase is offering a whopping 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points if you open a $95/year Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and spend $4,000 in 3 months. Those 80K points are worth $800 cash, $1,024 cash towards Airbnb purchases, $1,200 if you or a spouse also have or will have a Sapphire Reserve, or $1,600 or more as potentially lucrative airline miles or hotel points.

Plus the card now offers benefits like an annual $50 hotel credit, a 10% annual points dividend, added bonus points on dining, travel, streaming, and grocery shopping.

Here are some of the most common questions.

Am I eligible to sign up?

• How do I know if I’ll be eligible to signup for a Sapphire Preferred card and get the bonus?
  • You need be under 5/24, which means that you have been approved for fewer than 5 new credit cards in the past 24 months.
  • You need to have waited 48 months since your last signup bonus on any Sapphire card.
  • You can’t currently hold any primary Sapphire card.
• How do I know if I’m eligible to open a card due to 5/24 restrictions?
  • If you have opened 5 or more credit cards in the past 24 months, Chase’s system will deny you for another Chase card. Only cards that you were approved for count towards this number. Business cards from most banks don’t count towards your 5/24 count. You can check all 3 of your credit reports (Experian, Equifax, and Transunion) for free every week on annualcreditreport.com. You can scroll through your open card accounts and see how many cards have been opened within the past 24 months. Be sure to check if some of those cards are Authorized user cards or store cards that are only good for use in a single store. The system may deny you for 5/24 as it counts those cards, but if you call Chase you can explain that you are not financially responsible for the authorized user card or that the store card only works at a single store and they can manually exclude those from your 5/24 count.

• How do I know if it’s been 48 months since I last got a Sapphire bonus?
  • If you still have the card open as a Sapphire card if you downgraded it to a Freedom card you can go back to your old statements on Chase.com and check when you got the last signup bonus.
  • If you have closed the card, you can send a secure message to Chase with your closed account number and ask when you got the signup bonus on the card. If you don’t have the card number you’ll just have to apply and see if you get approved. If you are rejected due to being ineligible there won’t be a hard credit pull.
• How can I improve my odds of getting approved?
  • If you have a Chase checking account, you are MUCH more likely to get approved for this offer.
  • Improving your credit score using methods like paying off most of your credit card balance before the statement closes will also help.
• I got denied, now what?
  • Try calling Chase at 888-270-2127 to see why you were denied and if you can get approved. Offer to shift credit lines from other Chase cards or close other Chase cards to get approved.
• Can 2 spouses both apply for this offer?
  • Of course! 2 player mode is why my wife and I got married at 21 and 23 😀

• I’m an authorized user on someone else’s Sapphire card, can I still get the bonus if I open a Sapphire Preferred?
  • Sure!
• I currently have Sapphire, Sapphire Preferred, or Sapphire Reserve card open. Can I still get the bonus if I open a Sapphire Preferred?
  • You won’t be approved if you have any of those cards currently open. However you can call Chase to cancel or to change those cards into cards like Chase Freedom Visa, Chase Freedom Flex Mastercard, or Chase Freedom Unlimited Visa and then you apply for a Sapphire Preferred after waiting for 2-3 days after you change to those cards.  You can read more about those card options here and more about creating a Chase Quinfecta here. Note that the 2-3 day waiting period only applies if you apply online, if you apply in a branch you’ll have to wait a month after changing to another card.
• I already have a Sapphire Reserve, Chase Freedom Visa, Chase Freedom Flex Mastercard, and a Chase Freedom Unlimited Visa, can I still open a Sapphire Preferred?
  • Sure, you can change the Sapphire Reserve to any of those cards, there is no limit to how many of the same card you can have. It’s more advantageous to have multiple Freedom or Freedom Flex cards than Freedom Unlimited cards as Freedom/Freedom Flex have quarterly 5x categories that max out at $1,500 in spending per quarter.

Offer details:

• When will this offer end?
  • May 31st at 5:59pm ET.
• I was approved for the Sapphire Preferred card. If I spend $4,000 in 3 months will I get the 80,000 point bonus?
  • Yes. If you are not eligible for the bonus you won’t be approved, so if you’re approved you will get the bonus!

Chase card conversions/product changes:

• Which Chase cards allow product changes and how often can you change?
  • You can switch between a Sapphire Preferred Visa, Sapphire Reserve Visa, Sapphire Visa, Freedom Flex Mastercard, Freedom Unlimited Visa, and Freedom Visa as often as you want, but if you just opened your card within 12 months then some reps won’t allow you to change until 12 months have passed. Read more here.
• Is there a credit pull for changing from Freedom to Sapphire or vice versa?
  • No.
• If I change my Sapphire Reserve card to a Freedom card, will I get a refund of the annual fee paid?
  • You will get a pro-rated refund based on when your annual fee was charged. In other words if your annual fee posted 5 months ago, you would get back 7/12ths of the annual fee.
• Can I downgrade my Sapphire Preferred card to a Freedom card after getting the bonus?
  • Some reps may allow this, but it’s a good idea to keep new cards open for at least 12 months as banks frown upon people that open and close cards right after getting the bonus. Banks have been known to take adverse actions, like shutting down all of your accounts if you do that. You can always just wait until the 2nd annual fee is posted after a year and decide what to do at that point as you have 30 days to cancel from when it’s billed and still get a refund of the fee.

