Chasing Chase Bank Rewards
Update
Dec 8th, 2017: Chase recently made a change disallowing a single customer from benefiting from rewards on both a Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve card. Boo. Anyway, that changes the potential bonus gain in this article by about a 1/3. Their Sapphire Credit products are still great for you and your spouse, though!
Twenty-five percent return on spending w/ Chase
Back in May, I switched from a once local, now remote credit union with poor consumer banking tech to Chase. Since then I’ve become a little too obsessed with maximizing bonus rewards for Chases credit card products. I thought I’d share a summary of what folks can do to gain about three thousand dollars in travel rewards for $12,000 in spending – about a %25 return on purchases.
The following involves opening 4 cards for two people (3 for you) in the same household. The hard/soft credit pulls generally only adversely affect credit by about 10-15 points, which rebound once the pulls expire. The actions also assume you would have already spent the $12,000 over 9 months on other accounts or debit cards, etc…
| Action | Points | Cash |
|---|---|---|
| Open Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and spend $4,000.00 in 3 months | 50,000 | |
| Minimum point gain for spending $4,000.00 | >=4,000 | |
| Open Chase Sapphire Reserve Card | ||
| Sapphire Reserve Annual Fee hits on first billing cycle | -$450 | |
| Travel Credit (Lyft, Virgin America, United, etc…) | $300 | |
| Global Entry / TSA Precheck | ~$150 | |
| Spend $4,000.00 in 3 months (including spending that is covered by travel credit / Global Entry / TSA Pre coverage | 50,000 | |
| Minimum point gain for spending $4,000.00 | >=4,000 | |
| Open Chase Freedom Card and spend $500 in 3 months | 15,000 | |
| Minimum point gain for spending $500.00 | >=500 | |
| Refer spouse to Chase Sapphire (Preferred) card | 10,000 | |
| Spend $4,000.00 in 3 months on spouse’s card | 50,000 | |
| Minimum point gain for spending $4,000.00 on spouse’s card | >= 4,000 | |
| Combine, transfer points across accounts including spouses in the same household to Sapphire Reserve card. Points on the Sapphire Reserve card are worth 1.5x when used for travel via Chase’s site. | -187,500 | $2812.50 |
…and there you go: ~$2800 (likely more with purchase bonuses) in travel credit for $12,000 in purchases.
Assumptions
- You and your spouse were going to spend $12,000 via revolving lines of credit in 9 months
- You are looking to gain from Global Entry or TSA Pre-check via credit card perks
Caveats
- Be sure to migrate or use points before you close accounts such that they don’t burn on re-entry to the bank
- Close accounts used for bonus gain before annual fees strike the next year
- It’s worth keeping the Sapphire Reserve around for a year given it’s elevated point collection program and that points from other accounts can be transferred to it and leveraged for more value
Then go on vacation! :-)
