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Have you heard the buzz? One of our favorite credit cards for travel rewards, the Chase Sapphire Preferred, has hit a magnificently high sign-up bonus! If you were ever thinking of starting the points game, now would be the time.  For years, the sign-up bonus for the CSP was 60,000 points, until a few months ago when Chase raised it to 80k points to entice new clients ready to travel after the pandemic, but now they've outdone themselves with an unbelievable 100k points sign-up bonus! 100k points can get you very, very far in the world of points; it's worth at the very least $1250 in travel, but if you play your cards right can be worth hundreds of dollars more. So here's how we spent our Sunday: 1. Chase does not allow two Sapphire cards owned by the same person at once, and we already have the Chase Sapphire Reserve. So we first needed to call Chase and ask them to downgrade our Chase Sapphire Reserve to a Chase Freedom Flex. (This is also known as product change). By the way, we downgraded the CSR to the Freedom Flex because we also already have a Freedom Unlimited-- but if you don't yet have an Unlimited, that is a good choice to downgrade to also. Additionally, keep in mind that you can only receive a signup bonus for a Sapphire card every 48+ months, so make sure you've held on to your card for at least two years before trying this downgrade hack. 2. Ask Chase to reduce your available credit with them. This is because sometimes Chase will deny your application if the amount of available credit they've offered you is already high (regardless if you use it all or not). So reduce your credit line to an amount that closer aligns with your monthly spending habits to improve the odds of being accepted for your new card.
3. Apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred using the 100k signup bonus offer link. Note: you might further increase your odds of getting approved if you wait 31 days from downgrading to apply for your new card. 4. After getting approved for your new card, spend $4000 on it in the first three months and collect your points. Note: it does have a $95 annual fee, but the perks will more than cover this. Besides the killer sign up bonus, you will also enjoy 5X points on Lyft rides, 2X points on dining and travel, up to $50 statement credit for grocery items (this alone offsets most of the annual fee), free DoorDash DashPass for a year and many other perks. 5. If you benefit from the perks of the Chase Sapphire Reserve including the lounge access it comes with and therefore don't want to see it go, after qualifying for the CSP, call back Chase and ask them to upgrade your Freedom Flex or Unlimited back to the Chase Sapphire Reserve. This works because while you can't get approved for a Sapphire card when you already have one, you CAN upgrade another card to a Sapphire even if you already have another Sapphire. Comments are closed.
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