• Can I get a signup bonus if I upgrade from a Freedom card to a Sapphire card.
  • No, you need to apply for a new card to earn a signup bonus.
• If I change my Sapphire Reserve card to a Freedom card, will I be able to change it back to Sapphire Reserve?
  • Sure, the only requirement is that you can’t open a Sapphire card if you have an existing Sapphire card open. Once you are approved for a Sapphire Preferred card you can change the Freedom card back to another Sapphire Reserve card and hold multiple Sapphire cards. The annual fee will be charged when you upgrade, so you save on the annual fee for the time it was downgraded.

• I didn’t wait 2-3 days between changing my Sapphire card to a Freedom card and applying for a Sapphire Preferred card. What do I do now.
  • Just wait 2-3 days from when you changed cards and then apply again.
• What happens to my Sapphire Ultimate Rewards points if I change to a Freedom cash back card?
  • The Freedom cards are marketed as cash back cards, but they actually earn Ultimate Rewards points that can be cashed out at 1 cent each. When you change cards your points remain the same Ultimate Rewards points, except that Freedom cards don’t have the ability to transfer points into airline miles or hotel points and they don’t have the Pay Yourself Back option to redeem your points to offset any dining, grocery store, or home improvement purchases at a rate of 1.25 or 1.5 cents per point. However you can always transfer your points from a Freedom card to any other Chase card that earns Ultimate Rewards points or you can call Chase to transfer points to a spouse’s card.

• Will my credit card number change if I switch from a Sapphire Reserve card to a Freedom card?
  • Sapphire Reserve cards are Visa cards, so if you switch to a Freedom Visa or Freedom Unlimited Visa your number won’t change. If you change to a Freedom Flex Mastercard your card number will change.

• If I change my Sapphire Reserve card to a Freedom card, will I still be able to get a Freedom bonus in the future?
  • Yes. The rules for the Freedom Flex Mastercard and the Freedom Unlimited Visa are that you can’t currently have that exact card type and you didn’t get a bonus on that exact card type in the past 24 months. If you change a Sapphire Reserve card to a Freedom Flex Mastercard and decide you want to open a Freedom Flex Mastercard in the future, you would just need to change your existing Freedom Flex Mastercard into a different Freedom or Sapphire card. There are no “family” rules when it comes to Freedom cards like there are with the Sapphire “family” where you can’t have any existing Sapphire cards or can’t have gotten a bonus on any Sapphire card within 48 months.
• If I earned 3 points per dollar for travel on Sapphire Reserve purchases and downgrade to Freedom in middle of a billing cycle, will I lose those triple points?
  • No, points are awarded for what the card was at the time of the charge.

General Chase card info:

• Is there a limit on how many Chase credit cards you can have?
  • I currently have 16 personally, I’ll let you know when I figure this one out!
• Can I transfer the 80,000 point Sapphire Preferred bonus to my spouse’s Sapphire Reserve card where they will be worth more?
  • Sure, just call Chase to make that transfer. Or you can both get a Sapphire Preferred by changing the Sapphire Reserve to a Freedom card and upgrade back to Sapphire Reserve later on.
• I was told that Chase will let me know if I’m approved for the Sapphire Preferred card, now what?
  • You can either wait and see what they say, typically within 2 weeks, or you can call Chase to see if you can expedite the process. If you do call Chase be sure to explain why you want a Sapphire card (it’s great for travel!) and that you’re willing to close an older card or shift credit lines from an older card to get approved. There is no credit pull to shift over credit lines to get a new card approval.

• If I apply for a Sapphire Preferred card but get denied as I got a Sapphire bonus within 48 months or currently have a Sapphire card, will that hurt my credit?
  • No, as Chase will not pull your credit in those cases and will automatically deny you.
• Can I apply for 2 Chase cards on the same day with 1 credit pull?
  • Yes, and there are lots of great options, including British Airways, IHG Premier, 
  • Marriott Bonvoy Boundless, United Explorer, United Quest, United Club, World of Hyatt, and more.
  • When you mix consumer and business cards, you may have 1 or 2 pulls. Business card options include Chase Ink Cash, Chase Ink Preferred, Chase Ink Unlimited, United Business Card, World Of Hyatt Business, Chase Southwest Performance Business, Chase Southwest Business Premier, and more.
• How do I spend $4,000 in 3 months?
  • Pay your regular charges and bills.
  • Prepay upcoming bills or pay your utility bills in advance.
  • Buy gift cards from stores you shop at.
  • Make a charity donation.
  • You can pay your federal taxes for a 1.87% fee. If you overpay your taxes you can request a refund or apply it to your next year’s taxes.
  • Share your ideas below!
• Do the points ever expire?
  • As long as you have an open Chase card with Ultimate Rewards points, including no annual fee Freedom cards, your Ultimate Rewards points will never expire. If you want to close a card you can transfer your points over to any of your other Chase cards with Ultimate Rewards points or to your spouse’s Chase cards with Ultimate Rewards points. Or you can change your card into one without an annual fee to keep your points alive for free.

Have more questions? Hit the comments!