A little while ago I posted about an excellent, new, elevated welcome offer for the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Since it became available in the beginning of April, I imagined it would end around the beginning of May, and now indeed I’ve started to see posts by informed people that this offer will end soon: on May 15th, to be precise. So if you’re on the fence, apply for it today!

The Chase Sapphire credit card family is one of the all-around most popular credit cards in the US. It’s certainly one of my favorites, and I wrote about it before. These travel-oriented premium credit cards pack a mighty punch in terms of their points-earning categories and additional benefits.

In this post I want to briefly cover the benefits of this card, and then explain how you apply for it. Or, if you currently have the card, here’s how you can RE-apply for it! I just did this with success, so that even though I had the Chase Sapphire Reserve less than a week ago, I was able to reapply and benefit from this best-ever 100k welcome bonus. Here’s how…

Follow my referral link to apply for the Chase Sapphire credit card online now!

1. Introducing the Chase Sapphire family of cards
2. Basics of the Chase Sapphire Preferred
3. What are the application eligibility criteria for the card and the welcome bonus?
4. What to do if you currently already have a Chase sapphire card
5. Summary

Introducing the Chase Sapphire family of cards

The Chase Sapphire family may be one of the most popular family of premium credit cards around. There are two cards in this family: the Preferred and the Reserve. My favorite of the two is the Reserve, but before I get to that one, there are some differences between the two cards that are worth pointing out.

First of all, the Preferred is vastly cheaper, coming in with an annual fee of $95. That also means it’s less lucrative then the Reserve in terms of its perks. For example, unlike the Reserve, it doesn’t give you 3x return on travel, only 2x. It doesn’t come with any travel credits per se, though it does have a $50 hotel credit, however this needs to be used to book a hotel through Chase’s travel portal, so it is not particularly flexible. Also, if you want to redeem the points through the Chase travel portal, the value of your points will be 1.25 cents per point – 0.25 cents per point lower than the Reserve, which allows redemptions at 1.5 cents per point. In a previous post I mentioned how for economy redemptions, Chase Sapphire Reserve holders can use the Chase travel portal to get 1.5 cent/point, and this may turn out to be a great redemption path – so note that the Sapphire Preferred wouldn’t give you the same kind of return. Finally, it doesn’t come with any lounge access, such as Priority Pass, Air Canada Maple Leaf or Sapphire lounge access.

All that said, this post stars the Chase Sapphire Preferred, as that’s the card that gives the best-ever, elevated 100k welcome bonus right now. While it has less benefits than the Reserve, it is decidedly cheaper as well.

Basics of the Chase Sapphire Preferred

• Current elevated welcome bonus: 100,000 points when spending $5000 in the first 3 months of card ownership
• Annual fee: $95
• Bonus categories:
  • 5x points on flights booked through Chase Travel portal
  • 3x points on dining
  • 2x points on travel (when not booked through Chase Travel)
  • 1x points on everything else
• Other perks:
  • $50 annual travel credit, valid for any kind of travel, including local transit.
  • 1.25x worth for points redemptions through Chase Travel portal.
  • One year free DashPass subscription.
  • No foreign transaction fees.

What are the application eligibility criteria for the card and the welcome bonus?

To apply for a Chase sapphire card and get the welcome bonus there’s really only three important criteria that decide whether you actually can or cannot apply for it. Importantly: even if you are eligible to apply, that doesn’t mean you’ll get approved! In this section, I only want to outline the basic criteria for application eligibility. Whether you get approved depends on a load of other factors that for the purposes of this post I’m not taking into account.

• First, you can NOT currently have a Chase Sapphire card. It doesn’t matter which one you have. Even if you have the Sapphire reserve, Chase won’t typically allow you to then apply for a second Sapphire card, regardless of whether it’s the Preferred or Reserve.
• Second, you cannot have received a welcome bonus within the last 48 months before credit card account opening. For example, if you opened your last Sapphire card 49 months ago, but received the welcome bonus 47 months ago, you are NOT eligible for a new welcome bonus. So carefully do the math to figure out when you got your last welcome bonus.
• Third, Chase has the so-called 5/24 rule: you cannot have opened more than 5 personal (as opposed to business) credit cards in the last 24 months. That includes any credit card, also those from other (not Chase) issuers. For example, if you opened 3 Chase card, 1 Citi card and 1 Capital One card, it’s not likely that Chase will approve your application. However, if one of those 3 Chase cards was a business credit card, you’d be okay: that’s because business credit cards are not tied to your personal credit report.

What to do if you currently already have a Chase sapphire card

So, on the original post from a little while ago I had a list of step-by-step instructions on how to re-apply for this card if you currently have it, and would otherwise be eligible for the welcome bonus. However, given that this offer will end imminently, I really can’t recommend to go through these steps now, as I doubt you’ll be able to apply in time. So, right now, if you already have a Chase Sapphire card, you’re probably out of luck.

Summary

The elevated welcome bonus of a 100.000 points when you spend $5000 in 3 months will be ending very soon, on May 15th. So, if you’ve been on the fence on this card, I’d recommend to apply TODAY. That said, if you already have this card and were thinking to re-apply following the steps I had posted, I think it’s too late for that now, unfortunately.

Follow my referral link to apply for the Chase Sapphire credit card online now!