Chase Sapphire Bonus Rules 48 Months
In the good old days of a few years ago it was quite easy to get Chase credit cards. So easy in fact, that they were perhaps the miles/points enthusiast’s favorite bank. They did have language saying you could only get a bonus once per 24 months per product, but with so many great rewards cards that wasn’t much of a problem.
Then came 5/24. In order to crack down on people applying for a lot of new cards, the bank introduced a new rule. This rule says you can’t get most of Chase’s cards if you have opened 5 or more revolving credit accounts in the past 24 months. That kept most people away, but then they took it a step further.
Related: Chase 5/24 Rule Explained: Everything You need to Know
Product Family Restrictions
About a year ago, they introduced language to their Sapphire products not only limiting the bonus per product to once per 24 months, but instead they limited it to the entire Sapphire product family. This meant for example, instead of being able to get a bonus on the Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve in the same 24 months, you could only get a bonus on one.
New Chase Sapphire 48 Month Restriction
Now, they have made it even stricter. Here is the new language found on the Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Preferred apps:
The product is not available to either (i) current cardmembers of any Sapphire credit card, or (ii) previous cardmembers of any Sapphire credit card who received a new cardmember bonus within the last 48 months.
As you can see, the 24 months language is gone and now has been replaced by 48 months. Wow.
Chase Sapphire Bonus Restrictions
So to summarize the current situation:
- You can only get approved for Chase Sapphire products if you have less than 5 revolving accounts open in the past 24 months.
- You can only get approved and earn a bonus on Chase Sapphire products if you haven’t opened a Chase Sapphire product in the past 48 months
Well that probably eliminates most of you! 🙂
Other Cards
I checked a number of other Chase cards including Freedom, British Airways and Hyatt and found that for now the 24 month language remains on those cards. As of now the only products I found with the 48 month language are the Chase Sapphire products.
Possible Workaround?
According to Doctor of Credit referral links for the Sapphire cards still have the 24 month language. I did see some reports that many referral links stopped working today, which is no doubt related to this change. Coincidentally, new referral links can be generated in the apps if you referral stopped working.
Conclusion
This is yet another tightening of the belt and probably isn’t a surprise given the overall direction Chase has been going in. While the Chase Sapphire Reserve has been a great product, the bank’s losses on introducing it have led to a number of changes that one could only describe as negative. Hopefully this new language won’t be spreading to other cards, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.
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If i am not sure about exact 48 months since last bonus received (could be anywhere from 36 to 50 months), and if i apply, will i be approved of card if less than 48 months or will be auto-rejected if less than 48 months? Please confirm.
Any chance i would be approved if less than 48 months since last bonus (2/24 for cards applied) but not get bonus despite approved since it has not been 48 months? Or will be auto-rejected in this case
Please reply ASAP
Was denied after not opening a Chase account in more than 24 months (last one was Aug/Sept 2016) and passing the 5/24 rule because my new account bonus was earned on a Sapphire product in the last 24 months. 🙁
I love my chase sapphire reserve… love the 3X points I get when traveling and no forex charges. Best card I have and I use my points for hotels, airline tickets or airline points. I don’t churn so this doesn’t really affect me. Use other cards for non-travel charges. If you travel a lot, this is the card.
Maybe all of the travel bloggers will stop giving blanket praise to Chase cards. Nearly every blog I read has a blanket loyalty to Chase for some reason. The card is nice, but it gets far too much praise for what the total package offers considering service, reputation, and true benefits offered by Chase directly.
This is terrible timing for me as I’m ready to re-apply for the chase sapphire preferred. Thankfully the refer-a-friend should still work for now (fingers crossed). Can anyone confirm that if I am an authorized user on someone else’s chase sapphire preferred account that I will not be approved for one in my name? I have never thought about this but saw a comment once that this could be the case.