When to Re-Apply for Chase Sapphire Reserve
Are you looking to re-apply for the Chase Sapphire Reserve card? Is it getting very close to 48 months since you got your last Sapphire welcome bonus? It may be closer than you think.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve card was originally introduced over 4 years ago. At 50,000 points, the signup bonus is only half of what it was in its early days, but the card is still very popular despite the $550/yr annual fee.
Those that were approved the card in its first months could be looking to apply again when eligible for another welcome bonus. But when is that exactly? First, lets look at the eligibility rule before delving into the timing.
Sapphire Card Eligibility
Here’s the rule that governs eligibility for new Sapphire cards (both Preferred and Reserve):
This product is available to you if you do not have any Sapphire card and have not received a new cardmember bonus for any Sapphire card in the past 48 months.
Note that it says “product is available.” This is not a bonus eligibility test, this is a product eligibility test. It’s important to understand that your application will be denied if you don’t meet all the criteria.
It also says you can’t be holding “any Sapphire card”. If you currently hold Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, or even the discontinued no-annual-fee Sapphire card, you are not eligible and will be denied.
Lastly, it needs to be at least 48 months since your last signup bonus from any Sapphire card. Now we can talk about timing.
48 Months From When, Exactly
To be sure, this is not your 4 year card anniversary, the timing is tied to when you got the bonus. If you still have the card (or a card that you downgraded to), you can look at your old pdf statements online to see when the welcome bonus posted.
Until recently, consensus opinion was that the statement date on which the bonus points posted your account started the 48-month clock. I’ve seen some recent data points that suggest otherwise.
Some people were rolling the dice, applying shortly before their assumed eligibility date. They were trying to be approved for Sapphire Preferred while its welcome bonus was temporarily 80,000 UR points. The bonus was reduced back to 60,000 UR in early November. A few of those gamblers were successful, which led me to more digging.
I don’t have enough examples to be certain, but it looks like the date might be a few days after spending the 4000th dollar (the spending requirement to earn the bonus was $4,000 in the first 3 months). It’s possibly the same date that the UR dashboard shows the bonus points “earning on next statement.”
This could be as much as a month earlier than originally thought. Chase customer service might be able to tell you what date they see in their system. It’s worth a call to check.
The good news is, if you get it wrong and apply before you’re eligible, Chase denies you without a hard pull of your credit report. So there’s not a lot of downside to jumping the gun a little early.
Leave me a comment if you can corroborate this with any data points of your own.