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Here’s what you need to know applying for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card now that it has one of the best card bonuses: 100,000 points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
- 5/24 probably applies: with most Chase cards you need to have had fewer than 5 new cards in the past 24 months to be eligible. There have been exceptions, especially with special offers on small business cards, but as a general matter they set things up to prevent people who have gotten ‘too many’ new cards recently from being approved for theirs. Note though that most small business card approvals do not count towards your 5/24 total.
- 48 months between bonuses: You cannot have an open Sapphire card, and cannot have received a new cardmember bonus for any Sapphire card in the past 48 months, to be approved.
- 30 day limit. You generally won’t be approved for more than one Chase card every 30 days. Not everyone will be approved that frequently, but you want to make sure it’s been at least that long since you were last approved for a card with Chase.
- Have a good credit score. Chase doesn’t publicly state a specific minimum credit score for their Sapphire cards., though strong credit is advisable and I’d expect your chances are best with a score of 700 or higher. Of course other factors go into approval, but in general good credit is needed but 800+ scores are not.
- Little downside to applying. If you apply and aren’t approved, that’s a new inquiry on your credit file, which could have a temporary affect on your score (usually very modest), but that doesn’t seem like a reason not to apply. If you have been declined for the card in the past, you can apply again. Past denials do not mean future denials.
I find that it’s easier to get approved for Sapphire Preferred than for Sapphire Reserve, and many readers have gotten approved for Sapphire Preferred and then asked to upgrade to Reserve after a year (they can’t do it earlier than that because they can’t legally increase your annual fee in the first year). It’s one strategy for those who want the more premium card but find that product harder to get.
Does this mean , if you already have this card you can apply for another ? I thought if you had the same card with Chase , it was an automatic no!
Hi Gary, How soon can I apply after canceling an existing preferred card I have had for over four years? Gracias!
@Jon, in bullet #2 Gary says “You cannot have an open Sapphire card…” so you cannot get this card if you have an open Preferred or Reserve card.
Thankfully, Chase usually only pulls from 1 credit bureau… *evil eye at Capital One* (Three? Really?? Like, what are they thinking… ugh.)
@Hmmmmmm — My experience has been that as long you ‘earned the bonus’ (not the card opening date) with your ‘existing’ Preferred card at least more than 48 months ago, you should be able to close that account (or product change to Freedom or Unlimited), then apply with the new 100K offer. If you want to be extra safe, wait a day or so, but it should be instant. Good luck!
@1990 – thank you. Did not think of the product change and then to apply. Much appreciated!
Thanks for all of the information on it. Quick and easy process for application/approval. I’ve usually just had cards for airlines/hotels directly, so will be interesting to learn how to use points for best efficiency.
My wife has the Reserve card and this morning she sent me a referral. The referral gave me the option of applying for either the Preferred with 100,000 point sign up bonus or the Reserve with a 60,000 point sign up bonus. Application was approved within 30 seconds. We are assuming she will get 10,000 referral points added to her account.